Humility personified
Jesus did not fit the Old Testament prophetic stereotype of the Messiah. There was nothing “kingly” or “royal” about Him. Paul reminds us that Jesus—the very Son of God—the pinnacle of perfection—“did not consider quality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Jesus didn’t come the way the expected a Messiah to arrive. As an infant born to peasant parents he had to walk everywhere, owned no property and seldom had two denarii to rub together.
But every word He spoke, every action He took, everything He did was to show us the Kingdom—to teach us about God—and to put us FIRST.
He told his disciples time and time again to “love one another,” but they still didn’t get the message that the coming Kingdom of God was not about power—not about being #1 and in charge.
It’s about servanthood…”taking a backseat”…putting others ahead of ourselves. It’s about being humble.
Humility is tricky.
The moment you being to consider yourself a “humble” person, you can be guaranteed you just feel off that bandwagon. So, we think of humility as an absence of pride. Yet, even in our attempt at being less “prideful,” we still focus on ourselves—on who or what we are or aren’t, what we should or shouldn’t be and what we have or haven’t done.
Humility is not about putting ourselves down, negating our accomplishments or shunning praise or compliments. That’s false humility. True humility is all about lifting others up–putting others first. If I am all about “me”—I’m selfish. If I am all about “YOU”—then I am humble. I am moving myself out of the spotlight…setting my needs and ambitions aside—to focus on YOU…on YOUR needs, YOUR hopes, YOUR dreams.
On the cross, the Lord of all creation—the very Creator Himself—was willing to set aside His divinity and die for every wrong think you and I have ever done! Jesus, the very Son of God, set aside all his miraculous powers…kept the angels from intervening…willingly accepted the lashes of the whips…the pain of the nails…the excruciating pain of the cross to say,
