A Good Word - Humility
by Jared Johnson
Welcome to November’s Good Word humility. Did your thinking immediately go to Moses? “(Now Moses was humble – more humble than any other person on earth.)” That's Numbers 12.3 – and yes, parentheses are in the original. Have you ever wondered how/why a guy would just straight up write for all posterity “I’m being super humble here, y’all.”? Well, the text says what it says.
As I did some obligatory rounds through dictionaries & a thesaurus to get the wheels turning and begin writing about this, I was struck by how selfish many of the entries were. For example, synonyms for both humble & humility referenced “acquiescence, diffidence, capitulation, succumbing,” and similar concepts. I guess “defeatist” might be the best way to express what I was reading.
Why does humility, yielding, giving/showing deference to someone else equate to capitulation, to defeat? We often talk in church circles – we even sing! – about surrender, a strong synonym to capitulation, which we obviously treat as a good thing, and it is. The examples those recognized authorities gave around humility strike me as negative because they communicated forced capitulation, coerced surrender … compelled humility. But God doesn’t force, coerce or compel us into anything. He invites.
Not only does He invite us into humility, best of all, He gave us the example to follow.
While at Lincoln Christian College for my BA degree, one of our classes had us memorize Philippians 2.1-11. I don’t remember it verbatim but most of the phrases stuck. That passage is the ultimate description of humility, specifically verses 6, 7 and 8 (NLT is below).
Though he was God, he didn’t think of equality with God as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Besides Paul’s description in Philippians, the ultimate word picture and image, at least to my thinking, is probably John 13 – Jesus’s washing of 24 feet, 120 dirt-and-poo-encrusted toes.
So why is humility a good word?
I think it’s a good word because of a couple of the facts Paul pointed out in Philippians 2.
First, it’s a good word because, out of His humility, Jesus emptied Himself (Phil 2.6-7). He didn’t empty Himself of deity. Had that been the case, He couldn’t’ve accomplished the vast array of miracles that He did. While Old Covenant prophets did miracles, they were never attributed statements like those in the Good News accounts like “...he healed them all” (Matt 4.23, 24, 9.35, 12.15, 14.14), “He healed many people that day” (Mark 3.10), “...he healed everyone” (Luke 6.19) and “...he healed the sick” (John 6.2). Though Elijah, Elisha, Moses and others did miracles, we never see literal crowds line up to see them while they spend a whole afternoon touching each person in that crowd to heal them all. Besides miracles, the “work” Jesus did (John 10.37-38), Paul, had Jesus emptied Himself of deity, was either lying or misheard the Spirit when he wrote Colossians: “For in [Jesus] lives all the fullness of God in a human body” (2.9, NLT). No, Paul heard the Spirit right when he wrote those words and Jesus was fully God while incarnate in/on this world. Jesus emptied Himself not of deity but of position. Besides that, He was still King of Everything, the Anointed One of God while He lived here, so He didn’t even empty Himself of title. But all the “trappings” or “benefits,” if we can say it that way, of being God the Son He did put down. He set aside the accolades of Heaven’s Throne Room to be ridiculed by His neighbors and siblings. He laid down living in perfect exaltation and comfort to know the pain and limitation of these physical bodies. We know for a fact He experienced physical exhaustion and the full range of human emotion (sleeping through a storm in a boat, grief over John’s murder/execution, exuberant joy after the ministry tour of the 72, anger at religious leaders and Lazarus’s tomb) and it’s entirely reasonable to think He experienced other mundane annoyances like smashed thumbs doing carpentry, constipation, diarrhea, cold, sunburn, etc. He emptied Himself of the position He deserves – and had – to walk with us in our limitations, alongside us in our brokenness.
It’s a good word because we can glimpse what He gave up for our sake. When we follow His example, emptying ourselves, giving ourselves up for others – our schedules, preferences, resources – His Kingdom expands just a bit more.
Second, it’s a good word because, in humility, He submitted, acquiesced, surrendered, capitulated, succumbed to death, even death on a cross – for me (Phil 2.8). This was no coerced surrender as with a soundly vanquished army, humiliated general signing his troops’ and nation’s surrender to onerous and vindictive terms. No, Jesus laid down – willingly! voluntarily! - His life as a ransom for us. It’s a good word because without humility, there would be no sacrifice to atone for my sin.
It's hard to set aside me for my family, coworkers, neighbors.
But I know the example Who’s worth following.
