Approval As A Servant

“For am I now seeking the approval of people or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people I would not be a servant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10)

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).

I have been reflecting on these passages in Galatians as we enter Holy Week. This is the week that changed the world. It begins in celebration on Palm Sunday. It is the week that puts the model of humble service in bold relief before us on Maundy Thursday. This week will pierce our souls with the gruesome agony of Good Friday. And it will bring us to unrestrained praise on Resurrection Sunday.

The three passages in Galatians are not the common verses of Scripture read or focused on during Holy Week. They have been helping me, however, consider the journey that God’s people walk as we make our way through these days.

Our Savior understood from the earliest of his days that he came to do the will of his Father (Luke 2:49; John 5:30), who loved him, and with whom he shared glory before the world began (John 17:5). At a certain point in his public ministry Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem where he will be betrayed and crucified (Luke 9:51). Every Gospel writer narrates Jesus’ arrival to Jerusalem. What we encounter is the opposite of betrayal. Jesus enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey. The crowd on that first Palm Sunday is rejoicing and praising God, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!! 

Maybe we are so familiar with the story that we rush by the shower of praise for Jesus because we know that the cross is coming. We know that the shout of “Hosanna” will become “Crucify him” in just a few days. I invite us to resist the urge to rush. Instead, pause and reflect upon how you feel when people celebrate you. It’s not likely that any of us have or will receive “Palm Sunday” kind of praise from others, even if we do something amazing. Yet, consider how tempting it is to live for the praise and approval of other people.

The apostle Paul asks the two rhetorical questions in 1:10. “Am I seeking the approval of people or of God?” “Am I trying to please people?” These are rhetorical questions because he is an apostle through Jesus Christ and God the Father (Gal. 1:1). The shouts of praise on Palm Sunday did not move Jesus the slightest bit off of his path to the cross. He was (and is!) the rightful recipient of praise, but secure in his Father’s love and plan, he was not living for that praise. This is one thing that the Spirit does for us through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul stands ten toes down to say that as a servant of Christ he does not live for the approval of people. 

My first invitation to us this week is to explore the ways we are seeking to live for the approval of others over what God commends and approves. Here is a simple prayer from the lectio I use: 

“Father, today I ask that you would liberate my heart from the approval of others. Let my desire be to please you in all things – you alone.”

Pastor Irwyn