Christ the Servant
Hey, there! Welcome back; it’s been a bit since I posted the introduction to this study, and I apologize for that. The subject matter is somewhat delicate and very deep, and it has been a struggle for me to accurately string together my words in a way that doesn’t start sounding overly simplistic. (If you need a refresher, feel free to jump over to the introduction that I posted earlier this year.) Discussing the identity of the messiah is, in part, discussing the identity of God, and I have wanted to treat that discussion with as much reverence as I could. The thoughts have been present, but the structure hasn’t. Hopefully I can convey my meaning here without running on too long or slipping into sounding like I am saying things that I am not meaning to say, but to cover my bases I will clarify up front: I am not and will not say that we are, were, or ever will be equal to God. We are not little gods, and we are not co-creators with the Living God. We are called to reflect Him and imitate the holiness of His Son, to be like Him in conduct and in disposition, but not to assume His authority or nature presumptiously. Any view that asserts these things is, in my opinion, asserting an at-best well-meaning heresy and, at-worst, intentionally trying to feed people a repackaged lie from the Garden of Eden. Now, with that cryptic little preface out of the way (and some anticipation built up), let’s dive into this thing!
Defining a Servant
First things first, it needs to be understood that the Christ is primarily the servant of God. As was laid out in the introduction of this series, Christ/Messiah means "anointed one,” and biblically, to be anointed is often to say that you have been dedicated for a task, for a particular role that you will fulfill. For example, the high priest of Israel would be anointed for his job, and that would be his primary purpose in life; he was consecrated as a servant to God. Similarly- and typologically- so is the Messiah. The use of “servant” here isn’t reductive, just a matter-of-fact. To be numbered among God’s servants is an extraordinary blessing, and some of the most righteous people in scripture are explicitly referred to by God as His servants (Job 1:8).
Backing up, let’s discuss what a priest is; it will be very important for us going forward. A priest is, definitionally, a minister/servant and an intermediary agent, and the high priest is the chief among them. The Jewish high priest was responsible for serving as the spiritual leader of Israel, entering the Holy of Holies, and overseeing the various operations of the temple. One descriptor of the high priest could be “chief officer,” “supervisor,” or “ruler” of the House of God. (1 Chronicles 9:11) Hebrews 3:1-6 explains this role even more as it pertains to Christ: “1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; 2 He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. 3 For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; 6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” Though He was the Son, He wholly dedicated Himself to faithful service to the Father, and now continues serving as the eternal High Priest of the people of God. (This is one of my favorite parts of Hebrews; the book has some stuff that scares me to think about, but there is so much like this that gives context and weight to the work and nature of Christ that I can’t help but come back to it again and again.)
If we look at a bit of word history, we can see something really cool that I think presents an even clearer picture of what these comparisons mean. There is a lot of overlap in the various titles used for God’s agents and the word servant, whether a priest, apostle, or the Messiah are being referred to. Do you know what the most commonly used word for servant is in the New Testament? Doulos. (Doo-los; G1401 in Strong’s, and translated as:
a slave, bondman, man of servile condition
a slave
metaph., one who gives himself up to another's will those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men
devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interests
a servant, attendant)
It matches well with the word used in the Old Testament, which is ebed (Eh-ved; H5650). Paul, in Philippians 2:7, uses the word doulos to describe the state/form of Christ on this earth- the same Christ that the author of Hebrews refers to as high priest, as well as the heir of all things and the “...radiance of His glory and the exact representative of His nature…” (Hebrews 1:3) This, compounded with passages such as Hebrews 1:8: “But of the Son He says, “YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM.,” create an interesting series of questions such as “how can God be identified as Father and Son?” or, “how can God be a servant to Himself?” Fortunately (for your sake and mine), I will not be fixating on those or other overly metaphysical questions right now; scripture plainly says that Jesus and the Father are one (John 10:30), and I am happy to leave that there as it has been presented. (Plus, this is already very lengthy, and I want to try to keep your attention.)
The notion of the Messiah being a servant figure is not merely a New Testament or Christian addition- it’s a very traditional Jewish understanding as well. The prevalent traditional Jewish perspective asserts that the Messiah will ultimately be one who directs mankind to the God of Israel, to His service and worship, and leads the people by His own spotless example.
