The Last Word on Humility-Lent 2, 2015

John 13:2 The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

With Christ in the Upper Room, Jesus offers us the last word on humility. 

It’s an amazing contrast in some important ways: 

God serves man.

Holy serves sinner.

The Savior serves both the Father and sinners. 

 

The devil had already prompted Judas to betray Christ, yet Jesus washed His disciples’ feet in an act of humble service.   Scripture does not say Jesus washed everyone’s feet but Judas’ because Jesus knew he was a betrayer.  No, Jesus served even the one who would betray Him.  Jesus, the sinless One, served all of us who rebelled and broke the heart of God by our sins.  In a sense, we’ve all betrayed God and rejected Him and yet, Jesus came.  He loved.

He served to show the superiority of love and humility.

The Father had put all things under Jesus’ power and yet this powerful One would show the full extent of His love by serving the Father who sent Him as well as serving those whose station was beneath His own, sinful man.  Scripture says about Jesus, Philippians 2:6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The “condescension of God” in Christ (i.e. the way He stooped down to rescue us) and the humility of Christ to come from God in order to save us is profound.  John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

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Give it Up for Lent:  Pride

Put it On for Lent: Humility

For further thought:

Read John 12:42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved praise from men more than praise from God. 44 Then Jesus cried out, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. 47 “As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. 48 There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. 49 For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

• How does your attitude about God get revealed in whose praise you seek?
• Whose praise did Jesus seek?
• Comparing Phil 2:9-10 above with this passage in John 12 (esp. v 48-50), ponder the idea of being a servant and obeying commands.  In what ways did Jesus model what being a servant is all about?
• Does being a servant take away from one’s identity or does it contribute positively toward it?  What makes men bristle at the idea of being a servant?
• Do you agree with this statement? “We all show humility before God now or end up being humbled later.”  What do our Scriptures say?

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