My church has been reading through the book '40 Days of Decrease' by Dr. Alicia Britt Chole during this Lent season as a way of embarking on an inward journey to prepare our hearts for Easter. The book is based on the words of John the Baptist, “He must become greater and I must become less” (John 3:30). But also, of course, the book is based on Jesus’ entire life. Jesus lived a life of decrease. He was God – but He didn't act like any normal god of Eastern culture. Jesus lived a life of humility, which upon first hearing doesn't sound like anything wild or abnormal to us, but was truthfully downright shocking in his culture.
These are the words Paul wrote about Jesus' life in Philippians 2:2-11:
"Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
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!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
The title that some Bible translators through history have given this passage is “Imitating Christ’s Humility.” And rightly so. But what's hard for us to glean from reading over this passage is the shock value that this suggestion from Paul may have held for the church at Philippi. To us, there's nothing super shocking about this passage, but for them, the word humility did not have a good connotation - not at all.
For Jesus and friends, the word humility was still very closely tied to the word humiliation. I'm not sure about you, but humiliation isn't a word I love. It gives me flashbacks to middle school and other moments in my life where I've felt publicly shamed or made fun of. (Blowing out my knee a few years ago whilst being juked out by an 8th grade boy in flag football comes to mind too!) Humiliation is not a fun word. In Jesus' day, the word humility carried that same connotation and feeling. In their culture of honor, where being in good public graces was the most important and defining place a person could hope to be, being 'humble' was not desired. Losing in a battle or war was hard not because people died, but because the shame and disgrace of publicly losing honor (see Psalm 79:4). To be publicly disgraced or shamed or outcast or humiliated, in their culture, felt like a fate worse than death.
Aside: That’s why the cross was so brutal. I’ve often heard pastors speak about the physical horror of crucifixion and about what it did to one's body: allowing you to suffocate to death for a prolonged period of time in unimaginable pain. Crucifixion was absolutely horrifying to endure physically, but the real reason that Rome created the cross was for public humiliation - the only thing worse than death to endure (in that time). The cross didn’t just kill you, it would completely humiliate you at the same time, as everyone watched you nailed there, naked and struggling to breathe, walking by with laughter and spitting at your feet. (It’s a testament to the evil and depravity of humanity.) Jesus was completely humiliated on the cross.
No one likes the word humiliation, but today, the word humility we mostly hear portrayed in a positive light. We make posters about it to hang on the walls of high schools. Most people are attracted to humility in someone. We understand it as a good trait to have, but humiliation is still not an attractive word at all. However, they’re nearly the same exact word, with the same root, and only a few letters difference! The origin of these words has them tied together in a way that we find it hard to make sense of today.
But not Jesus' disciples. They knew, after having a front row seat to Jesus’ completely humiliating death on a cross, the weight of the word humility. Jesus’ disciples saw firsthand the marriage of the two words, and the humiliation that Jesus chose to bear, and the humility that he chose to live his life with. His willingness to embrace humiliation, to embrace humility, and to embrace BECOMING LESS made a huge impact on Jesus’ disciples. In fact, it made such an impact on them that they changed the whole way that the world saw the word humility.
Actually, the early church were the first people in history to ever describe humility as a virtue. Today, most of us understand that humility is a desired trait and that generally life is better lived serving others as opposed to being served. But Paul's Philippian readers would have no doubt been shocked by his letter.
“Become like slaves and serve each other in humility???
Renounce honor, publicly disgrace ourselves??
Wash feet???
Die to self?
No thanks!"
It was all SO shocking in their culture, where being humble was the worst thing that could happen to a person. It was wild for people to hear of a ‘humble Lord' - gods were elevated, untouchable, to be served and worshipped, and heroic - they weren’t humble! It was a completely upside-down way of understanding the system, understanding the world, and understanding how to be successful and live a full life.
The early Christians elevated humility and scorned pride only because of Jesus’ example. And insodoing, they changed the face of the earth, truly.
Because that’s what decrease does.
Living in decrease has a unique backwards power that only the Creator God really knew about. And thus, Jesus’ shameful humiliating death changed everything.
So today, thousands of years through history later, we have inherited this word humility. Even people who don’t know much of Jesus can see the value in humility and in serving. Jesus' claim in Mark 10 that “it’s better to serve than to be served" is not super shocking to most people anymore. Paul's call to us to 'imitate Christ's humility' cannot be separated from the call to reflect on the humiliation and public scorn that Jesus endured.
So...what shall we say? "Here's to being humiliated!" "Here's to a life of decrease, friends! Something like that. Humiliation might just be the most beautiful thing my soul never knew I needed. Here's to a life of decreasing.
Slowly but surely, Jesus' life pattern of decrease is breaking into the world. The message of the cross is still doing its thing. "The Kingdom of God is coming; in fact, it's here now." -Jesus
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