His Humility
‘*Tet all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that’ God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye erucified.’’ — Acts 2:36. ‘Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shali find rest unto your souls.’’ — Matt. 11:29.
**Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. (2) And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s gon, to betray Him, (3) Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He came forth from God, and goeth unto God, (4) — riseth from supper, and layeth aside His garments; and He took a towel, and girded Himself. (5) Then He poureth water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. (13) Ye call Me, Master, and, Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. (14) If I then, the Lord and the Master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash ene another’s feet. (15) For I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you.’’ — John 13:1-5; 13-15.
‘*He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked.’’ — 1 John 2:6.
Thus far in our studies of the picture of the real Christ which God has given us in His own Word, we have looked carefully at six features in the picture: His Holiness, His Love to God the father, His Love to Men, His Love for Souls, His Compassion, and His Meekness. To-day we look at another feature very intimately connected with that which we studied last week, His Meekness.
Our subject this morning is The Humility of the real Christ, not the Christ men dream about and paint from their own fancy upon canvas or in words, but the Christ who actually existed, — actually lived on this earth among men, and left us an example that we ‘‘should follow His steps.”’ The whole secret of a really successful life here on earth is walking in His steps. The more closely we follow His steps, the more successful our lives will be. I have four texts:
Acts 2:36: “‘Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Hum both Lord and Christ, this Jesus Whom ye crucified.”’
Matt. 11:29: ‘‘Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly mm heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’’
John 18: 1-5, 18-15: ‘‘Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowwg that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were m the world, He loved them unto the end. (2) And durmg supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscartot, Simon’s son, to betray Hum, (8) Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things mto His hands, and that He came forth from God, and goeth unto God, (4) riseth from supper, and layeth aside His garments; and
He took a towel, and girded Himself. (5) Then - He poureth water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. ... (13) Ye call Me, Master, and Lord: and ye say well; for sol am. (14) If I then, the Lord and the Master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another’s feet. (15) For I have given you an egample, that ye also should do as I have done to you.”
1 John 2:6: ‘‘He that saith he abideth m Hum ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.’’
In the first of these texts the fact is stated that Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified by the rulers of His people was the real Christ of God. In the second text He Himself states the fact that He was lowly of heart or humble in heart. In the third text we have an amazing illustration of His humility, and a statement by Himself that those who desire to be accounted His disciples must follow Him in this. And in the fourth text we have an emphatic teaching that any one who claims to abide in Him must make good his claim by walking as He walked.
Humility is a distinctly Christian virtue. Humility was regarded with contempt by the world’s ethical philosophers until the Lord Jesus came and exemplified it in His own life and then demanded it of all His followers. Xenophon, Plato and Isocrates all used in contempt the Greek word translated ‘‘lowly’’ in our text; they used it in the sense of pusillanimous, Isocrates so using it frequently. And Epictetus, in some respects one of the greatest of Greek ethical philosophers, uses a word derived from this as signifying pusillanimity, and so does even the Jewish historian and moralist, Josephus. ‘T’o the Bible and to the Bible alone do we owe the exaltation of humility to a virtue, and we owe it preéminently to the teaching and example of Christ Jesus, the real Christ. I, What is Humility?
The first question that confronts us is, What is humility? It is a tremendously important question; for much that is dubbed ‘‘humility’’ is in reality pusillanimity or hypocrisy, as in the classical example of Uriah Heap. Just what real humility is we shall see by considering how the humility of the real Christ was manifested.
IT. How the Humility of the Christ Was
Manifested
1. In the first place, the Humility of the Christ of God was manifested mm His not seeking His own glory. This we see in His own words in John 8:50, where He says, ‘‘ And I seek not Mime own glory.’’ His own glory was nothing to Jesus, the Father’s glory was everything. It mattered nothing to Him what He might suffer in body or mind or reputation; if only God were glorified by that suffering, He chose it, rather than the opposite. He put a right comparative estimate on His own glory and that of the Father: His glory was nothing, God’s glory was everything. ‘“‘The Father ts greater than I,’’ was not merely a solitary utterance of Christ Jesus (John 14:28): it was the keynote of all His thinking and living. If we are to be at all like Him we too must put our own glory behind our back, completely out of sight. It must be absolutely no motive with us or modification of a motive. God’s glory must not only be supreme, but all. It must stand single and solitary as the only motive of our action in any department of our lives. There would be a reason of which we do not possess a vestige for Jesus making His own glory at least a secondary consideration after. that of the Father: He was possessed of all the Divine attributes in all their fullness, in Him dwelt ‘‘all the fullness of the Godhead bodily’’ (Col. 2:9). But even He, while ‘‘on an equality with’’ the Father in nature and attributes, never lost sight of His subordination to the Father, and He made His own glory absolutely nothing. Do we follow Him in this?
2. In the second place, the Humility of the real Christ was manifested wm His avoiding notoriety and praise. ‘This we see first in a prophetic statement and afterwards in the actual life of Christ Jesus here on earth. Isaiah puts it in this way, “He will not cry, nor ft up His voice, nor cause it to be heard wm the street.’’ (Isa. 42:2.) Notoriety and praise were not something Jesus sought; they were something He shunned. He tried as far as possible to perform even the miracles of healing to which His compassion compelled Him under the cover of obscurity, again and again bidding the healed one to tell no one. How unlike to Him many of us are in this respect: He shunned notoriety, we court it. He sought to prevent the advertising of Himself: we have, or wish we had, an advertising bureau, and, if some one gets more space than we do in the report of a ‘‘Victorious Life Conference,’’ we are sorely piqued. Ah, it is fine to dream and write songs about being Christlike. It would not be so fine, to some of us at least, to really be so.
3. In the third place, the Humility of Jesus Christ was manifested in His associating in the most timate way with the despised and outcast. We are told in Matt. 9:10, ‘‘.dnd it came to pass, as He sat ait meat wm the house, behold, many publicans and-simners came and sat down with Jesus and His disciples.’?’ There was nothing whatever of the social or religious snob about our Lord. It was a cause of frequent complaint on the part of the religious aristocracy of the day, the Pharisees and Scribes, that ‘‘this man (Jesus) receweth sinners and eateth with them.’’ (Luke 15:2.) Our Lord did not consider Himself either too good or too cultured or too blue-blooded (though He was of royal lineage even on the human side) to associate on terms of intimacy and genial fellowship with the most despised classes. It was good red blood rather than ‘‘blue’’ blood, poisoned veinous blood, that coursed in His veins. Alas, to-day even in the Church many consider themselves quite above intimate fellowship with some of their fellow church-members. Some years ago I attended a church service in an HWastern city. On that morning the church was receiving members from one of their missions, poor people. I had a friend in the congregation, a woman of wealth and culture and social prominence, who was a member of the church. I noticed she did not rise when these members from the Mission were welcomed into the fellowship of the church. I said to her afterwards, ‘‘Why did you not stand when these members from the Mission were received into the membership of the church?’’ ‘‘Oh,’’ she replied, ‘‘I could not say what the covenant says regarding them. I have no intention of associating with them.’’ And yet she was a woman of a benevolent spirit far beyond the average, a woman who was using her money largely for the elevation of the poor. It was not at all so with our Lord; none were too poor or too sinful for His companionship and fellowship. He knew He was the Son and heir of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but He had no sense of superiorness to the poorest and most despised. And in His association with the poorest and most sinful there was nothing of that nauseatingly patronizing air of condescension that so many affect to-day, who have or who fancy they have a little superior culture or social position or morality or piety. Of all snobs, the pious snob is the most offensive.
4, In the fourth place, the Humility of Jesus Christ was manifested m willing and joyous submission to outrageous mjury and mjustice. We have a prophetic anticipation and prediction of this in Isa. 50: 5, 6, ‘‘The Lord Jehovah hath — opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward. (6) I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.’’ This prophecy of the Humility of the Christ who was to be, was fulfilled 700 years later in the Christ who actually was, the Christ who lived here on earth, Christ Jesus. He literally gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and He hid not His face from shame and spitting. He submitted willingly, yes, joyfully, to outrageous injury and injustice from men that He might glorify God by saving the very ones who thus maltreated Him. How nearly like Him are we in this? How nearly like Him in this do we care to be?
