Serve Others and Seek God

Imagine if you will what the last hours of your life would look like if you knew you were going to die. And not just die, but die the most agonizing, torturous death ever experienced by anyone. I've often heard people joke about how they would knowingly spend the last few hours of their life indulging themselves in some elaborate or lavish endeavor before their time would come.

Notice instead how Jesus spend the last few hours of his life on earth. He knew what was coming. He had spent his entire existence doing the will of the Father and wasn't about to stop now. While his disciples had just finish arguing about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom, the One who actually was began washing their feet (John 13:1-5). He was their Teacher and their Lord (v.13) and he loved them to the end (v.1), yet he demonstrated servanthood to his disciples in such a way that they would learn that no task was too menial in serving others.

Then Jesus brings his disciples to Gethsemane; tells them of the sorrow in his heart and goes off to pray to the Father (Matthew 26:36-38). In his anguish of knowing that in just a few moments he would be taken away to be crucified, he prayed that if there was no other way to accomplish God's plan, that He was obedient to the will of the Father (v.39).

Jesus didn't foolishly indulge himself; he served others and sought time with God. Until the very end. As we navigate through the events and circumstances of our day-to-day lives, let us remember the example of the One we follow by serving others and seeking time with the Father.