Approaching Easter - Philip Yancey

Random notes from Philip Yancey's book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Part One, Who He Was


I would have puzzled over the strange mixture represented by the Twelve.  Simon the Zealot belongs to the party violently opposing Rome, while Matthew the tax collector has recently been employed by Rome's puppet ruler.

No scholars like Nicodemus or wealthy patrons like Joseph of Arimethea have made it into the Twelve.

In my observation, in fact, the disciples' most obvious trait seems to be their denseness. "Are you so dull?" Jesus asks again and again.

While he is trying to teach them servant leadership, they are squabbling about who deserves the most favored position.


Oddly, as I look back on Jesus' time from the present perspective, it is the very ordinariness of the disciples that gives me hope.

Jesus does not seem to choose his followers on the basis of native talent or perfectibility or potential for greatness.

When he lived on earth he surrounded himself with ordinary people who misunderstood him, failed to exercise much spiritual power, and sometimes behaved like churlish schoolchildren.

Three followers in particular (the brothers James and John and Peter) Jesus singled out for his strongest reprimands -- yet they would become prominent leaders of the early church.

I cannot avoid the impression that Jesus prefers working with unpromising recruits.

Once, after he sent out seventy-two disciples on a training mission, Jesus rejoiced at the successes they reported back.

No passage in the Gospels shows him more exuberant. "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.'"

From such a ragtag band Jesus founded a church that has not stopped growing in nineteen centuries.

~~~~~~~

[Note: the selection of the Twelve gives me hope, too. And Christ actually selected these men Himself. Unlike most rabbis, whose followers came to them seeking appointment, Jesus  sought each of these men, as Mark tells us in his Gospel (Mark 3), for specific reasons:

     Jesus went up on a mountain and called to
     him those he wanted, and they came to him...
     that they might be with him and that he might
     send them out to preach.....

These are the men He wanted to be with.....

And it is from these men that we have the Easter story and its miracle of re-birth and gift of authority and power through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

It's the way God worked then and the way He works now.]

Thank you, God, that you have chosen to take the
poor, ordinary and powerless people (and that includes me) to accomplish your Kingdom work!

Easter - The Tomb

(MT) As evening approached there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him.

Then Joseph (MK) bought fine linen and took Him down, (JN) And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus, and (MT) wrapped (JN) it in strips of (MT) clean linen cloth with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.

Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, (MK) and Joseph laid him in (MT) his new tomb which he had hewn out of rock, (JN) in which no one had yet been laid (LK) before. (MT) and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and departed.

(MT)  Matthew 27:59-66
(MK) Mark 15:46-47
(LK)   Luke 23:53-56
(JN)   John 19:39-42


From a borrowed manger to a borrowed tomb. The life of a humble carpenter-preacher - but in death His body was treated with royal love and care.

He was, after all, a King.

MYRRH and ALOES. A very expensive mixture. Myrrh (also given to the baby Jesus by the wise men) was a valuable fragrant gummy resin. The Jews turned it into powder and mixed it with aloes (a rare sandalwood product).

Jews, unlike Egyptians, did not embalm. But this special mixture would delay decay and suppress the odor.

Some historians say this seventy-five pounds would cost, in today's money, several hundreds of thousands of dollars. And some say even powerful kings of the time would have received no more than this for their burial.


WRAPPED IT IN LINEN....Since Jews did not embalm, they wrapped bodies in perfumed burial cloths. Nicodemus, another prominent member of the Sanhedrin (John 7:50) assisted Joseph in caring for the body of Jesus.

The two men, who apparently kept their love for and faith in Jesus secret during His lifetime, came forth publicly to bury Him, while His disciples, public followers before His death, fled and hid afterwards.

STRIPS AND SPICES. The spices were spread along the full length of the cloth strips which were then wrapped around His body. Additional spices were placed underneath the body and set around it.

The sticky resin would serve to help the cloth adhere to the body.

TOMB HEWN OUT OF THE ROCK. This "tomb" was located near Golgotha (John 19:42). Mathew adds that it was Joseph's own tomb.

Joseph, a wealthy man, undoubtedly had the tomb prepared for his own family, much like the royal families of Egypt would prepare their final resting places.

Christ's burial there was a wonderful fulfillment of Isaiah 53:9 - He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.

Likely, as in many of these rock-hewn burial places, shelves were carved from the inside walls, providing a space for the body to be placed above the floor.

These shelves facilitated the handling of the bodies.

A fascinating reflection is of the Ark of the Covenant, with its mercy seat covering the broken law tablets and the two angels gracing the right and left sides of the mercy seat. The priest would sprinkle blood from the sacrificial animal on the mercy seat, between the angels. (See Exodus 25)

Symbolically, when God looked upon the Ark of the Covenant He would see the blood of the sacrifice covering the actual tablets of the broken law.

The blood of the perfect sacrifice made atonement for the people for the broken law.

That's why it was called the Mercy Seat. God's people found mercy there in God's presence amidst the shed blood.

Imagine the scene - Mary stood outside the tomb crying on Easter morning. "As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot" (John 20:10-12).

The shelf in the tomb images the mercy seat cover of the Ark and the blood of Christ sprinkled on the shelf with the two attending angels.

It's all there!

God's mysterious plan - His ultimate rescue plan - revealed to us by our gracious and loving God. A glimpse into the past and into the future.

     The LORD confides in those who fear Him; He
     makes His covenant known to them. Psalm 25:14

Approaching Easter - Resurrection

According to the Apostle Paul....

    For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brethren, most of what are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also....1  Corinthians 15:3-8


Christ's appearances in the 40 days following His Resurrection prior to His ascension...

1. Were to believers only
2. Were tailor-made to comfort and confront each individual (His visit to Thomas was different from His visit to Peter, etc)
3. Were flesh-and-blood, not ghostly, encounters


So what does it all mean?


More from Philip Yancey in The Jesus I Never Knew...


"Because you have seen Me, you have believed," said Jesus. (John 20:29)

These privileged ones could hardly disbelieve.

But what about the others?

Very soon, as Jesus well knew, His personal appearances would come to a halt, leaving only "those who have not seen."

The church would stand or fall based on how persuasive these eyewitnesses would be for all--including us today--who have not seen. Jesus had 6 weeks in which to establish his identity for all time.

That Jesus succeeded in changing a snuffling band of unreliable followers into fearless evangelists, that eleven men who had deserted Him at death now went to martyrs' graves avowing their faith in a resurrected Christ, that these few witnesses managed to set loose a force that would overcome violent opposition first in Jerusalem and then in Rome--this remarkable sequence of transformation offers the most convincing evidence for the Resurrection.

What else explains the whiplash change in men known for their cowardice and instability?

One need only read the Gospels' descriptions of disciples huddled behind locked doors and then proceed to the descriptions in Acts of the same men proclaiming Christ openly in the streets and in jail cells to perceive the seismic significance of what took place on Easter Sunday.

The Resurrection is the epicenter of belief. It is, says, C. H. Dodd, "not a belief that grew up within the church; it is the belief around which the church itself grew up..."

The crowd at Jesus' crucifixion challenged Him to prove Himself by climbing down from the cross, but not one person thought of what actually would happen: that He would die and then come back.

Once that scenario played out, though, to those who knew Jesus best it made perfect sense.

The style fit God's pattern and character.  God has always chosen the slow and difficult way, respecting human freedom regardless of cost. He did not stop His crucifixion. He rose from the dead. The hero bore all the consequences, yet somehow triumphed.

One detail in the Easter stories has always intrigued me: Why did Jesus keep the scars from His crucifixion? Presumably He could have had any resurrected body He wanted, and yet He chose one identifiable mainly by scars that could be seen and touched. Why?

I believe the story of Easter would be incomplete without those scars on the hands, the feet, and the side of Jesus.

When human beings fantasize we dream of pearly straight teeth and wrinkle-free skin and sexy ideal shapes. We dream of an unnatural state: the perfect body.

But for Jesus, being confined in a skeleton and human skin was the unnatural state. The scars are, to Him, an emblem of life on our planet, a permanent reminder of those days of confinement and suffering.

I take hope in Jesus' scars. From the perspective of heaven, they represent the most horrible event that has ever happened in the history of the universe. Even that event, though--the Crucifixion--Easter turned into a memory.

Because of Easter, I can hope that the tears we shed, the blows we receive, the emotional pain, the heartache over lost loved ones, all these will become memories, like Jesus' scars.

Scars never completely go away, but neither do they hurt any longer. We will have re-created bodies, a re-created heaven and earth.

We will have a new start, an Easter start.

Easter's Surprise Ending....Richard Neuhaus

I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  (Galatians 2:20)

From As I Lay Dying, by Richard John Neuhaus.....
   
             In the years before my sickness, I had written
about the passage in terms of "the transportation of the ego."

    That still seemed to me a good phrase.

         Christ had taken my life into His, and I had

taken His life into me.

         There was, as it were, an exchange of essential identities. But now it seemed to me much more than a good theological point. Now it was the absolute center of what was happening to me, and what was going to happen to me.

         It was the crux--the cross point. This is what Christians mean when they say that in Baptism we die and  rise again with Christ. This is what we mean when we say we have been crucified with Christ, that on the cross He offered up not only His life, but our lives as well.

         And thus it became luminously clear to me as I fitfully thought through these questions, lying there on the hospital bed: I had already died! My death is behind me!

         The question of what is to happen to me now is not a question about me, but a question about Christ.

         And that question has been answered. "Christ is raised from the dead never to die again, death has no more dominion over Him."
                       
         Therefore death has no more dominion over me. At some point "it" will happen. This body will be separated from this soul, and that is a great sadness. I was not expecting it so soon...but it didn't really matter that much.....

                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


        I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the  perishable inherit the imperishable.

        Lo, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead shall be raised imperishable and we shall be changed.

        For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.

        Death is swallowed up in victory.

        Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

                                                            --1 Corinthians 15

Approaching Easter - Pesach

The word pesach means Passover, and it commemorates God's mercy toward the Jewish people on the night of the Passover in Egypt, for He took the lives of the Egyptian firstborn, but He passed over the homes where Jews were eating their pesach offering because they had placed lamb's blood on their door frames.

This just preceded their exodus from Egypt and slavery, led by Moses, and their journey toward the Promised Land.

From Exodus 12:1-7

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 'This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.

'Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.

'If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are...

'The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.

'Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

'Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs...'


Notes:

1. The Hebrew word for lamb and kid (baby goat) are the same. There is no one-word translation in English.

2.  The Hebrew word we translate "community" or "assembly" refers to a society united by their common calling. This is the first time the word is found in the Torah, implying that the commandment of the pesach-offering ushered in a new era. The Jewish people were now a nation, united by its common calling as God's Chosen People.

3. The animals were to be chosen on the tenth day of the month and then brought for sacrifice on the late afternoon of the fourteenth day.

4. The animals were to be inspected for blemishes.

5. Lambs and kids were worshipped by the Egyptians as part of their religion. When God chose these animals as acceptable sacrifices, He was showing the Egyptians that He, the LORD God Almighty, was in control of world events.

6. The four-day interval was part of the miracle of redemption, according to Hebrew rabbinical scholars.

     The Egyptians would see their gods -- the lambs and goats -- tethered to the beds of the Jews and would ask, "What is the purpose of this?" The Jews would explain that the animals were being prepared as sacrifices and offerings for God. The Egyptians would be furious, but at least would know what was happening.

7. Because this happened on the tenth day of Nissan, which was the Sabboth that year, the Sabbath before Passover is called Shabbos HaGadol (The Great Sabboth), in commemoration of that great miracle.


