THE HUMILIATION OF CHRIST

 In this Resurrection season, we want to look at “THE HUMILIATION OF CHRIST.”

 

What does it mean to humiliate? This is to make one to feel ashamed and foolish by injuring his dignity and pride. 

That was what they did to Jesus Christ. They injured His dignity and pride.

What was the extent of Christ’s humiliation? The humiliation of Christ spans from His incarnation to His burial.

Christ was humiliated for us throughout His life. Christ was “in the form of God.” “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Phil. 2:6).

 

Though Christ is God equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit, He did not hold on to His divine rights. Rather, He “emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7). 

 

Jesus bore the curse of God in every way for us in His humiliation so that we might not bear it in any way through our union with Him. 

 

How then was Christ humiliated?

1. The circumstances of His birth were lowly. “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (Lk. 2:7).

 

Becoming man was a great act of humiliation in the humanity of the Son of God. His parents gave the offering prescribed for the poor at His circumcision.

 

“And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons” (Lk. 2:24).

 

2. He was persecuted as an infant and throughout His life (Matt. 2:16-18).

 

3. He suffered shame, scorn, and ultimately crucifixion (Matt. 27:16-26). 

 

4. Even His burial and His time in the grave were humiliation, since death is the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23).

 

Death could not ultimately hold the righteous Lord (Acts 2:24). All these aspects of His humiliation were “for our sakes.” 

 

5. Jesus bore the curse of God in every way in His humiliation, so that we might not bear it in any way through our union with Him.

 

6. Jesus’ mother was poor and the circumstances of His birth showed “more than ordinary abasement.” 

 

7. Christ suffered and obeyed for us throughout His life for us because sin brings miseries to us in this life as well as in the next. 

 

8. Christ obeyed the law for us where we disobeyed it, and He suffered the penalty for our breaking the law. 

 

Christ kept the terms and bore the curse of the covenant of works to fulfill the covenant of redemption and to establish the covenant of grace. 

 

9. By becoming man, He subjected Himself to the law of God and fulfilled it perfectly (Gal. 4:4-5). The God-man could and was subjected to the law to save those who were under the law. “…to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:5).

 

10. He bore the indignities of this world and the temptations of Satan.

 

11. Christ bore the infirmities of the flesh, such as hunger (Mk. 11:12).

 

12. Christ bore our weariness (tiredness) (Mk. 4:38-40).

 

13. Christ had grief at losing loved ones (Jn. 11:35).

 

14. Jesus suffered betrayal. Judas betrayed Him: But Jesus said unto him, “Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?” (Lk. 22:48).

 

15. Jesus suffered abandonment. “And they all (His disciples) forsook Him, and fled” (Mk. 14:50).

 

16. Jesus was misunderstood (Jn. 14:9).

 

17. Jesus was falsely accused. “For many bare false witness against Him, but their witness agreed not together. And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him…” (Mk. 14:56-59).

 

18. Jesus delivers His people from the miseries of sin in this life by bearing the miseries of this life in their place. 

 

While Christians and non-Christians suffer many of the same things, there is a difference in the sufferers. “In all these things Christians are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37).

 

19. Jesus became man in order to bear the curse of God for sinners. Imagine that: a) Judas betrayed Jesus, b) His disciples forsook Him, c) The world scorned and rejected Him, and d) Pilate condemned Him. 

 

20. Jesus was tormented by His persecutors. He not only died the painful and shameful death of the cross, but He was “tormented by His persecutors,” who mercilessly scourged Him. “Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote Him with their hands” (Jn. 19:1-3).

 

Those wicked Roman soldiers flogged Him after tying Him to a whipping post (Isa. 52:14; 53:4-5; Matt. 8:17; 1 Pet. 2:24). When He was flogged 39 stripes, I believe that for each stripe, when Jesus shouted a shout of pain, He was saying, “Cancer you are defeated, stroke you are defeated, epilepsy, asthma, malaria, migraine, arthritis etc you are defeated.” 

 

The Roman soldiers did not whip Him in the chest but at the back. Why? The chest represented the future, the things ahead. The back represented the past. Therefore, the greatest pain you have to endure is in your past already. 

 

Jesus was flogged and disfigured beyond recognition. In His suffering, the Messiah was so bruised, beaten, marred, disfigured, mutilated, injured, torn apart, that His outward appearance was awful to behold (Isa. 52:14). His body was broken that ours might be put together. Jesus became so disfigured and destitute of His natural beauty and handsomeness that men were stricken with amazement, disgusted and heart-sick at what they saw.  

 

21. They spat in His face (Matt. 26:67-68).

 

22. They buffeted Him. They afflicted Him over a long period by striking Him repeatedly and violently… (Matt. 26:67-68).

 

23. They smote Him with the palms of their hands – they slapped Him (Matt. 26:67-68).

 

24. They mocked Him. “Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that smote thee?” (Matt. 26:67-68).

 

25. They plucked out His beard (Isa. 50:6).

 

26. Jesus felt and bore the weight of God’s wrath for us (Ps. 22:1).

 

27. