Jesus the servant

It's Good Friday today and that means time for my annual Easter post. As I am sure I've said before, I hope this is decent and interesting, but it is God who ultimately brings people to Christ, not humans.

I've been doing a lot of pouring of tea and washing-up lately in connection with a major local event I am involved in over the Easter weekend. This has been hard work, but it has been worthwhile and indeed appreciated by many.

Indeed, the thought occurred to me about how they did the washing up in Jesus' time. Apparently involving a lot of sand. Clay pots didn't last very long either and were generally thrown away once broken or used as "scrap paper" for writing on. That is why we find a lot of bits of them on archaeological digs - the landfill of today is the museum piece of tomorrow. Especially with some of our forever plastics...

Jesus would have done the washing up - and a lot of manual work other too. He'd have swept the sawdust from his father's workshop, brought in the carts of wood required for his products and probably sharpened the tools as well. I'd be curious to see what a 1st century saw looked like and I might try to find out afterwards.

Jesus' final act of service before his arrest and crucifixion would have been the washing of the feet at the Last Supper. I imagine this was a task reserved for the lowest servants and slaves in Roman society. Also, you'd have seen some pretty nasty toenails in an era where steel-capped boots weren't really a thing. Yet, Jesus not only voluntarily chose to do this task, despite being master of ceremonies, indeed he actively stopped others from doing it. This was the living God reducing himself to menial status - just before he went even further.

It's this sort of attitude we should seek to emulate in our Christian life. Volunteering to put the chairs away or remove the rubbish from people's tables after the meal. Helping people take stuff out to their car. Even if they say they don't need your help, you'll feel better that you offered. Of course, one should not do something that you are completely unsuited for or which might actually cause you harm - God wants able servants, not injured ones.

If asked to do a task, you should generally accept unless you have a good reason not to. You may well moan under your breath, but remember that you were once reliant on people taking care of you... and will likely be again at some point in your future.

I will finish this post with a song we sing a lot at church.

I wish you and your loved ones all a Happy Easter.