Faithful Servanthood

Saint Alphonso

We recently were in a staff meeting with another CBN office and the Director of said office was asked to share what God had laid upon his heart. 

He went on to share about and describe the life of a man named Alphonsus Rodriguez (or Saint Alphonso). Rodriguez ended up as a simple doorkeeper in a monastery, where his sole responsibility was to interact with the public as a representative of the monastery to the outside world.   

Though a humble role, the influence and legacy that Rodrieguez had and left behind as a doorkeeper/Porter was vast. He may not have written any books for the world to remember him by but his imprint on the lives that he touched were where his impact can be seen. 

It is said that, each time the bell rang, Alphonsus glanced to the door and pictured God standing on the other side, wanting to come in. This no doubt influenced how he treated each individual he came into contact with at the door and shaped the positive legacy he left behind. 

Likes, Followers and Clicks

The context with which this man’s story was brought to us was ‘abiding’. 

John 15:4 NIV says this: 

‘Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.’ 

Perhaps there is something about abiding in Christ that leads to a fruitful life? But maybe not in the way the world would quantify fruitfulness. 

Fruitfulness in our current world and culture looks like fame, renown, wealth and social media followers.  

Fruitfulness in the kingdom of God is much less external and far more internal. Character and integrity are of greater value in God’s economy than money, possessions and followers. 

The Greatest Example

Jesus himself modelled this kind of life more than any person to have ever walked the earth. Though deity, He took on the lowly position of a servant throughout His life on earth.  

Perhaps one of the most beautiful examples of Jesus’s acts of servanthood is found in the gospel account of John: 

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 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 NIV) 

There is something about the fact that the towel Jesus used to dry His disciple’s feet came from around his own waist shows just how ‘shirt off my back’ Jesus’s servanthood could be.  

This is our example, friends!  

Whenever we find ourselves thinking too much of ourselves, that a task is beneath us or too ‘messy’, may we always remember the humble example of our Saviour. He stooped to wash His disciple’s feet, each one, despite the mess and the smell. Nothing was beneath Jesus, even though He was the King of Kings.  

May we always develop the inner qualities of consistency, humility and servanthood.  

May we never consider another person below us or any task too meagre.  

May we look to abide in Jesus, remember the example He set and allow Him to cultivate the noble qualities of a quiet and fruitful life in us.

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