Here is what Chabad (a popular Jewish resource) says about the Jewish Moshiach (Messiah): “Moshiach will be a man who possesses extraordinary qualities. He will be proficient in both the written and oral Torah traditions. He will incessantly campaign for Torah observance among Jews, and observance of the seven universal Noahide laws by non-Jews. He will be scrupulously observant, and encourage the highest standards from others. He will defend religious principles and repair breaches in their observance. Above all, Moshiach will be heralded as a true Jewish king, a person who leads the way in the service of G‑d, totally humble yet enormously inspiring.” (https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/108400/jewish/The-End-of-Days.htm#Whatsort ) We see these things echoed and elaborated on in the New Testament in a number of places, from Matthew 5:17: “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” to Revelation 1:4-6: “4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood—6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Some very strong Old Testament passages demonstrating the historicity of the concept of the Messiah/Christ being a priest to and the servant of God are found in what are collectively referred to as the “servant songs” of Isaiah. (A bit more on those in a minute.) It can be distilled further in passages like Psalm 110:1-4: “1 A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for your feet.” 2 The LORD will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of Your enemies.” 3 Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew. 4 The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” and Hebrews 6:19-20: “19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, 20 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
I know that I have shared a lot of scripture here, and it may feel like I have somewhat belabored the point, but please be patient with me. I felt it necessary to open by making sure that two things were taken care of: 1) that the working definitions for what I say are clearly laid out, and 2) that a succinct biblical and historical groundwork for the following sections would be made clear and accessible. This will probably feel like the most redundant part of this study; most believers (and some non-believers) grasp the general idea of Christ the servant, but I worry that some of the magnitude of the title and role are lost. I know that they were lost on me for a very long time, and I want to help make sure that isn’t the case for anybody else. Now, I feel somewhat confident in going forward and looking at some of the specifics of how He served and what significance it has for us.
The Servant Songs
For this section, I want to talk about the Servant Songs of Isaiah, which are found in chapters 42:1-9, 49:1-13, 50:4-11, and 52:13-53:12. Are you familiar with them? You are probably familiar with Isaiah 53 at least, but there are three others that build up to it and lay the groundwork for it. I feel that they effectively take everything that I just said about the Jewish tradition, the definitions of the word servant, and the scriptures about the Messiah as the high priest, and they condense it into four densely packed nuggets of theological goodness. I’ve basically already gone through the core of these passages, but I’ll note that a (relatively young) traditional Jewish interpretation of them would center them not on Yeshua the Messiah, but on the collective nation of Israel as a whole. They have some reasons that they give for this, although those reasons are undeniably colored by the antisemitism they have faced from people who claimed to represent Jesus. One reason is that Isaiah 49:3 says: “He said to me,“You are my Servant, Israel, in Whom I will show My glory.” It feels like a very cut-and-dry statement, right? However, the passage goes on to say, in 5-13: “5 And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, And My God is My strength), 6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” 7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, To the despised One, To the One abhorred by the nation, To the Servant of rulers, “Kings will see and arise, Princes will also bow down, Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.” 8 Thus says the LORD, “In a favorable time I have answered You, And in a day of salvation I have helped You; And I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people, To restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages; 9 Saying to those who are bound, ‘Go forth,’ To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ Along the roads they will feed, And their pasture will be on all bare heights. 10 “They will not hunger or thirst, Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down; For He who has compassion on them will lead them And will guide them to springs of water. 11 “I will make all My mountains a road, And My highways will be raised up. 12 “Behold, these will come from afar; And lo, these will come from the north and from the west, And these from the land of Sinim.” 13 Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people And will have compassion on His afflicted.” The passage does talk about Israel, but it also seems to talk about a man who will stand in the place of Israel to redeem them- almost like a high priest. Interesting, right? It evokes the unwitting prophecy of Caiaphas in John 11:49-52: “49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, 50 Nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” 51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 And not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” Each of the Isaiah passages referenced above compounds this- take 52:13-15, for example: “13 Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. 14 Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. 15 Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.” In the next chapter, Isaiah 53:4-12, you see the sprinkling- which is more priestly language, by the way- described in detail: “4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.” You probably get the point: the songs are riddled with priestly/sacrificial language, and it all points to Jesus. The words are graphic and stirring as they describe the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah; the question to follow all of this would be: what do I do with it? The answer is found in Luke 9:35: “Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!”” This takes us to our next area of focus: Christ as our example.
My Example is He
In all honesty, this has probably been the hardest part of this portion of the study to write; defining a servant and demonstrating the serving role of the Messiah as outlined through scripture was fairly straightforward- though it took time to go select the ones I’ve shared and think through them- but for some reason I have really struggled with this part, the example. I think it might be the deceptive simplicity of this section: I’ve spent pages trying to succinctly share some of the beauty inherent to the role of the Christ as the servant of God, but much of what can be learned from this example is, I think, fairly evident without much in the way of elaboration. Additionally, I have worried about saying something inaccurate and unintentionally minimizing the work of Yeshua or over-realizing our own part to play in all of this. I’ve reworked this section several times now for clarity, and hope it comes out as I intended.
