Larger Catechism – Day 22 of Lent
Question 46: How
was Christ humiliated?
Answer: For our sakes, Christ emptied himself of his own glory and took
on the form of a servant, and so was humiliated in all the poor circumstances
involving his conception and birth, life on earth, death, and after his death
until he was resurrected.
One difficult thing about getting old is needing someone do take
care of you, or do things for you.
It can be embarrassing to have someone bathe you, dry you with a
towel, feed you, etc. People remember doing
all of these things for themselves and then you suddenly need someone to care
for them because they can no longer do these tasks for yourself.
On a similar note, many years ago an eye doctor moved to this
country. He wasn’t really a “doctor.” In
his country the eye doctor was trained through something like an apprentice
program. He made and sold eye glasses. He would have been viewed highly in his country. When he moved to this country he could no
longer check a person’s eye sight or make glasses. Our country did not recognize his training
and experience. If my memory serves me
correctly he had to work as a janitor in our country. Quite a step down on the society ladder.
I cannot even imagine what it would have been like for Jesus to
give up all of his own glory to take on the form of a human. As John’s gospel puts it, “The Word became
flesh and dwelt among us.” The one who
spoke all of creation into being needed someone to feed him and change his
diaper. The one who was in the presence
of the Father from all eternity could not enter into the holy of hollies—because
he was not the high priest. The one who
was beyond time became bound by time.
Merriam-Webster defines humiliate as “to reduce to a lower
position in one’s own eyes or others’ eyes.”
Did Jesus take on a “lower position”?
Absolutely. Was Jesus humiliated
by giving up his station in heaven and becoming a person? Absolutely.
Why did he take on that lower position?
Answer: so that he could become the
mediator of God’s grace so that we could be saved.
Jesus calls us to become servants: servants to God and servants to other
people. Can that call to servanthood be
humiliating? Absolutely. Are we willing to be humiliated for the cause
of Christ? That is a question that only
each of us can answer—not with words but with actions.
(Note: There will be no blog post tomorrow. Sunday is a day for worshiping the risen Savior. Sunday is not one of the 40 days of Lent.)
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