Creator, Father, King #211

The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

NOT LONG BEFORE HIS death in AD 14, Caesar Augustus, Rome’s first emperor, wrote Res Gestae Divi Augusti, which recounted the major accomplishments of his forty-year reign. Augustus’s effort was an essay in vanity.

Let’s start with the title: Res Gestae Divi Augusti is Latin for The Deeds of the Divine Augustus. You might have an arrogance problem if you call yourself a demigod!

Throughout The Deeds, Augustus congratulates himself for his military, governmental, and civic achievements, happily highlighting near the end that “the doors of my Temple were publicly clothed with laurel and a civic crown was fixed over my door and a gold shield placed in the Julian senate-house, and the inscription of that shield testified to the virtue, mercy, justice, and piety, for which the senate and Roman people gave it to me.” One wonders if Augustus cramped up from patting himself on the back so much.

Today, we’d say, “Get over yourself, bro!” But remarkably, humility wasn’t a virtue in the ancient Greco-Roman world. They prized personal honor and glory above almost everything else.

Then Jesus appeared, preaching a completely different way of living.

What’s It Mean?

In Mark 10:42-45, Jesus told his disciples,

You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. . . . Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Christ’s crucifixion was absurdity to the majority of the ancient world (1 Corinthians 1:22-23). But what the world doesn’t understand is perfectly in line with God’s wisdom: the first must be last, and true spiritual greatness is found in humility, not self-promotion. God’s Son, who ransomed his life to purchase our freedom from sin and death, is the example par excellence.

The world says, “Do you want to be great? Then seek honor and glory for yourself and let everyone know who you are!” But Jesus says, “Do you want to truly be great? Then follow my example and serve others.”

That is truly divine!

Now What?

Find a way to regularly serve others in your church, neighborhood, or school.

Did You Know?

At Augustus’s order, copies of The Deeds were distributed throughout his empire and inscribed on bronze tablets for display outside his tomb.