8. The household would be the extended family: grandparents and their families.

Those participating in the meal must be counted and designated in advance and the appropriate amount of meat provided for each. (The minimum required for each person eating the meal was the volume of an olive, according to Hebrew commentaries.)

"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world," John the Baptist declared of Christ.

(John 1:29)

"For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed."

(1 Corinthians 5:7)

Christ was crucified at the time of the Passover celebration.

Approaching Easter - Gethsemane Prayer (2) - Charles Spurgeon

Then Jesus went with  His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."

He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled.

Then He said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here an keep watch with Me."

Going a little further, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will."
      -- Matthew 26:36-39


There are several instructive features in our Savior's prayer in His hour of trial, says Charles Spurgeon.

In Morning and Evening, for March 22, he tells us:

It was a filial prayer. You will find it a stronghold in the day of trial to plead your adoption. You have no rights as a subject -- you have forfeited them by your treason, but nothing can forfeit a child's right to a father's protection. Do not be afraid to say, "My Father, hear my cry."

It was a prayer of resignation. "Yet not as I will, but as You will"...

Let it be as God wills, and God will determine for the best.

Be content to leave your prayer in His hands who knows when to give and how to give, and what to give, and what to withhold.

So pleading, earnestly, importunately, yet with humility and resignation,  you will surely prevail.

Approaching Easter - Gethsemane Prayer - (1) Charles Spurgeon

Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."



He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, "My soul is over whelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep with with Me."



.....Then He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping...
                       Matthew 26:36-40




Thoughts from Charles Spurgeon:


There are several instructive features in our Savior's prayer in His hour of trial.


It was a lonely prayer.


He withdrew even from His three favored disciples.


Believer, be diligent in solitary prayer, especially in times of trial.


Family prayer, social prayer, prayer in the church will not be sufficient; these are very precious, but the fragrance of heaven will be sweetest in your private devotions, where no ear hears but God's. 


--From Morning and Evening, March 22,

         Charles Spurgeon

It's All About Easter - It's Easter everyday!

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.

For what I received I passed on to you, as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according  to the Scriptures....1 Corinthians 15:1, 3



This is the gospel - What Paul received and what he passed on to the struggling church at Corinth: that Jesus Christ, the Messiah of God, came in flesh, died for our sins to bring us back to God, and now lives.

This is the Easter story. A story we need to tell ourselves every day - every morning when we rise and throughout the day. It's the song we keep singing!

It's about being "saved."

Not only has God forgiven our sins, He has also credited to us the perfect righteousness of His Son.

This is sometimes called the "Great Exchange"-- He took away our sins and gave us righteousness --   God's own righteousness which comes to us by faith (Colossians 3:9)

God's eternal forgiveness includes all sins--past, present, and future.

All of what we think of as our own "righteousness" is like filthy rags--God removes those rags and dresses us in new, clean clothing of His righteousness. Just removal of our rags would not be enough.

But sin still remains with us, and in us, here on earth. Yes, sin still remains, but it does not reign! With the power of the Holy Spirit we can begin to control and conquer the power of the sin still in us.

"Saved" is not a word relegated to the past -- to that day we received God's free gift of grace and accepted it through faith in Jesus Christ.


"Saved" is a word we can use every day.


                                                       PAST                  
We have been saved (freed) from sin's guilt.  That happened once, in the past. (Has it happened for you?)

PRESENT           

We are being saved (freed) from sin's power. That happens continually, every day.

FUTURE             

Someday we will be saved (freed) from sin's very existence. That will be when we live in God's Presence.


"Saved" is a word we will use forever. That song will never end.


So if someone asks me, "Are  you saved?" I can say confidently: "Yes, I am saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved!"

We can preach the gospel to ourselves - EVERY DAY!

The result is a joyful, grateful heart, praising God for His never-ending goodness to us. A heart of peace.

The sun comes up.

It's new new day dawning.

It's time to sing Your song again.

Whatever may pass and

whatever lays before me

Let me be singing when the evening comes!

The Really Good News about Eastsr - Jerry Bridges

It is difficult for decent, upright Americans to accept the fact that we are by nature hostile to God, that we cannot please Him.


This is because we have confused general American morality, plus a dose of Sunday church attendance, with obedience to God's Law.



Most Americans have never been seriously confronted with the exceedingly high standard of God's eternal Law. When they are, they typically reveal their hostility to it.



...We were spiritually dead, enmeshed in a culture totally opposed to God, under the dominion of Satan, and slaves of our own sinful natures.






Apart from the supernatural work of God in our lives, we were helpless to do anything about our condition.


When Lazarus lay dead in the tomb he could not decide to come to life again.


In fact, Lazarus could not even respond to Jesus' call, "Lazarus, come out!" unless with that call Jesus gave him life (see John 11:1-44 for full story).



Lazarus' condition, as he lay dead in the tomb, is a picture of our spiritual predicament. We can hear the call of the gospel a hundred times, but unless that call is accompanied by the life-giving power of the Holy Sprit, we can no more respond to it than Lazarus could respond to a vocal call from Jesus.





