Whoever serves in this way serves Christ. To him it will rightly be said: “As you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Mt 25:40). And the Father will glorify one who serves Christ in this manner with the special honor of being with His Son, where his blessedness will never be diminished.
When, brethren, you hear the Lord say, “Where I am, there My servant will be also,” do not think only of good bishops and clergy. Serve Christ in your own way: by an upright life, by giving to the poor, and by preaching, as far as you can, His name and teaching.
And every head of a household will fulfill a kind of ecclesiastical and episcopal ministry for Christ in his own home, if he sees to it that his family also will be with Him forever.
“Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me.” What does “let him follow Me” mean, if not this: “let him imitate Me”? For “Christ also suffered for us,” says the Apostle Peter, “leaving us an example, that we should follow in His steps” (1 Pet 2:21).
Consider what is said: “Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me.” To what end? For what payment? For what reward? “And where I am,” He says, “there My servant will be also.” Let Him be loved freely, so that the reward of the one who serves Him may be to be with Him.
For can anything be good anywhere without Him? Or can anything ever be evil with Him? Hear something still more evident: “Whoever serves Me, him My Father will honor.” What honor can there be except to be with His Son?
What He said above, “And where I am, there My servant will be also,” may be understood as the explanation of what He then said: “him My Father will honor.” For what greater honor can there be for an adopted son than to be where the Only-begotten is? He is not made equal to Him in Godhead, but he shares with Him in eternity.
We must understand more precisely what it means to serve Christ, for whose service so great a reward is given. If we think that serving Christ means doing for Him what is necessary for the body, such as preparing or serving food at table, mixing drink, and offering the cup, then those did this who were near Him when He was in the flesh, such as Martha and Mary, when Lazarus was one of those reclining at table.
Yet in this way even the ruined Judas served Christ. He kept the money box and, although he most wickedly stole from what was put into it, he still provided what was needed. Therefore, when the Lord said to him, “What you do, do quickly” (Jn 13:27), some thought He had ordered him to prepare what was needed for the feast, or to give something to the poor (cf. Jn 13:29).
The Lord was not speaking of such servants when He said, “where I am, there My servant will be also,” and, “whoever serves Me, him My Father will honor.” We see that Judas, who performed such service, was condemned rather than honored.
Why, then, do we seek elsewhere what it means to serve Christ, and not try to learn it from these very words? When He said, “Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me,” He wished it to be understood as though He had said: “If anyone does not follow Me, he does not serve Me.”
Those serve Jesus Christ who seek not their own things, but the things pleasing to Jesus Christ (cf. Phil 2:21). For “let him follow Me” means: “let him walk in My paths, not in his own.” As it is written elsewhere: “He who says that he abides in Christ ought himself also to walk as He walked” (cf. 1 Jn 2:6).
If he gives bread to the hungry, he must do this from mercy, not seeking approval for himself. He must seek nothing else but the good work, while the left hand does not know what the right hand does (cf. Mt 6:3). In other words, let the desire for gain be removed from the work of mercy.
Whoever serves in this way serves Christ. To him it is rightly said: “As you did it to one, you did it to Me” (cf. Mt 25:40). Thus, by doing not only works of mercy concerning the body, but every good work for Christ’s sake, he becomes Christ’s servant.
For then these works will truly be good, because “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom 10:4). He becomes Christ’s servant even to the point of manifesting that great love in which one lays down his life for the brethren, since this is the same as laying down one’s life for Christ.
For He will say to him, as to a member of His Body: “When you did this for them, you did it for Me.” And indeed, in doing such a good work. He deigned both to become and to call Himself a servant, saying: “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His soul as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28).
Thus each person is a servant of Christ in that in which Christ Himself is a servant. The Father will honor the one who serves Christ in this way with that great honor, that he will be with His Son, and his happiness will never pass away.
Therefore, brethren, when you hear the Lord say, “where I am, there My servant will be also,” do not imagine only good bishops and ministers. You also, according to your strength, serve Christ: by living piously, by giving alms, and by preaching His name and teaching as far as your strength permits.
Let every father of a household understand that this name of father obliges him to show fatherly love toward his family. For Christ’s sake and for eternal life, let him exhort all his household, instruct them, encourage and correct them. Let him show kindness and maintain order.
In this way he will fulfill an ecclesiastical ministry in his own house, and in a certain sense an episcopal one, serving Christ so as to abide with Him forever. Indeed, many among you have fulfilled the great service of martyrdom.
Many were not bishops or priests, but young men and maidens, old and young, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers of households. They served Christ, laid down their souls, accepted martyrdom, and received from the Father, who honored them, a most glorious crown.
THEOSIS