A Humble Christmas (Dec 16, 2021)

As we head into Christmas this year, I just wanted to share some thoughts I have been reflecting on that I hope you find interesting and encouraging. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of a King. This was no ordinary King, and this was no ordinary birth.

We celebrate the birth of a King who has existed for all eternity past and who is the Co-Creator of the Universe. This is a King who stepped down from His exalted throne in Heaven to take on the humble form of a helpless baby.

Born not in a palace, but in a lowly manger. It is upon this Amazing Humility of Jesus that I reflect upon this year. The world has seen plenty of Pride filled leaders over the years, but the Humility of Jesus stands out as a beacon of light in an often dark and cloudy world, and I think is a good place for us to reflect upon this year.

In the Bible, we see Pride on full display often. Some notable examples of Pride in the Bible:

A) Satan

Perhaps The greatest example of Pride in the bible is Satan. Here is what the bible says about Satan:

Isaiah 14:13-15 “But you said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. Nevertheless you will be brought down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit.

Ezekiel 28:12 “Son of man, take up a song of mourning over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says:

“You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

13A “You were in Eden, the garden of God; 13C On the day that you were created They were prepared. 14 You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 “You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you. 16A By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; 17 “Your heart was haughty because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I threw you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you.

Conclusion on Satan: God created Satan sometime prior to creating Adam and Eve and placed Satan as one of 3 Archangels. He was head of 1/3 of all the Angels in Heaven. God created Satan with much beauty and wisdom. He placed Satan into a position of Honor and placed Satan in the Garden with Adam and Eve as protection. Was the Honor God granted Satan enough for him? No, He wanted more. He wanted to make himself equal to God and be worshipped as God was worshipped.

Satan’s beauty and His intelligence caused him in his pride to think more of himself then he should, and He placed his identity and self-worth in himself and in his intelligence and beauty, rather than in the fact He was created uniquely by God, loved by God, and placed into a position of Honor by God. He found no contentment in his blessings. Instead, Satan’s pride and his misplaced identity and misplaced self-worth led to his destruction.

B) Adam and Eve

In Genesis we read that God warned Adam and Eve to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if they did, they would die. Satan having already decided in his prideful heart that God was not trustworthy and was holding out on him, convinced Adam and Eve of the same thing. He said:

Genesis 3:4 The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die!

3:5 “For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”

Conclusion on Adam and Eve: In their pride, they also determined they knew better than God and did not need His guidance and could for themselves determine right vs wrong apart from the Law Giver.

Since that prideful choice in the garden, Humanity has continued in this same prideful choice as we all have (myself included) at one time or the other decided we know better than God and we have decided we want to be our own gods, each a law unto ourselves.

C) Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel 4:28 All of this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king. 29 Twelve months later he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. 30 The king began speaking and was saying, ‘Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? 31 “While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you, 32 and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the animals of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes.’

Conclusion on Nebuchadnezzar: In his pride, Nebuchadnezzar took credit for His kingdom and gave none to God. I can relate to Nebuchadnezzar. At times, I take too much credit. I will say to myself, look where my hard work has gotten me. Look what I have accomplished. The reality is any giftings I have God gave them to me. The reality is the job I have is a gift from God. The food I eat is provided by God. The home I live in, the materials were created by God. My children were a blessing God chose to give me. There is literally nothing I have that is good in my life that does not trace back to God. I need to remember that, as Pride leads me to a place of ungratefulness, and it also leads me to a place of fear as when I think all I have is by my own hand alone and I think my life is totally dependent on me, then I realize I can’t control losing someone I love to death, the economy, always being around to protect my children, etc. My fear is because in my Pride I have taken on roles for myself that only God can fill and in humility I need to cast my cares on him and release these burdens.

This is the wonderful lesson God taught Nebuchadnezzar when after 7 years of living like an animal, God restored his kingdom, and now Nebuchadnezzar had humility instead of pride, and He acknowledged God’s goodness in his life which filled his heart with gratitude, instead of selfish conceit.

D) Sodom

In Genesis Chapter 18 We see Abraham pleading with God to spare Sodom and the Lord amazingly and with humility listens and agrees that if He can find at least 10 people in that city who are not so far gone as to accept the gang rape of men, women and children as simply a natural part of life he will spare the city.

However, in Chapter 19 we see that every adult in the entire town came to either cheer on or participate in the gang rape of Lot’s visitors. When Lot said please do not do this evil thing, the crowd in their pride said “Who made you our judge?” and refused to repent. Their pride is ultimately what led to their destruction.

Conclusion on Sodom: When Pride prevents us from seeing and acknowledging the truth that our sin is destructive and leads to pain, Pride becomes our enemy, and it is only through humility we will be able to see the truth that our sin leads us to pain and death. Sexual immorality leads to the death of intimacy and leads to pain and death in the forms of divorce, abortion, prostitution, sexual abuse, and lack of self-worth as we turn people into objects of sexual pleasure rather than respecting them as being created in the image of a Holy God and thus worthy of our respect.

