“And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself…”

OK, this one is a doozy.  Answer this question: What personal character trait would you say is not a natural part of our character?  Before you answer, realize that the answer I’m looking for is a trait of personality that the Lord has but we don’t.  It’s not something like omniscience or omnipotence or any of those other God-only attributes.  Give up?  It’s humility, or being humble.  To demonstrate how this is not an inherent part of our being, ask yourself when was last time you saw a couple out on a date at a restaurant choose the table by the kitchen door instead of the one overlooking the water.  Or the parents that encouraged their child to become a custodian rather than a lawyer or doctor when s/he had the potential and desire to become the latter.  Or the successful salesman who gave some of his largest accounts to his cutthroat competitor because he was really struggling to make ends meet.  Sometimes we think the only time we’re “naturally” humble is when we’ve really messed up something up and we’re either embarrassed, ashamed or in trouble for doing so.  But even then, that’s not what humility is all about.

According to the Greek word, humility, or being humble, is about being low, or lowering oneself, like Jesus did in Philippians 2:8.  Paul said he knew “how to be abased and…how to abound” (Philippians 4:12, NKJV).  Paul said (v. 18) he was abounding because he received a gift from the Philippians.  At the time he was busted — in jail — and chained to a Roman soldier!  That was his abounding.  That should tell us something of being abased.  James talks about “the brother in humble circumstances” who should “take pride in his high position” (1:9).  Why is it a high position to be in humble, or low, circumstances?  Let’s look at our Savior for that answer.

Back in Philippians in the supreme humility passage in all of Scripture, Paul traces the downward steps the Lord Jesus took to procure our salvation.  Beginning in verse 6 he identifies Jesus as “being in very nature God.”  This was not something he had to hold onto at all costs, since it was inherent in him.  It’s simply impossible for him not to be God, so he is free to do some stooping.  So he “made himself nothing, taking the very nature [or form] of a servant, being made in human likeness” (v. 7).  And so he came to earth, born, of all places, in a stable or cave.  If Jesus had been born in the biggest, most ornate and expensive palace in the whole world, his coming would still be the biggest step of humility ever recorded.  That he came to a stable or cave only accentuates this part of his becoming low.  But it didn’t stop there.

The next verse says, “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself…” (v. 8).  Did you ever wonder what would compel the Son of God to come to earth if Adam and Eve had not sinned?  Why would he come if everything were fine?  The best thing I can think of would be a vacation.  But God neither needs nor takes vacations.  And if he did, I’m sure he wouldn’t become a man to do so.  No, in a perfect world, we’d have God doing his thing and people doing theirs.  Think of how much we would never know about God: his love, mercy, compassion, grace, forgiveness, judgment, along with his humility.  We’d never know any of these or how they operate.  Moreover, it’s questionable we’d even know the Second and Third Persons of the Trinity.

In the course of the last Passover meal, Jesus got up and washed his disciples’ feet (John 13).  This, of course, shocked them.  They would have happily washed their Master’s feet.  But unless they were family or a very beloved person, they would not wash each other’s feet.  So imagine the stunned faces as Jesus moved around the table, washing one pair of feet after another.  They were speechless, except for Peter, who, missing the point, asked to have a whole bath.  Jesus set him straight on that and then went to press his point, namely, that in less than 12 hours he would be ultimately humbling himself, becoming “obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8).  Not just any death, but on a cross, reserved for slaves.  It doesn’t get much lower or humbler than that.  Back at the Passover, washing feet was a symbolic gesture, an object lesson.  On his last night he’s still low, taking the position of the lowest slave washing feet.  This is what gives his metaphors, parables, gestures and symbols authenticity: he lived what he said.  What other god humbles himself/herself/itself at all, let alone like him?  Don’t waste your time looking.

We are farthest from him when we’re arrogant, selfish and proud. How near to him are you today?