Throughout the New Testament, there are frequent admonitions given by the apostles to the various congregations to live sacrificially for one another, like Christ did for us, in particular when outlining the roles of husbands and wives. The apostles also- in various ways- instruct the congregations to imitate them as they are imitating Christ. I think this is beautiful to see, but culturally we seem to be allergic to the kind of love and obedience- the service- that God requires of us. (I am not singling out American culture out of some sort of misguided ideology, but because it is my own culture and I see these tendencies on regular display. If I were Venezuelan, I would be writing this with reference to Venezuelan culture.) Scripture pushes us to have a view of service and self-image that is founded in humility and love towards God first, and then our neighbor, and if we are honest, even for believers it can be a genuine struggle not to naturally oppose these views. I think this is because the overwhelming majority of us are deeply selfish. I’m not attacking anyone in particular with this statement, but I likewise have no intention of excusing anyone. It would be nice to pretend otherwise but the news, social media, and our own experiences would surely show us the truth of things if we put down our offense and looked at things biblically. Our actions scream far louder than our mumbled, pious words. Do we love God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength? Do we love our neighbors as ourselves? Can we even agree on what these things really mean? It’s important that we understand these fundamental truths, and more than that, that we live them out. We are selfish, self-seeking, and prideful, many of us carrying an attitude towards life that kindles a righteous jealousy in God, because it seldom lines up naturally with His way. Our politicians, our business leaders, our “influencers,” entertainers, and even we live in a cultural feedback loop of self-obsessed vanity. You are welcome to disagree with this assessment, but let me ask you: where do you dedicate most of your time? Not the obligatory time spent at work, but your free time. How about your money? (Apart from the essential spending, of course. Taking care of our families and affairs is good and proper- if we neglect this responsibility, we are worse than an unbeliever. [1 Timothy 5:8]) What is our attitude like when we are offended? When we feel deprived? When you are put upon by your job or an authority figure, how do you answer? Jesus said that if a man compels you to walk with Him one mile, that you are to walk with Him two. Do you have hatred, on any level, for anyone? If you do, then you have murdered in your heart, just like I have. (1 John 3:15) All too frequently I see people who say they know God spit vitriolic curses at their enemies- personal and political- and defend it by saying things like “Well, Jesus mocked the Pharisees!” Granted. He also tried to reason with them, just like He in His mercy reasons with each of us. If we treat our physical opponents like they are the enemy, then we have abandoned one of the most foundational teachings of Christ, given in Matthew 5:43-48: “43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors, do they not do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Even the Gentiles, do they not do the same? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Where is our love? Where is our reasoning? When battered by the hands of men that He made, He accepted the offense, enduring the cross, despising the shame, for the joy set before Him and to the glory of God. (Hebrews 12:2) Even when He was asked, point-blank, to defend Himself, He refrained from lashing out at His enemies, even though He had a better reason than any of us have ever had. Yet we feel justified to hurl insults and threats as though they were light and airy things. James says in James 1:26-27, that “26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” In my experience, many Christians and Messianics struggle to bridle their tongue under good circumstances, let alone when offenses come. When we see a brother, sister, or stranger who is lacking in a need, do we have any compassion in our hearts for them? Jesus felt compassion for the people He fed (Mark 8:2) and who followed Him, knowing that they were lacking the greatest need of all: a relationship with God, our Maker. He went out of His way for these people; do we spare even five minutes? I’m no better; my religion has, for many years, been worthless like many others. Such practices are hypocritical, and God can’t stand hypocrisy and lip-service. I don’t say any of this to condemn anyone, but to make a simple point: collectively, we do not possess a heart like Christ’s. At least, not most of us, and not to the degree that we ought to. And that’s the point of the gospel: to show us how out of whack our hearts are, how far we fall short of the glory of God when we look at His heart reflected in Christ, and to make us realize our desperate need for His mercy.
Christ serves the Father by revealing to mankind how vast the gulf between us and Him is and then bridging the gap. His is the only name under heaven by which men must be saved (Acts 4:12), and He saves us by serving as the ultimate high priest and sacrifice, sprinkling us with His own blood and mediating for us before the Father so that we can have a relationship with Him. The thing is, He didn’t/ doesn’t do all of that for us to just continue going about our business- He does it so that we may begin to look more like Him (Romans 8:29) and this He does because He loves us and in it the Father is glorified (John 15:8-9). What does it look like to follow the example of Christ? Well, it’s both very simple and very difficult: it means to pick up your cross every day and follow Him- i.e., do what He did, including the hard parts. I won’t try to preach to you about how you ought to structure your own life- I don’t have mine properly structured, though I try. What I will do is encourage you to look closely at the things that the apostles and the prophets told Israel and us to do. Two of my favorite summary passages are 1 Samuel 15:22 and Micah 6:6-8:
“22 Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams…”
“6 With what shall I come to the LORD And bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? 7 Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And walk humbly with your God?”
