The humiliation of Christ:
The Westminster Shorter Catechism (link) asks the question “Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist?” and the answer is: “Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.” As I read John 19 today, the humiliation the Christ bore jumped out at me. He was beaten by Pilates' men, slapped in the face, dressed in a way that mocked His kingship, paraded in front of the Jews who denied both Him and God (verse 15), and stripped naked and his clothes distributed to his executors. He bore all these shames as part of His obedience to the Father and saving work. When I think of this passage and this idea of Christ being humiliated, I tend to distance it from me. It was something that had to happen, and I am glad it happened for me. But there are two ways I believe that this does personally and deeply affect me now. The first is a negative, my sharing in adding abuse to Christ. Am I adding to the humiliation of Christ? Do I mock, scorn, or take lightly the words and works of Jesus? I know I am tempted to and that my culture definitely does. I was watching a TV show a while back and they were talking about the different stories from Jesus’s life. They made comments about Jesus “magicking up some bread” or “droning on and on.” This didn’t really sit well with me then, and I was horrified later when I found myself thinking in these terms. Christs life and work is so precious, glorious, and awesome that these thoughts and even saying “god” or “o god” should be for what they are: horrific abuses. I find myself too often adding on to the humiliation Christ bore. But praise be to God that he did bare them, does bare them, and forgives them! Repent of these things, and know that though it is sin, Christ died to take these things away too. This humbles me as I realize just how much Christ bore to save me.
The second way it effects me now is in my sharing in barring the abuses. Jesus made it quite clear earlier in John that the disciples would suffer persecution. We are to face this persecution as Jesus did, humble submitting to the Father's will and never compromising on the truth. We are to be humble as we rely on God to save us, and trust in His sovereign will throughout our lives, no matter the cost. As we follow God and look more and more like Him, we will look less and less like the world. This will lead to conflict; the culture mocking or persecuting us to keep us from this changed life. It reminds me of the crab bucket analogy that Terry Pratchett uses in Unseen Academicals. The idea is that you do not need a lid on a bucket of crabs because the second one tries to climb out, the rest will grab on to it and pull it back. It is common for people trying to break out of any culture, even religious cultures like the Pharisees, to find that by simple breaking a few cultural norms, they stick out majorly and are the center of public comment. Am I willing to stick my head out for Christ? If so, I need to do it as Christ did it, humble submitting to the Father. It is only through Christ’s strength that we could stand these things. I pray for his strength.
Groove Shark Link:
Filthy Roman Cross - click to listen
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