Back in November, I had the opportunity to go and see Rob Bell, the guy who does those Nooma videos (he’s also a pastor, speaker and author), speak at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square. What he talked about and explained was the idea of animal sacrifice that was so prevalent in Jewish culture and the problem it caused for the people.
See, the sacrifices were for cleansing the people from sin and guilt as well as receiving peace, blessing, good harvests and more. If you look in the book of Leviticus, specifically at the first few chapters, you will see that over and over and over again the people were expected to give offering after offering after offering in order to keep God’s blessing in their lives.
So, what did this communicate to the people? Well, for starters it communicated that they had to earn God’s favor and love. It also communicated this never ending cycle of cleansing and forgiveness. Let me put it this way, if we still operated under this law of needing animal sacrifice every time we sinned or disobeyed God, how often would we be sacrificing? I don’t think it would ever end.
On the flip side, if we had to sacrifice an animal or grain to earn God’s blessing or receive peace, we would constantly be stuck in this pattern of giving to keep God happy and pleased. When we would receive the blessing from God, we would have to give again to say thank you and then next time we’d have to give more in order to get the same effect. But if we didn’t receive the blessing, obviously something was wrong with our offering the first time so we would try again and give more to try to make things right.
Sacrifice was a time consuming and endless cycle that would never end in order to keep God happy. The people always had to give, and give more, as this ultimately became the reason that most of the people gave all together. Were they giving simply because they wanted to? Were they giving simply because they loved God? Well, maybe sometimes, but I think too many would have easily gotten caught up in this cycle of giving to keep God happy and to get what they wanted. What do you think about those motives? Obviously, they weren’t good.
The question that some of you may be thinking is what does the idea of animal sacrifice and creating this endless cycle of giving more and more have to do with serving one another? Well tonight the question that I want to focus on is why should we give or serve? I know if I threw that question out for you guys to answer we would hear answers like, we need to love our neighbors or because Jesus said to, and obviously there is truth to both of those responses but the answer to that question really travels a lot deeper than “because I said so.” To get to this deeper understanding about giving and serving lets open our Bibles to John 13:1-17.
***Read John 13:1-17***
Let’s take a second and set the scene for what we just read. When did this take place? Verse one tells us it was right before the Passover Celebration. We know from the accounts of this story in Matthew, Mark and Luke that this took place in a large upper room in a man’s home in Jerusalem. Who was at this dinner? Again, we know from verse one that Jesus was there with His disciples, which there is a huge significance to this that we will come back to in a minute.
So picture the scene we have in your minds. Jesus and his twelve disciples are in a large upper room about ready to have dinner. There would have been a low table in the center of the room with the thirteen men reclined on the floor sitting on bean bag-like chairs. I envision that the men would have been talking, laughing and simply enjoying being together. Though in the minds of two men, Judas and Jesus there was something much deeper going on.
Verse two tells us that, “It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.” Judas must have been filled with guilt and little nervousness; at least I know I would if I had been in his shoes. I think he would have put on the face of a happy disciple trying to hide what he was about to do. Jesus, on the other hand, knew exactly what was going on as he states to everyone in verse 11 that, “Not all of you are clean,” referring to Judas. Beyond that though, Jesus knew much more than simply the fact that Judas would betray Him, he knew what that betrayal would lead to. I think verse 3 is really significant to understanding what happens next. “Jesus knew that the Father had given Him authority over everything and that He had come from God and would return to God.” That’s really a powerful comment. Jesus knew three very important things: 1) God had given him authority over everything! 2) Jesus had come from God meaning that He was God’s Son, and 3) He knew He was going to die and return to God.
Now think about this for a second, if you were Jesus in this scene and you had authority over everything, you were God’s Son, and you knew what was about to happen and you knew the person sitting next to you was going to bring that about, what would you do? Honestly, if that were me, I would have used all that authority to kick Judas’ butt and put it all to an end. Thankfully, Jesus is not me though and he does something that has been talked about for generations. Verses 4-5 say, “So He got up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist, [which was the attire of a traditional slave] and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel He had around Him.”
This was just ground breaking stuff as Peter demonstrates in verse 6. “Lord, are You going to wash my feet?” See foot washing was a dirty thing because of walking around on dusty roads in sandals all the time. As I mentioned two weeks ago it talking about Mary washing the feet of Jesus with perfume, this was something the slaves would do. In fact, I found out this week that Jewish slaves weren’t even allowed to do this but only non-Jew or Gentile slaves. In other words only the lowest of the low were supposed to wash feet but yet here is Jesus, who has authority over everything, who is God incarnate, and knew that he was about to die and rise again, washing the feet of his disciples; including Judas! That is just an amazing act on Jesus’ part.
Now, as Jesus is doing this Peter eventually just flat out protests what is happening in verse 8. “You [Jesus! King! Lord!] will never ever wash my [a simple fisherman, a sinner, etc] feet!” Peter was very concerned with this scene taking place for social implications. Peter basically would have been saying, “This isn’t the way the world works! What are people going to say when they hear about this? What if someone sees?” His heart was in a good place as Jesus points out in verse 13 by sayings, “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’ and you are right, because that is what I am,” but Jesus has always had this habit of turning the norm and the culture on its head. In Mark 10:45 Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus goes on though and explains what it is he just did in verses 14-17. “Since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the One who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.”
“I have given you an example to follow!” Now obviously, Jesus didn’t mean for us to all be washing each others feet all the time, but what example was he setting? First, he set an example that we need to love and serve even our enemies and the people we can’t stand. In Matthew 5:43-44, Jesus said, “You have heard the law that says, ’Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! [Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you.] Pray for those who persecute you!”
Second, Jesus set the example that we need to serve regardless of what other people might think or despite what the cultural standards are. Sometimes were far to concerned about our reputations in the classroom, on the sports field, or among our peers to actually follow through with Jesus’ call to serve others. We need to not be afraid to take the lower roles instead of fighting for the top spots of worldly success and standing. We need to make it a priority to serve others because that is what Jesus modeled!
Philippians 2:5-11 said this about Jesus, “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated Him to the place of highest honor and gave Him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
So why should we serve? Going back to the whole idea about animal sacrifice, what is the reason that we don’t have to do that anymore? Because Jesus, as we mentioned earlier from the passage in John and this passage from Philippians references this as well, came and died as the ultimate, once and for all sacrifice for all our sins. Jesus gave up everything in order for us to have a relationship with Christ and have a home in heaven for eternity. Because Jesus gave up so much for us, we owe Him our lives, literally! I don’t know about you guys but the fact that Jesus gave up everything for me makes we want to do as much as I can for him, in a good way – not a guilty or a commanded way, but a desire because of love. And a big way to serve Jesus is to serve others.
In Matthew 25 Jesus tells as story about the end of the world where God will stand before his people and say, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed Me. I was thirsty, and you gave Me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited Me into your home. I was naked, and you gave Me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for Me. I was in prison, and you visited Me.”
The people respond by asking when they did any of that for Him; they are a little confused. But God says, “I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these My brothers and sisters, you were doing it to Me!” That’s powerful! That means when we serve at Bridgeport, when you help your parents, when you do things like the 30 Hour Famine you not only are helping other people but you are directly serving God! But that also means when you pass up an opportunity to serve, you pass right by Jesus like he was a beggar on the side of the road you never even noticed!
As I have said many times before, God has decided to work in this world through His people and we have a lot of responsibility on our shoulders. We are called to something so much bigger than just ourselves, those of us in this room, even than just our country. We are called to a global mission of serving and taking care of one another and responding to the gift of life and relationship that Jesus gave to us!
