The Humility of Jesus

Philippians 2:5-11

Message No. 0783 | Twitter @GodandUs | www.wisdom-speaks.ca

Preview

We are confronted daily by events that challenge our patience, and the way we respond to these events sometimes reveal our true selves. If you are highly placed in the society, you can be sure that your humility will be tested. When Jesus faced worse situations, the Bible says that He humbled Himself up to the point of death. This week, we examine the Humility of Jesus, and we encourage ourselves to imbibe the same culture. May the Lord bless you as you read.

Kindly share this message with friends and family by forwarding to them the email or the link to the blog. We write every week. If for some reason you miss the email for a particular week, please head to www.wisdom-speaks.ca/blog and you will find all the messages there. Happy reading and God bless you!

Text

I worked in a bank for more than a decade, and in my early days, I worked as a Teller. Anyone who has done this role will confess that it is tasking and highly demanding. You’ll meet different types of customers daily, some nice, and others not so nice. Most would just do their business and get out of the bank. These are the normal guys. Some, however, would complain and let you know how displeased they are with the services of the bank, especially if they have been in a line for a fairly long time. A few would raise their voices and create a scene in the banking hall. As a trained Teller, you must take it all in and remain calm, albeit this is much easier said than done.

Occasionally, some management staff of the bank work in the front office as Teller, just so they can have a feel of what the customers think about the bank, and this helps the bank to make changes if necessary. I heard the story of a day when it was the turn of such staff to play the Teller role. Then, he was confronted with one of the hard-to-please customers, who made a lot of noise and insulted the Teller, irrespective of how hard he tried to satisfy the customer. Eventually, the Teller left the cubicle and disappeared to the back office. Then, the customer ranted and demanded to see the branch manager. He was told to wait so they could check his availability, and after a while, was ushered into the manager’s office. Then the customer froze as he entered and discovered that the person he had yelled at outside was actually the manager of the branch.

Sometimes we are confronted with situations that challenge our patience and our statuses and are overtly disrespectful of our positions. Such situations are often insulting to us and very testing of our ability to restrain ourselves in the face of blatant attacks. But the ability to stay calm in such situations is vital, and often scarce. During the trial of Jesus, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, asked Him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus could have asked Pilate if he was daft as he should have been able to deduce His authority after hearing of His activities, but He didn’t ask such question. Rather, He simply said, “It is as you say.”

Jesus was not just humble in His response to Pilate, He completely put aside His powers and His ability to call fire (like Elijah) to consume Pilate and all of the Roman officials who interrogated Him. How dare the created interrogate his Creator. Peter was not so patient. When Malchus, the high priest’s servant accompanied the soldiers to arrest Jesus, the Bible says that he drew his sword and cut off the servant’s right ear. What an insult to want to arrest the Savior, Peter must have thought. It was the same Jesus who rebuked Peter and took the ear that was cut off and pasted it back to the servant.

The way Jesus surrendered Himself to be persecuted and prosecuted was previously unheard of. Paul tried to put Jesus’ actions into words in his letter to the church in Philippi. In chapter 2 verses 5-8, Paul wrote:

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Jesus humbled and surrendered Himself even when He knew that He was going to be crucified in the most horrible way possible. He endured the insult, the disrespect and the pain, all because He had a mission to save you and I. In this, He laid down for us an example that we are all expected to follow. We will all be confronted with situations that test our patience. But the ways we respond to these situations often show our true selves.

The branch manager in our opening example could have retorted to the customer and asked, “Do you know who I am?’ but he didn’t do that. Instead, he retreated quietly to his office, until the trouble-making customer reduced himself to nothing at the discovery of who he had been yelling at. Sometimes we do not need to announce ourselves. We are not our own defenders, Jesus is. When we know and trust that the battle is not ours, we need to always surrender all situations to the One who is able to fight for us. This is the state we get to and truly hold our peace.

What to Do?

Stop trying to prove that you are somebody. In the face of every attack, always remain humble and commit it all to your never-failing Defender.