In the Bible, we read stories and examples of people serving. There’s obviously Jesus—the biggest server of them all—but there’s also David, Paul, Rahab, Mary and Martha, Moses, and hundreds more! These people served both God and people.

Fun fact: serving is mentioned in the Bible over 3,000 times.

That’s more than heaven or hell, more than the phrase ‘do not be afraid‘ (which is said 365 times), and it probably rivals the amount of times that love mentioned in the Bible.

So clearly we can see that serving is one of God’s priorities. Of course, his main one is love, but serving comes hand in hand with love. If you claim to love but you don’t serve in some way, shape, or form, then what are you doing?! What is this love you claim to have?

Love moves you to get down from the pedestal and to serve others. To get on the ground with the homeless, to cry with the poor, to hurt with the oppressed.

There’s a modern-day artist named Timothy Schmalz. He is a Canadian sculptor and he makes these life-size statues and sculptures that seriously blow me away.

Here are some examples. I want you to look at them and then see what might be so special about these.

These images are five different sculptures by Mr. Schmalz. Before I tell you what they are all about, I want to tell you the names of each one.

The first one is called When I Was In Prison, the second called When I Was Hungry and Thirsty, the third is When I Was A Stranger, the fourth is When I Was Sick, and the fifth is When I Was Naked.

Now, I understand that it’s a bit hard to see the details on the sculptures due to the fact that a) it’s pictures on a screen and b) you can’t move around or get closer or change your angle. But I want you to look at the hands of each figure closely.

You see what I’m pointing out?

The hands of Prison, Hungry and Thirsty, and Sick have holes in the palm. As for When I Was A Stranger, we cannot see it up close. But I can imagine that either the hands or feet have holes in them as well.

You know who this is, right?

It’s Jesus.

These sculptures are a part of Timothy Schmalz’s Matthew 25 series, based on these verses: ‘Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I [Jesus] was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ (Matthew 25:34-36 NIV)

There’s another sculpture—not a part of the Matthew 25 series but created by Schmalz—that is titled Homeless Jesus.

(This specific sculpture is actually all over the world which I think is really cool.)

You don’t see a distinct face on any of these sculptures, but we can know who it is. The holes in the hands and feet (John 20:24-25) tell us that this is supposed to be Jesus.

Why is he homeless, hungry, naked, sick, a stranger, and in prison? Because we are called to see Jesus in all those who we would neglect. They were created in God’s image and Jesus insists that if we love them, we are loving him.

We are called to serve others. That is a well-known fact. But we forget that we’re not just serving others, we are serving God.

I personally find that I serve not because people are made in the image of God, but because I need to or feel obligated to. But I’m trying to change my perspective and lean it to what the Bible calls us to do instead of what society calls us to do.

So—how can you serve others in some way this week?

I hope you enjoyed this post, thanks for reading. Have a great day!
~Willow