The Humble God


          

The Bible includes four Gospels. Each tells the story of Jesus with a slightly different focus. The Gospel of John, more than any other, makes its agenda clear.
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. - John 20:30-31
John wanted readers to understand that Jesus, even as he walked the Earth, was divine. He was God in human form. When viewed through that lens, the events that are only mentioned in John become very interesting. Consider the account of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.
After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. - John 13:5-17
Jesus performed an action for the disciples fit for a servant, and that was the whole point. He wanted to be an example. We as believers should be willing to serve each other. If Jesus, who is greater than any of us, could humble himself enough to wash the feet of his disciples, how can any of us be too good to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ or the unbelievers to whom we are charged with giving the Gospel.

This is a pretty powerful passage, but it pales in comparison to the Gospel itself. In short, the Gospel is that God sent an aspect of himself to the Earth to live as a human, deliver the Word, die as a sacrifice for our sins, and be resurrected to make way for the advent of the Holy Spirit and salvation for anyone who believes. The importance of Jesus’ death and resurrection make it easy to miss the significance of his life. Jesus, the living embodiment of God’s Word, put on flesh and subjected himself to all the weaknesses that entailed. He had to satiate hunger and thirst. He had to expel waste. He felt pain. He probably got sick at some point (the Bible never mentions that he did, but he was human and humans get sick). And yes, he died. As God, Jesus was above all of that. He didn’t have to experience any of it. The Son chose to obey the Father and humble himself. That is an incredible story.

It’s one that only God could write. Think about it. Humans are good at creating gods. The Hebrews did it throughout the Old Testament. Most of us today know about the Greek gods, Norse gods, Hindu gods, Egyptian gods, etc… Humanity has created many myths and stories about these gods. In some ways those stories are similar. In other ways, they differ.

There’s one major difference between our God and all those other gods. None of them chose to give up their standing as gods for the benefit of mankind. You won’t find another story where an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent being chooses to empty himself to be like us for us.
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! - Philippians 2:6-8
In our minds, no being with God’s power would do what Jesus did. Lucky for us, he did it.

God set an amazing example. He wants us to humble ourselves and serve each other. Is that so bad? Imagine a world where everyone followed Jesus’ example. Would there be any crime? Would there be any conflict that couldn’t be resolved reasonably? Poverty, war, bigotry - none of these things would exist if everyone behaved like Jesus. A little humility is all it would take. Unfortunately, getting all of humanity to adopt that mindset would be next to impossible, but that shouldn’t be the case for believers. If God can humble himself, how can his people do any less?

Chris Lawyer

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