Chosen to Serve

9-29-21 Glenda Simpkins Hoffman

I have been sharing some of my reflections on the series The Chosen. (You can find all the episodes for free on Angel Studio’s Website or The Chosen app.) One of my favorite scenes is in the second season. Jesus begins his public ministry in earnest. All day long, people are lining up to be touched and to be healed by Jesus. We don’t see Jesus or what he is doing. Rather, we hear about it from Jesus’ disciples, who are taking turns managing the crowd around Jesus and then taking breaks to rest and refuel.    

At one point, James says, “I didn’t think we would spending our time watching him heal.… They will never stop coming … and we’ll never get to the fighting part.” They clearly still hold misconceptions about what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah. Some are still holding on to the idea that Jesus will overthrow the Romans in battle and free them from oppression. That is what they are wanting and waiting for and believe prophecy points to, but they are wondering when and how this will happen. 

Later in the day, Jesus’ mother Mary arrives. She has been with them before, and is joining them again to help and support Jesus and his followers in their ministry. Since Jesus is busy healing, she and the other women prepare and serve food. After eating, they begin talking around the campfire. Someone asks Mary to tell them what it was like when Jesus was born.  

She replies, “Nothing about it was easy. I wasn’t in my home town. My mother wasn’t there…. When Joseph handed him to me, it wasn’t what I expected…. I had to clean him off…. He was cold, and he was crying, and he needed my help, my help—a teenager from Nazareth. It made me think for just one moment, ‘Is this really the Son of God?’ Later Joseph told me he wondered the same thing, but we knew he was…. He doesn’t need me any more…. He hasn’t for a long time, I suppose.”  

After pondering this revelation, the disciples end up having an argument about Matthew and his alignment with the Romans. It gets heated and very tense. Just then, Jesus walks by them. He is clearly exhausted from a day of ministry, a day of pouring himself out to listen, care for, heal, and love so many people. He doesn’t even stop to talk, but simply passes by with his head down and his body sagging. With a slight wave of the hand he says, “Goodnight.” The group falls silent. This is a humbling and holy moment.  

Mary watches Jesus walk to the tent, but when she sees him fumbling to get his sandals off, she goes to him, helps him take off his cloak, kneels down to wash his feet, then his bloody hands, and finally gently wipes his face. He replies, “What would I do without you, Ima?” 

She says to him what every mother has said to her children hundreds of times in one way or another, “Get some sleep.” 

He replies, “Ok, Ima. I’m so tired. Thank you.” And then his disciples and we the viewers hear him praying the bedtime prayer his mother Mary undoubtedly taught him: “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings sleep into my eyes and slumber to my eyelids. May it be your will, Lord my God and God of my ancestors, that I lie down in peace and that I arise in peace.” 

This scene was so artfully written and acted, again reflecting the messiness of the incarnation and what it really meant for Jesus to live as a human in this world. It was messy when Jesus was born as it is for all humans who come into the world. It was messy as he encountered sinful and broken people who needed forgiveness and healing. It was messy nurturing a community of followers who were slow to understand what he was trying to do and continued to squabble with each other creating potential division rather than unity. All this messiness left Jesus tired and exhausted. The Son of God was weary and needed rest in body, mind, and soul.  

And here in the midst of it all is this faithful mother who raised the Son of God as a baby, a child, and then a young man. She is still doing what she can to love her son, support his ministry, and to care for him any way she can, recognizing he is not only her dear son but also her Savior, Lord, and King. 

Some say Mary was Jesus’ first disciple, not only carrying Jesus in her heart but also having carried him in her womb. When told she would have a child conceived by the Holy Spirit, she replied, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”  

She was the first to surrender to God’s love and to trust God’s goodness and faithfulness in spite of the many questions she may have had. She chose to participate with God in what he was doing to bring about the salvation of the world. Though Mary’s role is unique, each of us is invited to join with God as partners in the gospel as we love and serve the Lord and the people.  

 As I watched Mary wash Jesus’ feet, tears came to my eyes. I remembered how Jesus washed his disciples’ feet on the night before he died and then said, “If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.  Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them…. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:13-17, 34-25).  

Watching The Chosen has made me wonder about how Jesus learned about servanthood and surrender from listening to and watching his earthly mother. Before his death, he prayed a prayer very similar to the one Mary prayed before his birth:  “Not mine but thy will be done.”  

When we hear the word “chosen” we may wonder, “Chosen for what?” We are chosen to follow the one who said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).  

Serving happens in our families as we love and care for each other, and our children and grandchildren learn what it means to love and serve others from our words and example. We serve as we work, doing it with excellence and with kindness and compassion. We love and serve as we pay attention to the people around us and do what we can to support them and meet their needs. We serve as we look for opportunities to use our God-given, gifts, abilities, experiences, and resources to contribute to the health and vitality of the body of Christ. We serve as we share the gospel, disciple others, and share what we have to bring glory to God and to bless others.  

Our new senior leader Hope Lee will arrive next week beginning a new era of ministry for VPC. She is responding to God’s call to love, serve, and lead in this body of Christ at VPC. Each of us is called to do the same by asking, “How is the Lord inviting me to partner with him love and service?” This is a holy moment in the life of our church that invites us to reflect on the goodness of being chosen by grace to be followers of Christ, to be a part of God’s family, and to be his servant in the world.