I know it is difficult for us to accept the fact that we could not just decide to trust Christ in much the same way we might decide to buy more life insurance.

The truth is, we did decide to trust Christ, but the reason we made that decision is that God first made us spiritually alive.

This is part of the good news.

God comes to us when  we are spiritually dead, when we don't even realize our condition, and gives us the spiritual ability to see our plight and to see in Christ the solution.

God doesn't just come partway to meet us in our need. He comes all the way.

When we were dead He made us alive in Christ Jesus.

And the first act of that new life is to turn in faith to Jesus.
 
  -- From The Gospel for Real Life, Chapter 11,
              by Jerry Bridges

It's All About Easter - Resurrection thoughts from Yancey

In the 40 days between Christ's resurrection and His ascension back to heaven, He made various appearances to the believers.


Appearances of Christ after His resurrection --
Thoughts from Philip Yancey, in The Jesus I Never Knew.


.......There were no angels in the sky singing choruses, no kings from afar bearing gifts. Jesus showed up in the most ordinary circumstances: a private dinner, two men walking along a road, a woman weeping in a garden, some fishermen working a lake...

Life continues in that vein for nearly 6 weeks: Jesus is there, then He's gone.

The appearances are not spectral, but flesh-and-blood encounters.

Jesus can always prove His identity--no other living person bears scars of crucifixion--yet often the disciples fail to recognize Him right away.

Painstakingly, He condescends to meet the level of their skepticism.

For suspicious Thomas, it means a personal invitation to finger the scars. For the humiliated Peter, It means a bittersweet scene of rehabilitation in front of six friends.


The appearances, approximately a dozen, show a definite pattern. Jesus visited small groups of people in a remote area or closeted indoors.


Although these private rendezvous bolstered the faith of those who already believed in Jesus, as far as we know, not a single unbeliever saw Jesus after His death.

Reading the accounts of execution and resurrection back-to-back, I have sometimes wondered why Jesus did not make even more appearances.

Why limit visitations to His friends? Why not reappear on Pilate's porch or before the Sanhedrin, this time with a withering blast against those who had condemned Him?

Perhaps a clue to strategy can be found in His words to Thomas, on the day Thomas' skepticism melted away forever: "Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29).

..."Because you have seen Me, you have believed," He said.

But what about the others?

Very soon, Jesus knew, His personal appearances would come to a halt, leaving only "those who have not seen."

The church would stand or fall on how persuasive these eyewitnesses would be for all--including us today--who have not seen. Jesus had six weeks in which to establish His identity for all time....

The Easter People

These are hard days.

But remember, we are the 'Easter People'!

We don't whine and complain. We never despair. We don't wonder where God is!

Our song is not 'Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen'...

Our theme song is the 'Hallelujah Chorus'!!!


Our Lord Reigneth...and He shall reign forever and ever!
Hallelujah!

It's All About Easter - Ancient Words

Ancient Words about the Messiah Jesus....


Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter...

He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 
                                -- Isaiah 53: 4-9, written about 700 BC

The punishment that brought us peace was upon him

By his wounds we are healed


And that's why we call that Black Friday...
Good Friday!

It's All About Easter - George Herbert

I ran across this old, perhaps obscure, poem, written by George Herbert in the early 1600's.

I am so touched by its words.

George Herbert (1593-1633) was a Welsh-born poet, orator and priest.

His family were wealthy aristocrats, and he received the best education available, even attaining a position at Cambridge and being named a Member of Parliament.

He was drawn to theology and the gospel message, and devoted his later life to the Anglican clergy.

Read these beautiful words:

LOVE

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,

Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack

From my first entrance,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning

If I lacked anything.

"A guest," I answered, "worthy to be here."

Love said,  "You shall be he."

"I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my Dear,

I cannot look on Thee."

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

"Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord, but I have marred them; let my shame

Go where it doth deserve."

"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"

"My Dear, then I will serve."

"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."

So I did sit and eat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am so moved by these words. They picture what most of us feel each time we bow in prayer.

When we gaze upon Love (Christ), we see ourselves as unworthy, and realize that someone much grander, much more holy, should be in our place: A more worthy guest should receive Christ's invitation!

We shrink back for His hand, aware of our guilt and shame.

We are still invited in, even invited to eat.  Even more amazing, we are not the servant attending the table. 

He serves us. We sit and eat.

We are the guests.

That was His teaching that last night, the night He was betrayed, arrested and convicted. The night of the last supper with His disciples.  He served them the bread and wine that night.

Hear His words again:


The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them...But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.

For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who served...And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom....
                                                      -- Luke 22:25-30


And it wasn't just words. Look what He did:

Jesus knew the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love....so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
                                                     -- John 13:1-5

He was showing them the full extent of his love?

He said He was 'conferring on them a kingdom' -- were they confused?

In Jewish society washing the feet was too lowly a task even for Jewish servants - yet here this God-Man was washing their feet? Was this the kingdom they yearned for?