Being Jesus' Hands and Feet: Reflecting Christ in the Everyday
We are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
You hear the phrase tossed around in Christian conversations, used in the captions of instagram posts, written in the lines of a worship song.
But the phrase itself is not actually found in the pages of Scripture.
SO WHERE DID WE GET THIS PHRASE?
We extrapolated it from a collection of verses in Scripture, using it as a summary or symbolic representation of the behaviors that ought to define a follower of Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:27 → where we are described as being of the body of Christ.
Matthew 25:35-40 → where Jesus stated “when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me.”
James 2:14-27 → which speaks to the dead nature of a faith without works
1 John 3:18 → that calls us to love, not just with words, but with actions and truth
Ephesians 2:10 → speaking to the good works we were created for in Christ
And on, and on… you get the picture.
The Bible is not short on passages, parables, and stories that speak to the hospitality, charity, ministry, and generosity that should - along with many other attributes - be found in the actions of a Christian.
They are the natural outpouring of a life transformed. They are the evidence of true conversion. They speak to the genuine nature of one’s faith.
We are called to be like Jesus, to follow the example set forth by Him. Therefore, we are also called to minister as He did on earth, to be His hands and feet though He is no longer with us.
WHAT IS THE SYMBOLISM?
The hands are the instruments of our good works. They allow us to serve, tend to, love upon, support, and sustain those we connect with - both Christian and not.
The feet are our means of travel. They allow us to move according to the will of God, to bring the Gospel to the corners of the earth, and to go where we are called.
Both being dependent on one another for the full work to be complete.
WHAT DOES BEING JESUS' HANDS AND FEET LOOK LIKE?
I think naturally what immediately comes to mind is pictures of missions both local and abroad.
People providing food for the hungry. People providing shelter for the exposed. People providing the Gospel to the lost.
And in this it is easy to forget that this calling, this command of Scripture, is not reserved for those engaged in missions work.
It is a call for all Christians, who are on mission for Christ in every community, field, and capacity, to live daily life according to the example set by Christ.
To live every day with the mission to embody the person of Christ - acting according to His commands, obeying His callings, and living in His will.
Which sounds easy and inspiring until you really consider the life of Christ.
His hands performed amazing miracles, yes. His hands provided healing to the sick and provided for the poor. They were laid upon friends and followers.
But, His hands also touched the outcasts, the unclean, and the banished.
His hands ate at tables no religious leader would have dared to be found.
His hands showed mercy to sinners who were ridiculed by the “righteous.”
His hands flipped tables when God, His Father, was mocked and disrespected.
His hands were stretched wide upon a tree, broken by nails pounded into flesh, and bore the weight of His body as He died.
His feet took Him to call His disciples. His feet took Him to places of solitude with His Father where He could find rest and spiritual replenishment. His feet took Him to places where He was praised, thanked, and proclaimed to be who He said He was: God.
But His feet also took Him to the desert to be tempted.
His feet took Him to places considered unholy, full of sinners, and inhabited by people God could never call to be His own.
His feet took Him to places where He was ridiculed, mocked, and where His life was in danger.
His feet took Him to Jerusalem where He would be beaten and placed on a cross with nails pounded into flesh, bearing the weight of His body as He died.
Not a death that was deserved, but to be a substitute for another who deserved death.
The ministry of Christ was riddled with interruptions, inconveniences, burdens, hardship, and pain.
It was a ministry that required great compassion, humility, and sacrifice.
To be the hands and feet of Jesus requires great compassion, humility, and sacrifice.
And this reflection begs the question: “Am I living a life like this?”
3 OF THE BIG ROADBLOCKS
I think it is easier to be the hands and feet of Jesus on a mission trip where time has been set aside to focus specifically on going and doing in the name of Jesus.
Where things get tricky, in my opinion, is when we realize we are living in a ministry of ordinary daily living where we are also called upon to be the hands and feet of Jesus. This is for many reasons, and I do not have the capacity to delve into all of them, but here are the big 3 that I have seen in my life and feel are likely common:
TIME.
Not that we do not have the time, but that we have prioritized our time wrongly. We pack our schedules and run from one event to another - but this leaves very little time for the interruptions, the inconveniences, the burdens of others. Instead, it leads to frustration if we must pause our hurried life to be the hands and feet. This is not to say that getting involved is bad, but as John Comer says in “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (highly recommended by the way),” “Every yes is a thousand nos. Every activity we give our time to is a thousand activities we can’t give our time to.” Which means we need to learn to slow and simplify if we want to have time to daily, in our ordinary lives, be the hands and feet of Jesus. Because we cannot have more time - this is not a possible solution - we can only make adjustments to the spending of the time we have been given. Hurry impedes the work of Christ. Hurry does not leave time for interruptions, inconveniences, or compassion. Hurry does not leave time for love.
PRIDE
Jesus, though God, willingly made Himself nothing, taking on the form and limitations of a man, so that by His living a perfect life and dying a substitutionary death, He could make a way for us to be saved - a position we could never earn by our own merit. He was God, and yet He ate with sinners. He was God, and yet He knelt in the dust. He was God, and yet He washed His disciples feet. He was God and yet He showed compassion to the sufferings of man. He was God, and yet He allowed man to nail Him to a cross, mock Him, and scorn His name so that those same men might have the chance to be saved. And yet I, a sinful man, struggle to interact with those who have hurt me, who are seen as outcasts and may ruin my image, who are unclean and living in their hurt and sin. I wonder why I have to do the "dirty work,” why I have to “swallow my pride,” and why “them,” - why? Because I am a follower of Jesus. These responses may be a natural part of the flesh, a part of being man, but to minister like Jesus necessitates humility. It is a ministry that seeks out the sick, the broken, the hurting, the sinner, not one that only surrounds itself with the righteous and redeemed. It is a ministry that focuses on what God the Father thinks of us, not what another man might think as we act out God’s will in our community.
SELFISHNESS
It is not natural for us to seek out hardship, suffering, or difficulty. It is not natural for us to put the needs of another first - requiring us to set aside our timeline, our wants, our image, our desires. Yet we see Christ giving up time, giving up solitude, giving up comfort, giving up status, giving up even His life during His ministry on earth. His eyes were constantly looking up (spending time with His Father and living in obedience to His commands and will) and out (at those around Him who needed His presence).
At their core these three do not allow for a Jesus - like ministry.
SO, WHAT CAN WE DO?
I think we first must recognize the contrasting pull of our flesh and the Spirit. So much of what is innate for man, is contradictory to the walk of Jesus.
We are hurried, He is intentional and slow.
We are prideful, He is full of humility.
We are selfish, He is selfless.
Then by prayer and careful attention, we must work with the Lord to address these and other obstacles that impede us from the daily work of being Jesus’ hands and feet.
We must create time in our schedules to be inconvenienced, interrupted, and burdened.
We must be focused on eternity, rather than our image and accolades in the present.
We must turn our gaze outward, to see the needs of others with a heart ready to help.
We must remember that to truly be the hands and feet of Jesus will feel like sacrifice - because it often is. It is a sacrifice of time, effort, pleasure, schedules, accolades, image, etc.
Oh, but how great the reward when you arrive in heaven to hear “Well done my good and faithful servant."
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