5. In the fifth place (and here we go a step further), the Humility of Jesus Christ was mamfested wm silence under outrageous injury and injustice. ‘This we see in another preview that
Isaiah was given of the Coming One, the Coming Christ of God, in Isaiah 53:7, *‘ He was oppressed, yet when He was afflicted He opened not His mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before tts shearers 1s dumb, so He opened not His mouth.’’ Ah, it is easy to bear grave injustice and outrageous injury if we can only talk back and voice our injured innocence, our exalted sense of martyrdom. But to thus suffer and say nothing, not even to call the attention of others to what a pure and noble martyr you are, that is humility, the genuine article, the humility of the real Christ, Christ Jesus.
6. In the sixth place, the Humility of Jesus Christ manifested itself m absolute silence under false accusations. This we are told over and over again in the Word of God. Passages throng the memory of any one who is at all familiar with the Bible. For example, 1 Pet. 2:23: ‘‘Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, threatened not; but committed Himself to Hum that judgeth righteously.’’ And in Matt. 26:09-63 we read: ‘“‘Now the chief priests and the whole council sought false witness against Jesus, that they might put Him to death; (60), and they found it not, though many false witmesses came. But afterward came two, (61) ané said, This man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build tt im three days. (62) And the high priest stood up, and said unto Hum, Answerest Thou nothing? what is tt which these witness agamst Thee? (63) But Jesus held His peace.’ Luke tells us in Luke 23:8-10, ‘‘Now, when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was of a long tume desirous to see Hum, because he had heard concerning Him; and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him. (9) And he questioned Him in many words; but He answered him nothing. (10)And the chief priests and the scribes stood, vehemently accusing Hum.’’ Our Lord Jesus did not defend His own good name, He left that to God, He ‘‘committed Humself to Him that judgeth righteously.’’ This is a lesson that we in this day sorely need to learn. Many have learned it at least in part, but how often we forget. So I emphasize it to-day, ‘‘lest we forget.”’
7. In the seventh place, the Humility of Jesus Christ was manifested in His coming to minister and not to be ministered unto. One of the most deeply significant and suggestive utterances that ever fell from His lips is that found in Matt. 20 :28, ‘‘The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give Hts life a ransom for many.’’ Ah, that is humility, to really consider yourself the servant of all and consequently to seek to serve all and to be served by none. That is not natural, I suppose, to any of us. We wish to be waited upon rather than to wait upon others; and, if for the time being we must serve, we are ever looking forward to the time when we shall be served, and are constantly building castles in the air in which there are hosts of servants and we ourselves are the grandees who are being served. Even in the church, we covet the office where others dance in attendance upon us, instead of the lowly place of service in which we must do the bidding of others. The word ‘‘minister’? meant originally ‘‘servant,’’ but nowadays it means too often the ‘‘boss of the whole show,’’ and we are greatly concerned about the prerogatives and dignity of and the respect due to the minister. And the word ‘‘deacon’’ also originally meant ‘‘servant,’’ but now it means — well, it means various degrees of dignity. Oh, let us remember that the Master said, ‘‘The Son of Man came not to be mmistered unto, but to mim ister, and to give His life a ransom for many.’’
