OK, Raise your hand if you’re
prideful…. Don’t worry. I’m not the most humble
man on the face of the earth either. I have my moments,
but they are few and far between. I had one of those
moments this morning, and I figured on sharing it
with all those prideful souls out there who might
benefit from it… If you’re a really, really, reeeeaaaalllly
humble person…. Don’t read this, but write to me
and tell me how you do it…
"Who, being in very nature God,
Did not consider equality with God something to
be grasped
But made himself nothing,
Taking the very nature of a servant,
Being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man
He humbled himself and became obedient to death
– even death on a cross!"
(Philippians 2:6-8)
Wait a second… Did you catch that?!… “Being in very
nature GOD!!!…” He said that Jesus was in his very
nature The Sovereign LORD, our God... We're talking
Jehovah Jaire (Hebrew for "God, my provider") YHWH
Saboath (Hebrew for "God of Armies"), The Almighty
One, He who was, is and forever will be the Great
I AM, The Big Guy, He who marshals the storm clouds...
GOD HIMSELF!!! Jesus was equal with that... Do you
buy that?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning” (John 1:1-2)
Jesus was with God from the moment God conceived
of creation. The moment that God’s own voice rang
out “Let there be light!” (Gen 1) Jesus Christ was
there... he WAS those words!!! Jesus saw and heard
many things while standing at the feet of the Almighty.
He watched as Adam and Eve were cast out of perfect
Eden, He saw the world become so evil that His Father
would have to destroy it in a flood. He witnessed
as Lot was corrupted by Sodom, and he listened as
Abraham bargained for the life of his cousin. He
watched as Abraham was just about to sacrifice his
only son, probably taking note of his Father's willingness
to provide a sacrifice in Isaac'a stead. He watched
Jacob cheat his brother out of his birthright, saw
Joseph sold into slavery only to save his treacherous
brothers’ lives from utter starvation. He witnessed
the children of Israel grow into a mighty nation,
oppressed by the Egyptians and their Pharaoh. He
ordered Israel’s deliverer (Moses) to “Take off
your sandals, for this is holy ground” He was the
very "word" emanating from the burning bush! Again
he saw man’s wickedness in the form of a golden
calf, he watched as again and again the Hebrew people
betrayed His Father. He watched as Father gave them
chance upon chance to change their ways, and prophet
after prophet and deliverer after deliverer to free
them from the oppression their sin brought on them;
knowing that every time they were given another
chance they would find another way to mess it up.
He watched Saul chase David through the desert,
and bestowed upon Solomon his wisdom. He wept as
Israel was given over to the Babylonians, then the
Assyrians, then the Romans. And when the appointed
time had come, He willingly gave up his ringside
seat to the greatest story ever told. He quit his
job, sold his house and became the first mission
team, Battlefield: Earth. Forgetting his status
as The Divine, he did not even consider equality
with God something to be grasped…
“Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and
he will at once put at my disposal twelve legions
of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be
fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”
(Matthew 26:53-54)
Though Jesus had the option to skip the Cross, he
did not. Though he had the power to heal his own
pain he didn’t, though he had the strength to shatter
the very wood he was fixed to and melt the very
nails that held his cold wrists and ankles to the
dead wood… there he hung! He knew that it was all
absolutely necessary; there were no shortcuts in
God’s plans. How humiliating it must have been for
the King of Kings to become nothing, taking the
very nature of a servant…
“[For] the son of man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for
many.” Matthew 20:28
Imagine, if you will, the most unclean, vile and
disgusting animal you have ever known… (it’s probably
an opossum if you’ve ever seen one close enough…)
How about a snake, crawling on it’s belly everywhere
it goes? Or a dog, returning to its own vomit for
a mid-day snack… now imagine your own mind and soul
being transplanted into that animal. You have the
mind to recite Shakespeare, but you have only the
snake’s his with which to recite it. Though you
long to warn someone that they’re just about to
get hit by a car, but you can only bark in hopes
that someone will heed your warnings - for a dog
has no way of expressing it's deepest thoughts to
the other dogs, nor can a snake communicate it’s
innermost feelings to other snakes. Now, add to
this insult the fact that your only company in this
misery is that of the other snakes, who all think
that you're the weird one... The only fellowship
you can find is with other dogs, who don’t even
have the slightest clue that you are truly a man
in a dog's form... Scary thought, isn't it?
Yet the gap between a man and an opossum is nothing
when compared to the immense gap between the immortal,
omni powerful God and mortal, powerless men. How
often does Christ long to show us the way, yet we
are “Ever hearing, but never understanding,” How
difficult it must have been for Jesus to compress
the knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven
into a short story, for neither did his audience
have the capacity to understand such things, nor
did the limitations of his physical body allow him
to divulge such truths. This was not merely a mission
of instruction, to teach those lost how to beat
the system and get to heaven. It was much more than
a mission of correction. The only way that man could
learn was someone showed him what to do, and after
having done it perfectly, how to lose everything
so that someone else would have a chance at that
perfection. Christ’ mission was to lay down his
own life, and his own body, as a bridge over the
moat that sin had thoroughly dug between creation
and her Creator. This was to be the model of generations
to come. For the call of Christianity has always
been the same:
“If anyone who would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
(Luke 9:23)
The story does not end there, to those who would
take Jesus challenge “Even greater things than
these” could be accomplished, there was a “life
to the full” to be lived and then when that is through
the story still is all but over… “To him who overcomes
I will give the right to sit with me on my throne,
just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on
His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear”
(Revelation 3:21-22)
But before this could be accomplished, Jesus'
example demands that we crucify our sinful selves,
before it is too late.
Humility of this type is exceedingly difficult to
master, especially for those who need to master
it most. Pride is such that, the more prideful you
are, the harder it is to change, and the less prideful
you are, the easier it is to be humble. So it happens
that, the worse you are, the more you need to change,
and the less you are able to do so. Only a perfectly
humble man can ever repent perfectly, and he does
not need to repent in the first place. So how can
we who are prideful ever hope to please our God?
Only with God's own help, obviously! Think of it
this way: As a child, you learned to write because
someone held your hand and wrote for you, someone
who knew beforehand just how to write the letters
that you were in need of learning... If someone
who could write the letters perfectly helped you,
you could learn, eventually, to write in the same
manner as them... If someone who was perfectly humble
and didn't need to obey, because he was already
perfect, showed us how to obey, wouldn't that help
you, through imitation, to emulate that humble obedience.
Jesus was perfect, so he didn't need to change at
all, but he showed us how to, because he was the
only one who really could.
There have been many times when I believe that I
deserve one thing or another, or that someone should
listen to me because I know one thing or another;
or that I should be in control of one thing or another.
Yet when I see a picture of Him who DID deserve
to be treated as God being treated as a common criminal;
When I hear the Words of him who DID know creation
before it had even been created and yet was ignored
by his own neighbors and mocked by those who he
healed; When I read how Jesus was in complete control
of the entire universe, yet willingly relinquished
his life to men who would beat him and hang him
from a tree… It is then when I am amazed at what
very little I have to be proud of, and how very
ungrateful I can really be.
Grace and peace
- Abram
|
