“The Son of Man came not to be served, but to SERVE,” Jesus tells us (Matt. 20:28, ESV). Note that here Jesus deliberately omits an object after the verb “serve,” apparently suggesting that He intends to serve all sentient beings, not just human beings. This interpretation is corroborated by the fact that Jesus was staunchly vegan, as we have previously established (see note 1), and that He died for the cause of animal liberation (Akers, 2020, pp. 113–134).
In this vein, Andrew Linzey argues that as “the inner logic of Christ's lordship is the sacrifice of the higher for the lower; not the reverse” (Linzey 1990, p. 115), that human beings are uniquely commissioned by God to become a SERVANT species in imitation of Jesus Christ and co-operate with God in healing and liberating animals (Linzey 1995, p.45).
As Christians, we are called to follow Jesus Christ’s vegan example and humbly serve our fellow creatures—other animals—rather than tyrannically abusing, exploiting, enslaving, raping, or murdering them.
Note
1. Jesus desires compassion, NOT sacrifice (Matthew 9:13; Panarion Book |I, 30.16.5; The Gospel of the Ebionites 22.4; Panarion Book I, 30.18.9); Jesus comes from a vegan family (Eusebius, Church History 2.23.5–6; Eisenman 2021:392); Jesus warns against flesh-eating (Luke 21:34, Evangelion Da-Mepharreshe — Old Syriac-Aramaic Manuscript of the NT Gospels; Gospel of Thomas, Saying 87); Jesus cares about animals (Mark 12:31; Genesis 1:20, 1:21, 1:24, 1:30, 9:4; Matthew 25:40; Matt. 21:1-7; Linzey 2010:60-61; Matt. 10:29; Luke 14:5); Jesus is in peaceable companionship with the wild animals (Mark 1:12-13).
Above all, Jesus died for animal liberation. In emptying the Temple of animals about to be slaughtered for sacrifice, and in calling the Temple-turned-butcher-shop "a den of murderers", quoting Jeremiah 7:11, Jesus debunked the fraudulent and evil nature of animal sacrifice, and disrupted the lucrative revenue stream of the chief priests and scribes, who immediately afterwards conspired to destroy Him (Mark 11:15-18), eventually leading to His arrest, trial, and crucifixion (Akers 2020). Full Text: https://www.hkbnews.net/post/jesus-is-staunchly-vegan-by-dr-chapman-chen
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