THE HUMILITY OF JESUS
Lent exposes my lack of humility, as any effort toward repentance does. I don’t want to admit my dependencies. I don’t want to hold my tongue. I don’t want to contemplate my selfish habits. Yet in the quietness of Lent, all these things come to the surface.
The 40 days of Lent parallels the 40 days that Jesus went without food in the wilderness. So one of the ways we identify with Jesus’ suffering is by giving up things. Whether its food or TV or gossip, we deny ourselves particular comforts and pleasures as a way of remembering what he endured.
Of course, our little sacrifices are symbolic at best of what Jesus surrender on our behalf. He gave up far more than food. He gave up his life. And still more than that, he gave up his seat at the right hand of God and condescended to become a man.
This is Jesus’ humility: He had nothing to gain; yet he gave up all he had.
I don’t know about you, but when I compare my life to this kind of humility, I see how self-protecting and self-promoting I can be. And this is why repentance begins with humility: Because even my repentance can be motivated by self-protecting fear and self-promoting pride.
Regarding fear, I turn from my ways because I dread consequence or loss of approval from others. Regarding pride, I tell myself that I need to turn from my ways because “I’m a good Christian, you know, a pastor even. I gotta’ stop lying or being lazy because I don’t want to be like the liars and slackers. I’m not like that.”
Natural repentance begins and ends in self. Spiritual repentance begins and ends in God.
This is why we give things up and devote more time to reflection during the Lenten season, because we are trying to make room in our lives for God to shed some light. And God will shed light into the dark corners, but that kind of light can only be received with humility.
So we look to Christ, who did not fear even in the face of death, and who did not act out of pride even though he was always right. His was a life of perfect humility.
SCRIPTURE READING: Philippians 2:1-8
The 40 days of Lent parallels the 40 days that Jesus went without food in the wilderness. So one of the ways we identify with Jesus’ suffering is by giving up things. Whether its food or TV or gossip, we deny ourselves particular comforts and pleasures as a way of remembering what he endured.
Of course, our little sacrifices are symbolic at best of what Jesus surrender on our behalf. He gave up far more than food. He gave up his life. And still more than that, he gave up his seat at the right hand of God and condescended to become a man.
This is Jesus’ humility: He had nothing to gain; yet he gave up all he had.
I don’t know about you, but when I compare my life to this kind of humility, I see how self-protecting and self-promoting I can be. And this is why repentance begins with humility: Because even my repentance can be motivated by self-protecting fear and self-promoting pride.
Regarding fear, I turn from my ways because I dread consequence or loss of approval from others. Regarding pride, I tell myself that I need to turn from my ways because “I’m a good Christian, you know, a pastor even. I gotta’ stop lying or being lazy because I don’t want to be like the liars and slackers. I’m not like that.”
Natural repentance begins and ends in self. Spiritual repentance begins and ends in God.
This is why we give things up and devote more time to reflection during the Lenten season, because we are trying to make room in our lives for God to shed some light. And God will shed light into the dark corners, but that kind of light can only be received with humility.
So we look to Christ, who did not fear even in the face of death, and who did not act out of pride even though he was always right. His was a life of perfect humility.
SCRIPTURE READING: Philippians 2:1-8
posted by Will | 9:15 AM
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