Humility All The Way!!!

HUMILITY ALL THE WAY!!!

First things first. What is the chief and highest end of man? Let the revered Christian Book namely the Westminster catechism give the answer. Man's chief and highest end is to glorify (worship) God, and fully to enjoy him forever. When it comes to glorifying Him and fully enjoying Him, let it be said that the entire exercise ought to be “absolutely genuine emanating right from the innermost core of one’s being (read spirit)” (John 4:23). This would lead to the next question, how could the process of glorifying Him originate right from the depths of one’s heart? It is only possible, when a person is truly moved by the Holy Spirit in recognizing His unique traits. Remember, worshipping God for WHAT HE IS, is the highest form of worship, standing head and shoulders above other forms of worship, which come with strings attached, such as worshipping Him for the blessings, He showers upon us.

In this message punctuated with…what else… “Hallelujahs” (incidentally Hallel in Hebrew language means To praise and Yah means God) in my heart I would like to bring before my readership, one pristine quality of Christ which amongst others’ at once evokes awe in me and that is his indescribable humility. What then is Biblical “humility” and in what areas’ of Christ’s life, do we see it manifested? The original Greek word used for humility in portraying the mind of Christ (Phil 2:3-5) is tapeinophrosune which means a conscious preference of lowliness of mind over self-boasting.

Social...

Hey! Do any of us have the choice of selecting our parents? Given the choice, some of us may have chosen the home of Mr and Mrs Bill Gates to be born in!!! Oh consider this truth, if at all there was one person who could have chosen affluent parents to live a life of ease, it was Jesus!!! Yet, He chose lowly carpenter’s abode to grow-up in. Want proof of Jesus’ earthly “parents” social “low income” strata...consider these Scripture portions.

As per the Mosaic Law, for a mother’s purification ritual, the woman was required to...

“And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.”- Leviticus 12:8

So what did Mary and her supportive husband Joseph do??? Let the Scripture speak again...

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”- Luke 2:22-24

Hmmm...well time for a subject within a subject. Donning the Sherlockian hat, one can say that the Wisemen bringing gold as one of the gifts to the Christ-child did not exactly arrive on the Christmas day...otherwise Jesus’ parents would have easily afforded a lamb and not have used turtledoves. In fact, the Christ-child was not even in the manger but in a house when the Wisemen came (Matt 2:11).

Professional...

Oh yes, there were Doctors and Engineers in Biblical times too (Col 4:14/ 2 Chro 2:13-14 -of course it is not a sin to pursue these “lofty” professions’) but our Lord consciously chose a profession (Mark 6:3) which cannot by any stretch of imagination be called a “White collar” job. Given his wisdom with which naturally come problem-solving abilities (Luke 2:52), he could have opted easily for a job which would have guaranteed a better social status than the lowly one of a carpenter. This subject also leads us to a more profound thought that any lawful job, even if it is a “servile” one of say a road-sweeper or drainage-cleaner becomes “sacred” in the eyes of the Lord when it is carried out as “unto the Lord” for His glory (Col 3:23).

Regional...

Now some locations become notorious thanks to the sinful tendencies of the natives therein. No, I am not talking of Sodom and Gomorrah or for that matter Crete (Gen 13:13/ Titus 1:12) but Nazareth...for nothing “good” could ever be associated with this village (John 1:46) which was a part of sin-darkened region of Galilee (Isa 9:1-2). However, the Saviour consciously chose to spend his formative years not in a popular town like say spiritually-enlightened Jerusalem with a Temple in its midst. He could have chosen a poor family to be born into and carpentry as his profession there too. Were not poor folks and carpenters residing in Jerusalem also? But a village of ill-repute...Nazareth...was preferred by the Lord so that it’s darkened precincts could be illumined by His light (Matt 4:15-16).