The Son of Man came to serve, not to be served

CHRISTMAS, the festival of all Christian festivals is back one more time! I, myself, celebrated it as many as 56 times! But how much of the true significance of this special occasion I have internalised and put into practice is perhaps a different question! We celebrate the birth of the Messiah with joy and gladness in our hearts. We decorate our houses, our bodies and our church buildings, eat and feast, and exchange traditional greetings and clichés. Also, we fulfill our liturgies and try to understand the inner meaning of the Christ-event manifested by all those externalities.
Let us remind ourselves of the purpose behind the coming of Christ to the world. The purpose is to be deciphered from Jesus' own words recorded in the various Gospels. One such utterance of Jesus is: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45). His mission was to release people who were captivites of sin and its diverse consequences. He accomplished his mission as he served both God and man with love and humility. This was possible because he was the incarnation of God's love and grace. He was born as a human being. There was no place for him in the inn at the time of his birth.
He did not even claim for himself the title of Son of God. He called himself more than forty times as "Son of Man" ("ben Adam" in Hebrew, which literally means "son of Adam." "Adam" means soil/clay/dust. It also means Man or "son of humankind") although he knew that he was the Son of God. His utterances like "foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head" (Mtt. 8:20), and many others, reveal the deep truth about his coming to the world. He came to serve. He served with genuine selfless love and in humility.
The very fact of the incarnation of God in human flesh and form was the beginning of his humiliation that culminated in his death on the cross. And this service is primarily two-fold: he came to die as a ransom for the sins of the world. He died the death of a slave, on the cross. His was an unjust death. He was sinless, but he bore our sins so that we would be acquitted, and with faith and trust in him we receive forgiveness for our sins and are saved on the basis of what he has done for us. He also fulfilled the prophecies in the Old Testament by performing miracles, as the evangelist Matthew records by quoting Isaiah: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases." (Mtt. 8:17, Isaiah 53:4).
He served people with critical needs in their, physical, mental, social and spiritual lives. However, all these of his ministries and services reflect back to the fact that he is our Saviour from all kinds of bondages that sin results in; he has the authority over our lives as he is God incarnate. Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God, the kingdom or rule of God in human affairs, would be rather different from the rule of this world and its worldly rulers. "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mtt.5:20). He insisted on the transformation of people's lives and values by divine power. That would be radically different from the values of this world.
Jesus's divine mission was to transform our mundane thoughts and behaviour into humility and sacrificial love. If we have this attitude and belief, we will be able to serve others. The objective of this is to reconcile and build peace among ourselves and the greater community of peoples. Jesus came to this world so that sinful and alienated man could get reconciled with God and with himself. This was the primary motive behind the coming of Christ as a human being with our human feelings and emotions, apart from our sinful nature and the practical experience of sin. Paul reflected this in his Epistle to the Corinthian Christians when he said: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21).
The rule of God in human lives is what Christ preached in word and deed. We need to understand the fact that in him the divine came as the mundane, God became man, the Wisdom and Word of God took the form of human flesh, the unlimited appeared in the limited, the eternal in the ephemeral material. All this was possible for God because He is love and His Son Jesus is His exact icon or replica. This required loving kindness on God's part and the humility of Christ so that the really transforming service of a sin-sick world could be possible.
Jesus exhorted his disciples with these words: "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." (Mark 10:42-43). This is how Jesus highlighted the issue of servant-leadership. In fact, Christ fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament in all these, especially those of Isaiah, the most "Christian prophet."
We find in the book of Isaiah (Chapters 40-45) -- an Old Testament book which is directly quoted at least 62 times in the New Testament -- four famous Servant Songs which refer to Christ, who would save his people from all bondages and bring them to the light of day out of the dark days of captivity and slavery. As God's anointed, Jesus fulfilled this role of the Messiah for the spiritual bondages of sin of Mankind. A true leader must have a sense of commitment and service to the people whom s/he leads.
Unfortunately, as things are, most of our leaders, wherever they might be, are not governed by this value. They rather want to be served and to boss over people, and to direct and control others to serve their whims and interests. That's why democratic values and principles are not nursed in our society. When people are in high positions they forget the pledges that they made before their elections. The history of the various countries and our own, of course, is replete with examples of this. Leaders with genuine patriotism and love for the good of people are rare. That's why we are deluded and our hopes are frustrated by our leaders.
In Bangladesh we are very much enthusiastic about our next general election, and a great deal of work is being done by our government towards the holding of this elections. Let us earnestly hope that we will be able to elect people who will be true leaders, with the mind and heart of good leadership for service to the people of this country. We hope and pray that we will be able to have people who will truly represent the hopes, wishes and aspirations of the teeming millions of men and women, and will facilitate their lives in their journey towards a society living in peace and progress. We hope for leaders, who will promote and advocate for justice and peace, human rights, reconciliation and transparency in administration. We now long for people with integrity and wisdom to be our leaders, to guide us to rightly use our resource and expertise for the benefit of the people.
This has always been our national vision and dream. But we failed because our leaders failed in national commitments, as they bossed over us more than even they thought they could serve us! Any organisation or institution rises or fall with its leader. Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, which was a colony of, and subjugated by, the haughty and tyrannical Roman Empire. Luke records that at that time Emperor Augustus Caesar decreed that all the people of "all the empire" ("terrarum orbis emperium' as the phrase is in Latin) were to register their names. This census was motivated by the purpose of the ruler for taxation, and for maintaining the vast army of the empire.
The God-incarnate Jesus Christ was born that time to serve us like a slave. He came as the little babe to helpless and poverty-stricken parents in a stable. During his last meal that he took with his disciples he washed their feet! He deserves our attention and our love. Let us all fervently pray and hope that we will be guided by the spirit of love, consideration for others, and the sacred and godly values that Christ taught us. To the Muslims, Christ is one of the four greatest prophets, to the Hindus and Buddhists he is an avathar, and to the Christians he is the Saviour.
Let Christmas challenge us all and enlighten us in our thoughts and deeds for the lasting positive change that we need personally as well as corporately. Consider the Vedic prayer: "O Lord, lead us from falsehood to truth, to light from darkness and from death to life." Let the light of Christ shine on us. Merry Christmas to all readers!

Reverend Martin Adhikary is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.