LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Hebrew Servant
A servant enters to serve in the house of a master. His commitment is to serve his master for six years and on the seventh be set free. But in the course of those years, the master gives him a woman, whom he marries and with whom he has children. Love captivates him; ties are reinforced; the servant’s heart overflows in affection towards his wife and small children. Soon the seventh year approaches. The law is in his favor; he has the freedom to go, but he must go alone. He entered alone; he must leave alone.
He can obtain his freedom but in exchange for his loneliness. What will he do? For him, now, there is no doubt. Although others may not understand and may think he is mad, he leans towards those he loves. Then he says, “I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not be set free.” He lets his master know, who in accordance with the law, takes him to the judges, makes him stand next to the door post and pierces his ear with a lancet declaring him his servant forever.
A free man makes himself a slave for love. A free man, who worked six years in sweet servitude for a loving master turns himself into a perpetual servant.
Can you recognize this servant? This excellent servant, who was made a slave for love after leaving his father’s glory, who though he was in the form of God, emptied himself by taking the form of a servant and did everything he had to do to become a man.
Jesus so loved the wife that God gave him– the Church– that he agreed to assume servitude and bear in his body of flesh the scars forever. His existence in the Father’s throne will be subject to his form of a man for all ages and in his ear– so to speak– is the mark of the lance that pierced him in the cross of Calvary.
He was the one who best said those words, "I love my Lord, my wife and my children, I will not be set free." Oh, what true love! Oh, and what a cruel martyrdom he suffered because of his noble affections!