Following Jesus: The path of humility

Yesterday I had to take my Sunday morning class down a path many of us fear to tread. I dreaded heading down its unfamiliar course, let alone leading my class there as well. With caution and trepidation, plus a little shame that I wasn’t more familiar with this particular route, we ventured into the unknown.

A week earlier, our class had come to a crossroads. One arrow pointed down an appealing looking path with the name of Pride. The other arrow pointed towards a seldom walked, somewhat overgrown path named Humility. As the previous week’s lesson had ended, we had seen Jesus walk down the Humility path, not only by washing the feet of His disciples but by the ultimate humiliation of leaving His position in heaven to come to earth and die on the cross as the perfect and final sacrifice for our sins. (See last week's blog "So What.") This week’s lesson picked up with us hearing Him say, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (John 13:14-15) The instructions were clear: we were to follow Him down this path called Humility.

The first few steps weren’t quite so bad. We could see various acts of service along both sides of the path – watching a friend’s kids, preparing a meal for those without, providing a place to stay for a friend from out of town. As women, further down the road, we saw many scenes along the way of the duties of motherhood, starting with birth itself. From there, the path – overgrown with weeds – became harder to navigate. A few hazy images of those who had submitted to the authority of one over them served to guide us along the way.

As we turned a sharp curve in the road, Jesus’ words echoed in our minds, “You should do as I have done for you.” Jesus didn’t merely serve; He didn’t only submit. He humbled Himself. To humble means to lower in rank or status. To continue down the Humility path, we were going to have to lower ourselves, just as Jesus lowered Himself by leaving heaven and becoming a man. By this point, few had trod this path; it was horribly overgrown. Almost no scenes along the way illustrated true humility for us. As we looked at our own lives, we saw the weeds and brush so overgrown that we couldn’t proceed any further. We pulled out our machete of prayer and the double-edged sword of God’s Word. The weeds tried to block our way down the Humility path; with agonizing swings of prayer and study, we begun to clear our path so we could continue our journey.

We realized towards the end of our time together that we wouldn’t reach the end of this path called Humility on this side of eternity. But when we do reach it, in all the glory and radiance of heaven, Jesus will be standing there, having finished the path ahead of us, with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” followed by, “He who humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 25:21, Luke 18:14).

It is a "great paradox in Christianity that it makes humility the avenue to glory."

(Easton's Bible Dictionary)

So What?

The Father put all things under Jesus' power. Jesus came from God; He returned to God. So what?

Jesus knowledge of these three things led Him to perform a revolutionary act. Did He overthrow the Roman government and establish a kingdom on earth? No. Did He use that authority to bind Satan and throw him in the lake of fire? No, but He’s going to do that someday. His knowledge of His power and His position led Him to wash the feet of His disciples.

What is the correlation? The IVP New Testament Commentary calls this passage of Scripture “an acted parable of the Lord’s humiliation unto death.” A parable uses a physical, earthly act or situation to teach a spiritual truth or lesson. Usually Jesus told parables verbally but in this case He acted it out. If you compare John 13:4,5, & 12 to Philippians 2:6-11 you can see, without any extra commentary, how Jesus physical act of washing the disciples’ feet compares to the truth of Him forsaking the glory of Heaven and humbling Himself by taking on the form of a man and coming to earth.

If Jesus’ act of washing the disciples’ feet is a picture of Him coming to earth to give His life as a sacrifice for our sins, then all of a sudden, you can see how His knowledge of His power and position correlates with His choice to pour Himself out that we might be saved. He was the only one who had the power and the position to save sinful man. Because of the love He had, like we talked about in the post, "Having Loved His Own", He humbled Himself unto death, even death on a cross.

Having Loved His Own...

John 13 begins a long conversation Jesus had with His disciples during His last Passover meal on earth; a meal Christians call the Last Supper. I am starting a new class on chapters 13-18 so you can look forward to many blog postings from these powerful last-minute instructions Jesus gave His disciples in the Upper Room.

Many, if not all, of us can look back at an event in our lives and realize it was the last time we did something significant. We might say things like, “That was the last Christmas I spent with my dad.” Or, “I didn’t know that would be the last time I would see my hometown.” Often, wishes of things we could still say to that person or do in that place accompany those comments. That’s not the case for our All-knowing Savior during this meal. Jesus knew everything was about to change. He would be hanging on a cross within hours and He had some important words to speak before it happened.

Jesus knew His time had come. Earlier in the book of John, Jesus time had not yet come. (See John 2:4, 7:30, and 8:20.) Now, it had. John 12:23-27 shows us the purpose for this hour. He had come to this hour to be lifted up, to die, and by so doing to be glorified. This process would also lead to Him leaving the world and returning to the Father, a key theme throughout these chapters.

The second half of the verse says, “Having loved His own…” Thayer's Lexicon says of the phrase His own, “pertaining to one’s self, one’s own, belonging to one’s self” as opposed to another, and, in this usage, it means one’s household, family, or company. (See also Acts 4:23, Acts 24:23, and 1 Timothy 5:8 where it is translated his people, friends, and relatives, respectively.) This phrase also has the idea of privacy or being set apart. In just those four little words, “having loved His own,” we see that we are His, part of His family, we are set apart, and He loves us.

The problem of our story comes in the next phrase. We, His Beloved, are in the world. He was leaving the world to go to the Father but we were staying here. Because of that great love, He couldn’t just leave that situation alone. He had to fix it. He did so by dying on the cross, enabling us to join Him with the Father in Heaven and thereby experience “the full extent of His love.”

How to Not Stink

I was riding in the car with my husband when the song “Come, Now is the Time to Worship” played on the radio. The song says someday every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord and every knee will bow before Him. The lyrics are based on Romans 14:11.

As I contemplated the lyrics, I said, “That stinks. That would just stink.” After my husband looked at me questioningly, I continued, “If every person will someday admit that Jesus is Lord, it would just stink to deny that now out of pride, arrogance, or stubbornness, only to admit it later when it is too late to reap the reward.”

John 13:3 says,

“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power,

and that He had come from God and was returning to God…”

The Father put all things under Jesus power.

For those of us who know Him now, what should be our response to His all encompassing power and authority? Scripture tells us four responses that Jesus’ power and authority should elicit.

Receive His gift of eternal life.

John 17:2 –

“For you granted Him (Jesus) authority over all people

that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him.”

Worship Him.

Daniel 7:13-14 –

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped Him.”

Tell the world.

Matthew 28:18-19 –

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Know Him.

Ephesians 1:18-21 –

“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know…His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given."

Have you received His gift of eternal life? It’s available for the asking to all who believe. If so, do you seek to know Him and worship Him? Do you share it with the world?