E) The proud Pharisee

Luke 18:11 The Pharisee stood and began praying this in regard to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get. 13 But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner! 14 I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

Conclusion: Pride makes us ignore our own sin, and think we are better than others.

On the other side, In the above passage, the self-righteous religious leaders thought they were better than everyone, not understanding that they also struggle with sin.

I read a Facebook comment once from a pastor where he said: “Since I came to Jesus I have never sinned.” Talk about blinding pride. In the Lords prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray the following:

Luke 11:4 And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

Jesus called on His disciples to pray for forgiveness of their sins, and to repent when they fell. It is pride that tells the Christian He is superior to others, it is Humility that leads us to acknowledge that even those of us who have followed Jesus for years, still have blind spots and still have areas we need cleaned up.

We do not say as this pastor basically said “Ever since I took a bath in June of 1985 I have never gotten dirty again” , but rather in humility Christians come daily in prayer to ask God to continue the good work he started in us and to give us a spiritual bath each day and clean us up more and more day by day, as our spirit gets dirty and we become selfish and sinful and we are prone to wander without the help of God. If we will do this in humility, God promises us this:

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In Contrast to these examples of Pride in the Bible, The Ultimate example of Humility is Jesus.

Some examples include:

A) Jesus is 100% God (John 1:1), Co-creator of the Universe (Gen 1:26, John 1:3), who has always existed (Exodus 3:2 to 14, John 8:58), and who holds all things together (Col 1:17). Despite the fact He was in fact equal to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, Jesus did not consider that a thing to strive for but rather willingly took on the form of a Humble servant (the very opposite attitude of Satan).

Phil 2:5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7: rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Comment from Eric: Amazing to think about Jesus willingly giving up his equal place of Authority and Honor in Heaven with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, to step down from glory and take on the form of a humble and obedient servant. I can do nothing but worship Jesus when I reflect on this. I desire to be more like Him, and less like me.

B) Washing Disciples feet

John 13:5 Then He (Jesus) poured water into the basin, and began washing the disciples’ feet and wiping them with the towel which He had tied around Himself.

14 So if I, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

15 “For I gave you an example, so that you also would do just as I did for you. 16 Truly, truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.

17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

Comment from Eric: What a beautiful example of Humility when the creator (Jesus) humbles himself to serve the created (his disciples) and wash their feet. I serve a servant King who is worthy of all my worship and praise.

C) Submitting to death on the cross

Phil 2:8: And being found in appearance as a man, he (Jesus) humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Comment from Eric: Here we see the Co-Creator of the Universe humbly submit to allow prideful sinful man to torture Him and nail Him onto a cross as they cackled with delight at His suffering. No god imagined by the Greeks or the Romans would have ever allowed humans to nail them naked to a cross in shame as a common criminal and none would have showed this humble obedience as a servant. Therefore, to the Greeks, the gospel message seemed crazy, but this was indeed the crazy plan of God to save us from ourselves and the destruction our sin leads us to. God’s ultimate declaration of His unwavering love for us is found in the humility and obedience Jesus demonstrated in willingly staying on the cross to die for our sins.

D) Jesus’ birth

Luke 2:1 Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. 2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all the people were on their way to register for the census, each to his own city. 4 Now Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in order to register along with Mary, who was betrothed to him, and was pregnant. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Comments from Eric: And finally, as we celebrate Christmas, imagine the humility it had to take to go from being all powerful God that was glorified in Heaven as the Co-creator of the Universe, to coming down to earth to take on Human flesh and being born as a defenseless and totally helpless and dependent baby. The Co-Creator of the universe humbly submitted to becoming dependent on the created (Mary and Joseph)

Conclusion: As we Celebrate Christmas this year, let us remember the example of Jesus, who being on the same level as God and could have exerted His authority in a Pride filled manner, instead humbled himself as a servant. May we also this Christmas lay down our pride, and humble ourselves before God in gratitude for the immeasurable love and kindness He has shown us.

May you and Your Families have a blessed Christmas and may the Hope of Jesus bring peace and comfort into your hearts as we head into the New Year.

Love you all…………

P.S. Some Signs of Humility I have been reflecting on:

1) You can admit when you were wrong and say words like “I was Wrong”, “I am Sorry” and “Can you Forgive me?”,

2) You understand compared to a Holy and Perfect God you are not a Good Person but need Grace and forgiveness from God same as anyone.

3) You do not have to win an argument, but you are free to love those who disagree with you.

4) You understand any intelligence you have is a gift from God, but apart from God there is no true wisdom, so you seek Gods help to make wise choices understanding your complete dependency on him.

5) No task God asks of you in service is beneath you, but you are happy to help in whatever way God asks of you, not seeking personal glory, only seeking to serve.

6) You do not demand your own way, but instead you submit as a willing servant to the will of God, even when that will requires you to walk a difficult path.

7) You obey God’s commandments and trust in His love for you.

I am still a work in process on some of that list, but God is Faithful to keep working on me to clean me up. I want to be less like me, and more like Jesus. Less of my Pride, and more of the humility of Jesus. Day by Day, and Year by Year may we become more and more like Jesus loving one another as humble servants of our servant King.