Whenever we have trouble understanding some
facet of Christian life, it always behooves us to go straight to the source.
What can we learn about humility from Jesus? Obviously, the ultimate
demonstration of humility was Jesus’ incarnation itself. Jesus “although He existed in the form of God, did
not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking
the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men” (Phil.
2:6-7) We will never, not in millions of years, be able to really get our
minds around what it meant for the Creator to become small enough, concrete enough
to become the created. It’s impossible. It’s one of those things that can’t
happen, but did. Once upon a time, on a certain day, in a certain geographical
place, a newborn crinkled a damp face and made funny little squeaks and jerky
motions with tiny hands, as all newborns do, only this one was God.
How can we possibly relate to this? Well, we
could ask ourselves, when was the last time we stepped out of our comfort zone
and became something that felt somehow “less,” for the sake of someone else?
This is Lesson Number One
of five lessons: Humility is being willing to be smaller, less smart, less
able, less beautiful than we really are, so that someone else may be bigger,
smarter, capable, and beautiful.
As if that were not enough, the Creator then
lived three long decades, long after He became officially and legally a man and
a “son of Israel,” at home, “in subjection to” His parents.(Luke
2:51) We have just the one story, also there in Luke
2, of the time, at twelve, He began to grasp His identity and mission. He
asked His parents, “Didn’t you know I would be doing My Father’s business?” Was
this humble? It must have been, because then He went back home and back to
being a dutiful son.
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