The Pierced Hands, Feet and Ears

In order to find the answers, we need to explore what Jesus meant when He gave us this command. How did He accomplish it? He not only taught through His words, but through His life of servitude. What was in it for Him? That is more difficult to answer, if not impossible to understand with our finite estimation. He allowed the ungrateful human race to ultimately reject Him by piercing His hands and feet and nailing them to the cross.

In Exodus 21, we find a law concerning servants: “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing” (verse 2, NKJV). If he was married after becoming a slave, he could go out as a free man on the seventh year, but he was unable to take his wife or children with him.

There was one way for him to stay with his family, however: “If the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him to the door, and his master shall pierce his ear; and he shall serve him forever” (verses 5–6).

This is precisely what Jesus did. While He could have remained in heaven without the ungrateful, undeserving human race, His actions inferred He’d rather be in hell with His children than to be in heaven without them. That is what led Jesus to come down to this earth to rescue us so that we may live in heaven together.

Are we prepared to serve our family, church and community so that we might enjoy heaven together? May the love of Christ permeate every fabric of our being, that we would become willing servants who love our Master, spouse and children