27 July 2010
What motivates you? Hunger is a great motivator. The desire for pleasure or equally, the desire to avoid pain, is a powerful motivator. If you’ve ever played a contact sport then you understand how the desire to avoid pain can motivate you to adjust a lay up or duck to miss a fastball.
What motivates you? In the complexities of your life with all its varied dimensions – social, physical, spiritual, financial, educational – do you have a singular underlying motivation? During the three brief years Jesus spent with his disciples, his closest friends and followers, he was constantly focusing on motivation.
Matthew 20 gives us an incredible comparison between two motivations – Jesus’ and the disciples’, specifically James & John. Here Jesus predicts his graphic death and resurrection, foretelling events to come both painful and glorious. The next verse begins, “Then” as if the mother of James & John waited only until the brief roadside huddle had broken enough that Jesus could be addressed one on one. She makes such an outrageous request it can be nothing more than God Himself illuminating for us the dichotomy between two motivations.
The content of the request is not the subject of this message, but suffice it to say, she requested positions of authority for her two sons in Jesus’ new kingdom. Once more Jesus pulls his disciples aside – never put off a teachable moment for later.
25Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
“Not so with you.” In four words Jesus contrasts Christian leadership with that of the world. It all comes back to motivation. What motivates you? At one extreme there is position and power, authority and prestige, control and privilege. At the other is hard work and obscurity, humility, dependence, and a lack of control – but identity and purpose. Servants and slaves have great company and a great example to follow in Christ. Let our attitudes be like that of Christ Jesus “who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Philippians 2:6-7) In seeking to be something in Christ we will actually become nothing, but if we seek to become nothing in Christ we will become an instrument of purpose and usefulness in the Master’s skillful hands.
“Not so with you.” Jesus calls our leadership to be other-worldly, whether the dimension of our influence is personal or thousands. What motivates you? Do you desire to serve or be served?