Read: Mark 10: 35 – 45       

Reflection – Masters and Servants

When I was a teenager and involved in Church youth activities and as a Church Youth Worker, we used to play a game called ‘Masters and Servants’. The idea was to get into pairs. One of the pair would be designated the Master, and the other Servant. The Master told the Servant what they wanted the Servant to do, and the Servant had to do it!

It was intended to be a silly game and the Masters would ask their Servants to do silly things like peel a grape for them to eat, or tell a joke, or give them a piggy back ride wherever they wanted to go etc.  It was great fun to be involved in and to see the tasks that the Masters dreamed up for the Servants.

You might think this game was terribly one sided and unfair on whoever was appointed Servant, but, at any point the Servant could refuse to do what the Master asked, simply by saying ‘No’, at which point the Master had to do whatever it was they had asked the Servant to do, and from that point on the Master became the Servant, and the Servant the Master, until the Servant refused again. And so the game went on, with enormous laughter and some great capers.

The game rarely got out of control, and even if it did, it wasn’t for long, because the Masters quickly realised that they would be very unwise to ask the Servant to do anything they weren’t prepared to do themselves because if the Servant refused, the Master would have to do that task themselves.  So, for example, if the Master asked the Servant to lick her shoes clean, and the Servant refused, the Master would have to lick the Servant’s shoes clean instead!

Because the Masters could never ask the Servants to do anything they weren’t prepared to do themselves, the Servants learned to trust the Masters and be obedient, because it would be safe. The Servant never had to do anything the Master wasn’t prepared to do themselves.

The similarity between Jesus and this silly game, is (of course) that in Jesus we have a Master we can trust, one who never asks us to do anything he wasn’t willing to do himself as a Servant.

When Jesus tells us that we are to take the humble part and wash the feet of others, remember he did just that. In the end there is nothing we can do, however challenging or difficult it may be, that Jesus would not do himself, even to die for us.

And in our lives, we shouldn’t force anyone else to do or put up with anything we aren’t prepared to do or put up with ourselves.

Rev Janine