Humility in the Life of Jesus

In this segment, Jeff Colón examines the life of Jesus, and how He lived in relationship to His Father, and to the will of the Father. We find that Jesus example serves as a model for what it means to live the Christian life.

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Mike: As we continue our series on humility, we want to look today at the humility displayed in the life of Jesus. I don't know any better place to look in the Word of God than to Jesus as our example of humility. When He would have discussions with the disciples and they were a mess spiritually, Jesus was still very gracious in the way that He dealt with them. We find one example in Luke 22:27 when He said, “Normally, the master sits at the table and is served by His servants, but not here for I am your servant.” We want to talk a little bit about what Jesus was expressing here, what motivated Him and what was in His heart. What do we learn about humility in respect to what Jesus shared with His disciples in this passage in Luke?

Jeff: Well, Mike, you're right, when you say the only way we can understand humility is to look at Jesus and the way He lived His life. As we look at him in the context of this verse, and really His whole life while He was here on the earth, we come to understand that His whole life revolved around letting the Father be everything. Basically, the Greek word for servant used in Luke 22:27 means slave or bond servant. Jesus resigned Himself to come under the Father in that way. And that's why He could say, when you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

Mike: We’ve been looking at humility in some previous discussions, and we've already defined it as a person’s simple consent to let God be everything and surrendering to His purpose for their lives. And we really see that in the gospel of John, where Jesus Himself says that without my Father, I can do nothing. Let's look at some of the things that Jesus said in the Gospel of John about that and see if there is a contrast working in our own lives.

Jeff: It's so amazing in the book of John how many times Jesus made statements that really show us what it means to be emptied of self. He said he did nothing without consulting the Father and that his teachings were not His own ideas. He said he could do nothing on his own and even that the words He spoke were not His own. To me it's just a picture that the Father completely had control of Him, but Jesus surrendered Himself to the Father in that way.

Mike: Some of the things you mentioned like when Jesus said in John 5:19, “The Son can do nothing by Himself,” make me just think about how often I can read that verse and say, “Yeah, I believe I can't do anything without God.” But in reality, I wonder how often in my daily life I actually live with that kind of dependency upon God for what I am doing.

Jeff: Yeah, that's so true for all of us, and I'll even take it a step further. When He says, “I can do nothing of myself,” I almost think it's more in the sense that He can't do anything against the Father's will. It’s not like He was just weak, and didn’t have the ability in Himself, because I believe Jesus had all the power of heaven at His disposal. Even when He was on the cross, He could have called angels down from heaven. When He says that He can't do anything of Himself, I see it more that if anything would go against the will of the Father, then Jesus couldn’t do it.

Mike: Well. In fact, in John 5:30 it says, “I do nothing without consulting the Father.”

Jeff: Yeah, and we just don't realize how often we go about our daily lives without consulting God about things when really, we should be consulting Him about everything.

Mike: In John 14:10 Jesus says, “The words I say are not My words, but the Father who lives in Me does His work through Me.” The cry of my heart is, Lord Please let my words be your words, because the Holy Spirit is constantly showing me how many words come out of my mouth that I know are not from the Lord.

Jeff: I know for myself I want to become nothing so that the Father can become everything and that everything I say would glorify Him and be His heart towards people. That's what I want in my life.

Mike: Well, let's talk about that for a minute, because really what we're talking about is this idea of fully surrendering. This is much more than the American religiosity that most of us have grown up in. It is a complete surrender of everything about us. I mean we've got to be honest with ourselves, our flesh is not in agreement with that. The idea of giving up my autonomy, giving up control of my life and the direction of my life, there's something in us that does not want that.

Jeff: It's our fallen nature that rebels against that and somehow believes that freedom and joy is found in doing what I want to do. But if you think about it, God created us to know Him and worship Him. It was for His purpose and unless we're living for His purpose and His will, we will never have true peace or Joy and we will never really find what we are looking for because we were made for God. Peace and joy come about in a completely different way than we’d expect. True freedom, true peace and true joy stem out of a full surrender to the Lord.  

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Mike: And the intimacy Jesus had with Father was only because He walked in humility and surrender to the Father's will.

Jeff: That’s so true. Jesus didn't lose anything by giving everything to the Father, and the case will be the same for us if we choose to give Him everything.

Mike: What does it really mean to deny ourselves and follow Him?

Jeff: Well the Lord has helped me with this in my own personal life. Years ago, when someone told me to deny myself, pick up my cross, and follow Jesus, it really helped me to understand some things about God’s design and purpose for me. I am a vessel God wants to fill and what I need to realize is that in myself, I really have no value other than what my value is to God. So it's better to do away with myself, which is what denying yourself means. Practically, it means to look away from trusting anything good in myself, or in my own abilities. I need to crucify the old man with his deeds and everything that has to do with the flesh and allow God to fill me and work His will through me.

Mike: Yeah. And really, we’re not giving up anything that's worthwhile anyway. To be able to do that we've got to at least come to the place of being willing to acknowledge that God and only God is good, and everything that we possess of any value comes from Him.

Jeff: There's a verse in Hebrews where it talks about Jesus’s life and it says, “Behold you have prepared a body for me to do your will oh God.” When we really understand that our bodies were prepared just like Jesus’s body, to do the Father's will and to glorify Him, we will understand that we were created to glorify God with our bodies.