We Need a Servant - Not an Activist

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.

Isaiah 42:1

When the Holy Spirit lives in us, we become true servants of Christ, and then and only then can we bring His justice to wherever He has placed us. The Holy Spirit will only glorify Christ.  The danger in attempting to work alongside an activist movement is that we tend to put the Holy Spirit aside and take on the human-centered spirit of the movement - a movement that only seeks to glorify itself and achieve its own selfish ends.  When that happens, we as Christ's servants can no longer bring His justice to bear on the situation.

He shall not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the street.

Isaiah 42:2

This verse from Isaiah speaks to the tone of our service. As Christ's servants we are to be modest, not claiming attention to ourselves so that Jesus only is known.  But once we partner with an activist movement,  we run the risk of replacing Jesus with the self-conscious pride of striving after selfish ends. 

As servants of Christ we should not feel the need to advertise ourselves. Unlike most activists of a movement, no cause or situation should be entered into for the sake of self-vindication.  Just as Our Lord never showed any desire to be found in the right, our only strong desire must be that the right of God should have its way.  We must be willing to stand the humiliation Jesus stood of having words flung at us without saying "Now we must explain" on social or news media.  Unlike the protests we have witnessed in our cities, our voices should never be heard in the streets vindicating ourselves. 

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

Isaiah 42:3

Considerateness should mark the quality of our service as true servants of Christ.  The violent riots, looting, and destruction are the result of activists who in their anger and misguided passion break the already bruised reeds of innocent people, counting them as worthless broken reeds, as hindrances to their cause. In contrast, we are to seek to bind up the broken reeds and instead make them into wonderful instruments that bring forth the sweet music of God's grace.

Activist movements seeking after self-vindication, success, and power recruit the strong and robust for their cause.  What supposedly starts off as a peaceful protest quickly turns into violence, destruction and looting that only succeeds in snuffing out the smoldering wicks of struggling small business owners trying to survive and feed their families. 

But through the Person of Christ, we as His servants can raise that smoldering wick to a flame of grace.  The whole concept of our work as Christ's servants is to lift up the despairing and the hopeless.  The surest sign that God is at work is when He brings us souls who are weak and sick in all their pain, distress, and limitations.  For pain in God's service always leads to glory.  Movements want success; God wants glory.   

I believe that God is using the tragic events of 2020 to shake the wrong notion out of His people that we are here only to have a holy hilarious time before God and among men.  Never!  We are saved and sanctified not to be celebrities and champions of activist movements but to be the humble servants of men - "ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."