8. In the eighth place, the Hwmilty of Jesus Christ was manifested m His performing the most humble and memal and repulsiwe services for others. He not only came to serve, He actually did serve, and not only that, but He served in the lowliest forms of service. This we see in one of our texts, John 13:1-5: ‘‘Now, before the feast of the passover, Jesus knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were m the world, He loved them umto the end. (2) And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him. (3) Jesus, knowing the Father had gwen all things into His hands, and that He came forth from God, and goeth unto God, (4) riseth from supper, and layeth aside His
garments; and He took a towel, and girded Him- — self. (5) Then he poureth water into the bason and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded.’’ It was a slave’s work that Jesus here performs. He and His disciples had come in from the dusty road and, in the Hastern custom, laid aside their sandals; but there was no servant to perform the customary and necessary feet washing for them, and no one of the disciples would do it for the others. Hach felt it was beneath his dignity. And so our Lord in full consciousness of His Divine authority and origin, ‘‘knowwmg that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He came forth from God, and goeth unto God,’’ arose and like the humblest of servants laid aside His garments and girded Himself with a towel and took the bason and went from disciple to disciple to wash their dirty feet. I wonder why the painters who have given us their various representations of so many scenes in the life of Christ, never painted that scene. In this connection our Lord specifically emphasized the fact that He had given us an example that we should do as He had done. How closely are you imitating the example that Jesus left? Would you rather be a minister by preaching sermons to a crowd of gaping admirers or a minister by washing the sore and — foul feet of some afflicted child of God. ‘‘Oh,”’
but you say, ‘‘my social position and official dignity will not permit me to stoop to service of that character.’’? Remember what we are told about Jesus in this very connection, that it was with the full knowledge of His Divine authority, ‘‘that the Father had given all things into His hands’’ and with the full knowledge also of His divine origin and mission and destiny, ‘‘that He came forth from God, and goeth unto God,’’ that He did all this.
I knew at one time a young woman in Ghrelin work in Chicago. For some reason I did not have a very high estimate of the depth of her piety. She belonged to a very well-known family and I imagined that she was altogether too conscious of it. But one day some one came and told me how she had gone into one of the poorest parts of Chicago, into ‘‘little hell,’’? and, finding a poor, afflicted creature in bed with sore and vile feet, she had unbound those feet with her own hands and cheerfully and pleasantly and thoroughly washed them. From that day I could not but have a higher estimation of the real Christ-likeness of that young woman.
9. In the ninth place, the Humility of the Christ of God was manifested in His choosing the lowliest place of contempt as a slave wmstead of the loftiest place of glory as God. This choice of our Lord antedated His entry into human history as an integral part of it all. It began in the eternal glory. We read it in that marvelous statement of Paul which we have had occasion to quote so often, Philippians, ch. 2: 6,7: ‘‘Who, existing nm the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God, a thing to be grasped, (7) but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, bemg made in the likeness of men.’’ Oh, what sublime humility was that, stooping from the glory of occupying the throne of the universe, the center and object of angelic, cherubic, and seraphic worship, to take the form of a servant. It is in this connection that Paul exclaims with tremendous emphasis, “‘Have this mmd m you, which was also in Christ Jesus.’’ (Phil. 2:5.) Yes, this is the mind of the real Christ, ‘‘The Mind of the Master,’’ not primarily some doctrinal statement of faith, no matter how rigidly and completely orthodox, but the mind of surrendering the very highest position and taking the very lowest, forsaking the place of highest honor and seeking for self the place of lowliest and, therefore, most effective, service. I will not: stop to dwell upon the fact stated in the immediately following verses that it was because He thus revealed His true humility, by seeking the lowest place any man ever occupied, that our Father said, ‘‘Come up higher,’’ and ‘‘highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which as above every name; (10) that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth; (11) and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’’ (Phil. 2: 9-11.)
10. In the tenth place, the Humility of Jesus Christ was manifested in His bewmg ‘obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’’ This is found in the next verse to that which we have just been studying and is the climax of that thought. Let me repeat it to you, ‘‘And bemg found im fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.’’. (Phil. 2:8.) Here indeed we reach the highest point of Christ’s low- — est humility, not merely God becoming man, the highest of all Lords becoming the lowest of all servants, but the Holiest of all becoming the sin-bearer of the vilest of sinners. No other one whom human eyes have ever seen ever occupied by natural, Divine and eternal right so high a position of dignity, honor, glory and worship as He and no other ever stooped to so low a depth of - agony and shame, accursed of God and man. JI repeat, it is in just this connection that the Spirit of God through Paul says, ‘‘Have this mind m you, which was also im Christ Jesus.’’ (Phil. 2:5.) And John also had this in mind when he said, ‘‘He that satth he abideth in Hum ought Himself also so to walk even as He walked’’ (I John 2:6.)