These chastisements are found throughout the scripture for good reason; time and again people try to rely on their adherence to sacrifices, personal merit, or various traditions, and miss the point. In the gospels, Yeshua calls out this tendency as well; He never says it is wrong or unnecessary to obey the commandments or to strive for holiness, though, but instead urges a comprehensive obedience rather than the selective one we naturally gravitate towards. That, though, is the kicker; we won’t do it. The reason I say “won’t” and not “can’t” is because of Deuteronomy 30:11: “For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach.” Deuteronomy is essentially the recap of the Torah, serving to remind the children of Israel about everything that came before and to prepare them for everything that is going to come. In this passage, they are plainly told that God has set life and death in front of them, and they have the capacity to choose life- unfortunately they, like most of the human race, did not consistently choose life over the years. Like I said earlier, even followers of Christ struggle with this, and while some may face more adversity than others, many repeatedly find themselves battling against sin over the course of their lives, fighting not to stray from the path like Israel did again and again. They were, in a sense, called to be a nation of priests to the Lord, a nation that would call others to His worship. That calling has never changed, and has only expanded with the revelation of Yeshua as the Messiah, the one Israel waited for for so long. Revelation describes those who are set free from sin by His blood as “a kingdom, priests to His God and Father…” (Revelation 1:6) And the blueprint of our worship as His priests is established in the Servant Songs and the epistles of the New Testament: we are, each of us, to be living sacrifices according to the example given for us, stalwart in our obedience to God and our love for Him and one another. This is- in part- what the Messiah does as the servant of God; His obedience to God the Father is so complete that it lays bare and exposes the many, many inadequacies the rest of us carry, and our natural condemnation is made evident by the comparison. However, the Messiah- and God through Him- is a great high priest who can sympathize with us in our plight (Hebrews 4:14-15) and who is able, through His own inherent deity (Hebrews 1; John 1:1-3) to forgive us and cleanse us from our sins (Mark 2:5-12). By this authority He is able to call everyday men and women like you and me, sinners all, and make us into priests, by which mercy God is delighted and glorified. (Micah 7:18) We are His imitators and, by that, His representatives. We are His co-heirs (Romans 8:17) but not co-creators. Positionally in our relationship with God we are blessed to wear the righteousness of Christ, though we are still physically and somewhat conditionally constrained by our own imperfections. I said earlier that I wasn’t going to preach to you about the particulars of how you live your life, but I will leave you with this instead: how does your life look right now? How are you serving? What sort of priest are you, if you are one at all? If you look at all of the passages I have shared with you here- and if you look at the many others scattered throughout scripture- how do they reflect in your life to conform you to the image of the Christ, the Messiah, the high priest of our faith? I myself find that I am woefully lacking every time I open my Bible or work on these posts. However, I take heart in the positional righteousness that has been afforded me in spite of myself, and it encourages me to keep pushing to learn and improve more; how about you?
In Closing
Well, that was longer than I expected. Hopefully I didn’t run on too long in all of this; I have honestly tried to keep things as compact as I could, but even then it has been a struggle to say everything I thought or wanted to say, and I have had to cut a good bit out. There are a lot of things I just don’t know or feel comfortable sharing publicly because I know enough to understand that I don’t fully understand it. I’ll probably revisit this particular subject again in the future because there is still a huge amount that I could have looked at; more messianic prophecies, more layers to the service of the Messiah, and more detail on the nature of the Messiah’s deity- all of these can be explored so much more than I did here in these few pages. For the sake of “simplicity,” though, and brevity, I decided to focus on the priestly nature of His role as servant- and even there I easily could have kept studying and writing. I know that this isn’t a truly comprehensive breakdown, but I hope that it has been somewhat edifying to you, even if it is only a reminder of things you have read before. If it is new to you, then I hope it has been thought provoking and caused you to start to look at yourself and ask, “am I living up to my calling as a priest?” And, more importantly, “do I have a high enough view of the great high priest, Yeshua the Messiah?”
I said in the introduction to this study that I would be working on it for at least a few weeks- I see now that that was a laughable assessment of things. The scope is just too broad, and I have too many other things that I am doing/reading about in the rest of my life for that to have been realistic. I will definitely keep going with this, but for now I am going to relax on that initial timeline and will see about posting subsequent parts in smaller chunks along the way.
If this has been of any interest to you, or you have any notes for me, please feel free to reach out and let me know; I would welcome (polite) constructive criticism in what I share. If you know anyone who may be interested, feel free to share it with them and see what they think; my goal is to straighten out these details in my own mind and to share them with whoever else will read them. Take care, and I look forward to seeing you next time!
