Daily Devotional For Friday, August 2, 2024

Friday is finally here and you are almost to the long awaited weekend. Both Audrey and I have been servers at restaurants when we were younger. If you have ever been one, you know how challenging it can be and how difficult people can be at times. What is so sad is that in national surveys, servers state that Sundays are the worst days for them. Why? Church goers! Let me share with you from one website comments from servers themselves.

“They talk about how they hated the church crowds because they are the rudest and most demanding people of the week. Even more, they don’t tip well. (Typically.)

• Shane Pruitt, a Christian Post contributor, interviewed several servers to examine their point of view on the church crowd. His questions included: “Generally speaking on Sundays, how did people treat you that you assumed had just come from church? How did they tip? Were they rude, more demanding, etc.?”

Below are five answers from his article, When Christians Mistreat Restaurant Servers Right After Worshiping God:

• “No one ever wanted to work Sundays because of the church crowds. I never understood how they could go to church, but less than 20 minutes after leaving, be the worst example of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.” – Katie.
• “I absolutely hated working on Sundays having to deal with the church crowd. They were always the loudest, most demanding, and rudest people, especially when they came in as a group. They would run you like crazy and then leave the most pitiful tip and a Gospel tract.” – Richard.
• “They did not tip well. You just knew that you weren’t going to make much when you worked the Sunday lunch crowd.” – Ashton
• “The neighborhood that I worked in was a wealthy area, and I was a college student at the time and not a believer. When I look back at those Sundays now as a believer, I think there’s nothing in my mind that made the churchgoers stand out in a good way. Nothing about them made me want to say, ‘Hmmm … maybe I should see what this Jesus thing is all about.'” – Alexis
• “They never leave the payment until right before darting out only to have the server come to realize they received a low tip, especially for the amount of people, and how long they occupied the table afterward. On top of that, they’d leave a church flyer or Gospel tract behind for the server. This would usually end with the server getting upset and venting to EVERYONE in the back about how ‘crappy church people are and HECK NO none of us will ever go to your church or event!'” – Elizabeth – These are strong words above (Source: https://jasonpierce.org/all-servers-agree-sunday-crowds-are-the-worst/).

It seems that Jesus had to battle the same thing with His own disciples. Look at Luke 22:24-26:

"Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. (25) Jesus told them, `In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ (26) But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant’” (NLT). 

Jesus’ disciples were having a heated discussion. They weren’t debating Scripture or a parable Jesus had told. No! They were not debating if Jesus was God in the flesh. No, they were arguing about which of them was the greatest! I imagine Jesus was disappointed by their petty behavior, but He simply reminded them that He had given them a new definition of success. He knew having true significance in God’s Kingdom means not ruling from a throne but serving from our knees. 

Servant leadership—the willingness and intention to serve others with love and humility—should be a goal for all of us. It’s not easy, and we may never master it completely, but it is an important characteristic for every follower of Jesus to pursue. What was true of Jesus’ disciples is sometimes true of churchgoers today. There are always people in the church who want to rule rather than serve. In the book, Paradise Lost, the author John Milton has the devil saying, “I would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven.” Being a servant does not come with power, or position or privilege or possessions. But being a servant was and is modeled by Jesus Christ. 

This must have been a terrible sad moment for Jesus in Luke 22:24-26. He had just finished teaching His disciples about what His kingdom would be like and they are not listening. All they can do is look at Rome and think something like that. Some people in the church see something similar. They look at how businesses operate and think that is how the church should operate. Yes, there are business ethics we should copy and do. But the church is not a business. Businesses operate on a profit margin. They make all decisions on that profit margin. They simply go by the hard cold facts.

We, the people of Christ, operate holy on faith and the Word of God is our template. If Moses had followed a business model, then he would have cut his losses and those Hebrews would have stayed slaves to Egypt. There would have been no Red Sea Crossing. No Ten Commandments. No Promised Land. What God asked Moses to do went against every logical and sane thought and belief. When Jesus told Mary and Martha to roll away the stone on Lazarus tomb, it seemed crazy and insane. In John 11:29, look at their response, “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible” (NLT). 

You know what else smells terrible? The stench of faithless Christians who think facts outweigh faith. Jesus said this in Matthew 28:30, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (NLT). Church-goers who think servers are their slaves and who love to “lord over others” smell just as bad as a rotting corpse. Jesus made it clear that we will win the world to Him by serving them, not treating them as if they are beneath us, or owe us or are there just for us. 

Maybe we would win more servers to Christ if we treated them as Jesus treated people in His day. He was known as being a friend of sinners, tax collectors, lepers, adulterers, children, Samaritans and Gentiles. If Sunday lunch is a server’s only experience with us, and it is a terrible one, then that needs to change in every venue, business and establishment we enter. We are there to serve them, not the other way around. To teach His disciples this, it would not be long until He would wash their filthy, dirty, nasty feet. That is our example and that is our role and our blessing. 

When we read Jesus’ stern rebuke to His disciples in Luke 22:26, Jesus said His disciples will be and should be different. How? Not seeking to be served by others as a lord, but serving others as the Lord served others. It seems that it does not take much for some Christians to get the “big head” in a restaurant or in a position at their church. We need to choose to S.E.R.V.E.:

S = Seek to share the love of Christ with others

E = Embrace others openly

R = Reach out to those in need

V = Voice the message of hope, redemption, salvation and the Gospel

E = Endure the challenges of servanthood with joy

Questions To Consider

1. When it comes to servers in restaurants, are they better for having served you? Are they more curious about our faith and Jesus?
2. When you are at church, and especially if you have a position at church, how do you the people you interact with? Would they say you serve them? Why or why not?
3. When it comes to trusting God, be honest, are you more a fact person or a faith person? Why? What do you think Jesus Christ was saying and why?
4. When you go into any business or establishment, is your goal to serve the people who work there or who wait on you or assist you? Why or why not?
5. What would you say is the most challenging thing about being a servant and why?

Scripture To Meditate On: Philippians 2:3-5, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. (4) Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. (5) You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had” (NLT).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I do not want to turn anyone off to You because of myself. Help me to have a servant attitude no matter where I am and who I am with. And when I am in a restaurant with a server, please help me to help them want You just as much as You want them. Jesus, where there is pride in me, help me crush it. When I let a position go to my head, humble me. Please help me to have the same attitude You did when You were here.  I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!—Pastor Kelly