Month: January 2017

Pastor B MS Leaders, Oakwood, Parent Cue, Winter

Why Did Jesus Wash Feet???

Exerpt from the Article – The Creator On His Knees (Maundy Thursday)

Thumb author tony reinke

Article by

Tony Reinke

 Staff writer, desiringGod.org

The Passage We Are Munching On this Week

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Why Did Jesus Wash Feet???

We are asking that question due to the fact that Jesus literally washed feet.  If we are to literally follow in His footsteps, we might have the grand idea to start some sort of Mani-Pedi business for the Glory of God!  However, any educated person will soon realize that the act of washing the feet is an example. Jesus clearly wanted his Disciples within the account of John 13 and now the Disciples in our present time to take away more than just the act of washing stinky feet of those that didn’t really want to have their feet washed by the TEACHER.

AHHHHH, TEACHER!  Now, that sounds like a verbal cue that we can work with!  That is why we keep coming back to the Word of God and keep learning.  We know that Jesus is still teaching us today and had way deeper implications to his actions than the common, literal approach.

I really like what Tom Reinke’s Article says about the connection between Slaves and Foot Washing that ties in a deeper understanding that Jesus may have been teaching by His actions, leading to the Cross. (read Tom Reinke’s full article here)

Slaves and Foot Washing

For the sandal-wearing disciples, washing feet was a common cultural practice. It was proper hospitality to offer your guests a basin of water for their feet. But guests were usually expected to wash their own feet. Washing the dirt off someone else’s feet was a task reserved for only the lowest ranking Gentile servants, and Jewish slaves were often exempted from this duty. In a household without slaves, everyone washed his or her own feet.1

Yet Jesus willingly dropped to his knees in the position of this extra-lowly slave to wash the disciples’ feet in John 13:1–20. The disciples were immediately shocked, and it seems, embarrassed by this act of humility. But their surprise should be no surprise to us. “There is no instance in either Jewish or Greco-Roman sources of a superior washing the feet of an inferior.”2 And this was the Creator of the universe on his knees washing the dirt from the callused feet of his followers!

When Simon Peter refused to have his feet washed, Jesus said, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand” (John 13:7). Whatever the meaning of the foot washing, it was not immediately evident to the disciples. The washing provided an example of love towards one another (John 13:12–17), but it also forecasted something.

Hold that thought for one moment.

Slaves and Crucifixion

If foot washing was the task of the lowest slave, public crucifixion was a unique threat to the slave class. With few exceptions, Roman citizens and the upper classes were spared from crucifixion. Slaves were especially vulnerable.

Crucifixion was a public tool to discourage dishonesty, retaliation, and rebellion among the slave class.3 In 71 B.C., after a slave rebellion was suppressed in Spartacus, over 6,000 slaves were crucified together along the Via Appia between Capua and Rome.4 In other instances, if one slave was caught breaking the law, the entire slave community within a single household could be rounded up and crucified together, irrespective of individual guilt.5

So while the brutal punishment of crucifixion was used for dangerous criminals and for political insurrectionists (of which Jesus was accused), it was especially used to intimidate the slave class. Public crucifixions kept slaves in line. So much so that crucifixion eventually became known by a convenient circumlocution, “the slaves’ punishment.”

Slavery and crucifixion merged in the social consciousness, writes one author:

It is hardly an accident that crucifixion, the most dishonorable form of public humiliation that socially conscious Roman elites could employ in their efforts to punish and discourage rebellion among the lower classes, was so closely associated with slavery, the lowest class in the stratified social world of Roman antiquity. The juxtaposition of the two ideas — σταυρός [cross] and δούλος [slave] — served to compound the social stigma associated with both slavery and crucifixion in the ancient world and thereby to reinforce in the public arena the social hierarchy that served the interests of the dominant culture.6

Think Deeper and Look broader

Taking this view, we can look at what we are munching on and think with a broader view.

If Jesus, our Lord and Savior, has stepped down to the lowest place as that of a slave or servant, then we ought to step down to the lowest place as a slave or servant to Jesus Christ and serve others. 

This is is the challenge in our own lives.  As Jesus asked His Disciples to follow His example in John 13, He also calls us to do the same.  Why did Jesus wash feet?  To show us how to live a life that invites the Kingdom of God to come in our own lives and let the Father’s will be done in our present time.

Pastor B Oakwood, Parent Cue, Winter

Leading Your Kids To Serve – Parent Cue

Leading Your Kids to Serve

by | Nov 4, 2016 | ,

kidsserve

I grew up hating church. I didn’t have any theological problems with church, I was just bored. Sitting still for more than ten minutes was torture, and sometimes our services went on for two hours! The worst part is that my dad was the pastor, so we were there every time the door was open. And the door was open a lot: Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.

Sometimes we had “revivals” (which I assumed was a Greek word for “torture young children”) It meant going to a church service every night of the week. My number one goal was to grow up and not go to church. My number two goal was to be an astronaut, but I figured that would get me out of church as well.

Several decades later, and I still attend church almost every weekend. How did I wind up right back at the place I loathed? There are a few reasons:

One is a strong conviction that, as flawed as it is, the local church is the hope of the world.

Another reason I never left the church is that something changed in me between elementary school and when I left for college.

My attention span didn’t increase; I still struggle to sit still for more than ten minutes. The big change for me was that in middle school, I began serving in the church; I joined the children’s ministry puppet team.

For the first time church wasn’t something I watched, it was something I did. I was part of a team, and we enjoyed what we did. Eventually, I became a leader in the student ministry. And by the time I graduated from high school, I was speaking on a regular basis at our weekly high school gatherings.

Serving transformed me from a reluctant spectator to an engaged participant. 36 years later, and I’m still committed to the local church.

I saw the same pattern in my own kids. When they were young, we had to drag them to church. But in middle school, when they began to serve, their attitudes changed. By the time they graduated from high school, they were each spending more time serving at church than my wife and me, and we were both on the church staff. Today each of them serve full time at their local church.

As a parent, one of the biggest things you can do to help your children connect with God and with the local church is to model and encourage a lifestyle of serving. Here are a few ideas how to get started:

Find serving opportunities as soon as possible

It is never too early to sow the seeds of a servant’s attitude in the hearts of your children. Reward them when they help pick up the toys at home. Encourage them to offer to help their teacher clean up when class is over at church. Always look for ways they can begin serving others.

Invite your children to serve with you

Volunteer to serve regularly in their class at church, and invite them to help you. They can help pick up toys, hand snacks, and clean up when the other kids are gone. If you serve in a younger class, invite your older kids to help.

Help them find a place to serve on their own

When my daughter was in middle school, she began teaching herself to play the guitar. It quickly became apparent she had a lot of natural ability, but she was too shy to ask if she could play in the middle school band. I talked the youth pastor into inviting her to play, and that opportunity still shapes how she serves. There are many places in your church where your middle school kids can serve; children’s ministry, greeters, ushers, musicians, vocalists are just a few. Don’t be shy about asking adult leaders how they can involve your kids in serving.

Make serving a part of the rhythm of your house

One of the reasons I began serving in church is it was just a regular part of who we were as a family. My dad, my mom, my brothers and my sister all served in the local church, and serving took the highest priority.

As you look at your family schedule and all the activities you juggle on a weekly basis, which are most likely to have a long term impact on the spiritual development of your children? Baseball? Cheerleading? Chemistry homework? Learning a lifetime of serving others?

I believe, and have seen in my own family, few things in life have a more positive impact than learning to serve.