Go Low…
09.25.22
This Sunday Pastor Ben shared with us about the humanity of Jesus and one of the highpoints in Jesus’ earthly ministry Ben spoke of is actually a “low point.” For me, it’s one of the most important images of not only His divinity but also His humanity. It’s the story of the foot washing.
I won’t burden you with all the details but to sum up: Jesus had gathered in a home with the disciples. Their feet were dirty, and they were reclining at a table for a meal. The normal procedure was for a servant or slave to wash a person’s feet as they entered. None did so. Seeing the issue at hand (or on the feet), Jesus took the place of a servant and did the lowliest task in the room. He washed feet. When he was done…he turned to His disciples and said, “You do it too.”
It’s been kind of a mantra of mine for a number of years that one of the strongest qualities of a disciple is their ability to go low. In fact, I am of the opinion that to not go low could be considered a disqualifier for leadership. In J. Oswald Sanders’ book, “Spiritual Leadership,” he mentions the searching of God for those He might call to leadership as an amazing thing to behold and in the end will, “make a person very humble.”
Humility.
So important but so undervalued and hard. Because in the end, let’s face it, who really wants to wash feet. I don’t even like to wash my own feet let alone someone else’s. Plus, I think it’s a bit of human nature to want to move beyond always “going low” and allow others to go low for us. And yet we have a Savior who literally modeled the exact opposite to not only love us—but to redeem us.
Pastor Ben spoke about the incarnation—the miraculous birth of Jesus. God in the flesh. The Message translation of the Bible says, “God moved into the neighborhood.”
He humbled (there’s that word) Himself to be with us. To serve us. To minister to us. To show us how to live. To give us a hope and a future. God showed us in Jesus how to “go low.”
Philippians 2:5-8,
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] 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[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
As we join with others in declaring our belief in Jesus Christ, may we do so with the reminder that in His humanity he showed us that surrendered to God, we can go low too.
-Pastor Rich