Grace for Humility: When Kings Bow
“behold, wise men from the East came… and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” (Matt 2:1,12)
You are warmly welcome to the Year of Grace upon Grace for Progress. We have seen that there is immense power and great progress opportunities in unity; as the adage goes ‘united we stand’. Let us now proceed to another important progress key: humility. Humility is a prominent theme during the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, and it one of the great lessons best exemplified by the incarnation. In this world of naturally selfish and proud individuals, we need God’s grace to achieve humility.
Some people mistake humility to be weakness or frailty; they mistake being humble with being unable to stand strong and push one’s own agenda; they mistake humility to be like moving backwards or in a greater person’s shadow. Yet humility is far from this. It is a part of God’s nature and hence should be part of the nature of human beings made in God’s image. We have seen examples of humble people being warmly and beautifully exalted, and on the other hand there are abundant examples of haughty fellows shamefully humbled and brought down, because God’s world cannot keep proud people for long.
Before we come to the wise men, we find baby Jesus born in a manger. It was humble enough of him to put off the heavenly glory and put on flesh and be born among mortals; but this was further accentuated by the humble family through which he came, the lowly place where he was born, and the manger rather than a nice crib in one of the inns in that town. Jesus really humbled himself!
Who were the wise men, the Magi that came to worship him? From the original word is from where comes our word magician. The persons here denoted were philosophers, priests, or astronomers. They lived chiefly in Persia and Arabia. They were the learned men of the Eastern nations, devoted to astronomy, to religion, and to medicine. They were held in high esteem by the Persian court, were admitted as counsellors, and followed the camps in war to give advice (Barnes). When such high-profile people bow and worship, it is humility. It is good humility that builds up and makes them even greater.
We have crucial lessons from the humility of Jesus Christ, and from the humility of the Magi. And from both examples it is easy to see that it was by God’s grace. For us today, the task is to beat the natural man that exalts himself, that is selfish and proud; the task is to bring that natural man to be humbly subject to God’s authority, and thereby be a pleasant and generous neighbour, supervisor, subordinate, minister, believer – to the glory of God.
A Blessed New Year 2023 to you all.