To serve as Jesus served, requires commitment

In 1986, I went on my first mission trip and it was to Romeo, MI where we worked with a small church that was struggling, but wanted to reach their community. It was then that I got the vision that the church needed to be externally focused. It wasn’t until 8 years later that I really understood how to lead a church to be externally focused and began to hone my skills and talents for the task that we are involved in today.

I didn’t know 21 years ago that I would planting a church and that what I have been committed to for these past years was a term that has been around for over 100 years. That is the term missional. Over the past two years the term missional has been re-surfacing in Christian circles, especially among church planters.

I believe in the human spiritual DNA, there is a desire to serve others. According to a study by Independent Sector, 83.9 million American adults volunteer, representing the equivalent of over 9 million full-time employees at a value of $239 billion.

The majority of people serve because they see a physical need. Missional people serve because they see the physical and spiritual need.

Some of you have never been involved with a church that focuses on serving unselfishly. You have attended church that focuses on church not on people. I would venture to say that many of you are searching for the purpose of life. You really don’t know why you are here or what you are supposed to be doing

The night of Jesus’ arrest he does the unthinkable, he washes his followers feet. This story makes a lot of people uncomfortable, including me. This is one of those passages you look at and think, o.k. that was nice, but I ‘m not washing anyone’s feet! We try to rationalize and explain it away, but we can’t.

John records what we know as the Last Supper. Jesus and his disciples are eating a Passover meal in remembrance of the Israelites release from Egyptian bondage. Specifically, how God protected the Israelites from the plaques of death on the first born child of every family living in Egypt.

Verse one clearly outlines why Jesus is about to do what he does, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.” This is what serving others is about, showing people the full extent of God’s love. Jesus interrupts the meal by getting up and taking a wash-basin of water, removing his puter clothing and wrapping a towel around himself. When he does this he is adopting the posture of a slave. He then begins washing his disciples feet.

Foot washing was commonplace in first century culture. Foot washing happens as a ritual of daily cleansing, as a religious act, or as a token of hospitality when someone entered your home. This ritual is foreign to our culture, but it wasn’t to Jesus or his followers. The task of foot washing was so menial that according to some Jewish sources, Jewish slaves were exempt and the job kept for Gentiles. It was a lowly and degrading task. This act by Jesus was powerful not because of the foot washing itself, but because of the role he was assuming by doing it.

Jesus is not giving the disciples a lesson on humble service, but he is doing something that symbolizes the greater act of sacrifice on the cross. Jesus’ gesture is linked with his repeated teaching that he is a servant who embraces this unacceptable role. Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

To serve as Jesus served, requires commitment

If you haven’t gotten it yet, serving is about love.

Jesus only expects his disciples to wash someone else’s feet after they have been eashed themselves. To serve as Jesus served required humility. It requires sacrifice. It means taking the lesser role for the benefit of someone else. I make no apology in saying to you that the most important thing you’ll ever do with your life is serving God. It’s far more important than your career, it’s far more important than your hobbies, it’s even more important than everything else you can think of because they aren’t going to last. But this is. You were put here on earth to practice serving. God is calling some of your to take the next step to the next level in your spiritual journey of following Jesus. You have been on the sidelines and not involved in engaging the culture you live in.

What does serving others look like? Look at Jesus, it is shown in love.