Philippians 2:5-7 NAS
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in    
Christ Jesus, who, although He existed
in the form of God, did not regard equality
with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of
a bond servant and being made in
the likeness of men. 

We imagine Jesus in a simple robe of the servant,
clean and white.
But Jesus was servant in the dirty places,
the earthy grind of the lowly ox.       

He "emptied Himself" and made the choice
to serve, to tread out life under the yoke of
earth-bound oxen service.       

He touched contagious lepers,
faced the violently insane,
and ate from the plate of the vile.

No level of grubby humanity was
above His friendship.
And no needs of the common were
scorned by Him.

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary . . .
and they took offense at Him.
Mark 6:3

Jesus, Holy and Begotten,
was considered an illegitimate son,
- not the legal son of Joseph -
but remembered as the
shameful boy of Mary.
How He tasted the reputation of
the outcast and the scorned!

A common laborer, not a princely priest.
A Man who worked with the wood
of everyday needs
in cradles and coffins,
and not in idle philosophy.

Such filthy ordinariness could not carry
such divine greatness,
or so they reasoned.       

The book by Mark shows us
Jesus: touchable, easily entreated.

The woman bent by her sickness,
crawled through the crowd and
touched Him.
Her desperate need, His pleasure to heal.

Wherever He entered . . . imploring Him
that they might just touch the fringe
of His cloak: and as many as touched it
were being cured.
Mark 6:56

He used earthy ways, spat on his fingers
and healed a deaf mute.
Made mud from spit and dirt
and healed blind eyes.

He felt compassion for the hungry multitude,
aware they hadn't eaten in three days.

If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way . . . .
Mark 8:3

The Servant is tenderly aware of
the unsaid need of
the little ones He serves.

Jesus, gentle toward the frailty of mankind,
was ever practical,
always the servant of human crisis,
the solver of human dilemmas and even . . .
food for human hunger.
        
Jesus, the Perfect Servant,
laboring in the common basics.
Grinding like the ox in the
dirt of mankind's mess.

Copyright © 2002 Martha Kilpatrick