From The Warfighter's Study Bible
There's an old story of a private who, leaving the dining facility one winter night after supper, decided to have a smoke, but discovered he had neither matches nor lighter. Passing another soldier in the darkness, he called out, "Hey buddy, can you give me a light?" The other guy said, "Sure," and struck up a match. As he was lighting his cigarette, the private saw by the light of the match the two stars on the uniform of "buddy." After nearly swallowing his cigarette, he immediately popped to, saluted, and said, "So sorry, sir!" Whereupon the general smiled and said, "Don't worry about it, son. Just be glad I wasn't a second lieutenant!"
Military rank is not a bad thing; without it, we wouldn't get a whole lot accomplished. Authority is actually a good thing when used the right way-for the welfare and benefit of those who accomplish the mission. But sometimes, rank goes to our heads. We can get so puffed up and self-important that we begin to believe it's all about us. We can begin to look at others as "less than" ourselves, and ourselves as "greater than" others.
God intends that we use whatever we have-whether education, experience, gifting, position, or rank-to benefit others. Those things are gifts entrusted to us by God, who expects us to use them to serve those he brings into our circle of influence.
Even Jesus's own disciples desperately needed to get this straight. Having been chosen by Jesus from among the many who followed him to have a special relationship with him, and to learn from him, they began to think of themselves as "a cut above" the rest of his followers. In fact, they even tried to establish a pecking order among themselves, and got into arguments about which of them was the greatest! They jockeyed for status in Jesus's eyes.
Jesus tried several times to teach them how to rightly view themselves. When Jesus was blessing children and his disciples tried to stop him, Jesus told them, "Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child, shall not enter it" (Mark 10:15). And on another occasion, Jesus challenged them with these words:
"You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:42-45).
The night before Jesus was crucified, during his last meeting with his disciples, he tried one last time to drive this teaching home. As they gathered together, Jesus removed his outer garments. Dressed like a servant and with a basin of water in hand, Jesus knelt down and washed the feet of his disciples (John 13:4-5). The filthy dirt roads of that time made foot washing a demeaning task reserved for slaves, but Jesus humbly served the disciples and challenged them to do likewise.
Jesus's disciples were exceedingly slow to grasp this lesson. Like you and me, they had bought into the world's notions of significance, which teach that it's all about rank, status, achievement, awards, money, and winning.
We are all often conditioned by our culture to think like that. But Jesus's teaching overturns that way of thinking. The way up is down; the way to greatness is humility and service; our affirmation comes not from people but from God himself.
Let's wear our rank lightly, and use it and whatever else we've been given for the sake of others. And let's look to Jesus for his commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
More Scripture for Further Study
Luke 18:15-17
John 13:1-17
Philippians 2:3-11
1 Peter 5:5-6
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