Beacon Christian School in Lewiston, Idaho, celebrates a tradition each spring, and this year was no different. Students in grades three through eight attended an agape feast to celebrate the feast of the Passover.
To help set the scene, the room was darkened and lit only with oil lanterns. Fruit, bread, cheese, olives, hummus and juice adorned the lamp-lit table. Each seat was marked with the name of a disciple.
“We want to help students experience the Bible firsthand,” says Terry McGarvy, homeroom teacher for grades three through five.
This year’s agape feast focused on the ordinance of humility. Many believed that the reason Jesus washed the disciple’s feet was because they wore sandals on dusty roads and their feet were dirty. While this was true, there was a deeper meaning. The students were able to experience this lesson with the help of Dave Crockett, Lewiston Church pastor.
Crockett asked the students to try and imagine what was going through the minds of the disciples when Jesus knelt down and washed their feet. Because of the extraordinary circumstances at that moment, Jesus needed the disciples to realize that we have all come short. Crockett shared how Jesus’ actions had a greater effect on His disciples than anything He could have said to them that special night.
“Jesus wanted to be alone with the disciples in the upper room,” Crockett told the students. “The words spoken were given as final instructions to prepare them for His death and resurrection, events that would change their lives forever. Jesus was the model servant, and He showed His servant attitude to His disciples.”
As Crockett unfolded the scene from the Upper Room for the students, he shared with them that we wash feet today to remember we are all servants. If Jesus was willing to serve, we, His followers, must also be servants willing to serve in any way that glorifies God.
Sitting in the semidarkness, listening to Crockett, students learned how the ordinance of humility is a special time to search our hearts and make everything right with God and with everyone else. It is a time to put others before ourselves. It is a time to be humble and follow the example Jesus gave us and willingly serve others.
Sitting around a lamp-lit table, students experience the Passover feast firsthand.
Ian Schroetlin (left) and Dave Crockett, Lewiston Church pastor, share the ordinance of humility during the Passover celebration.
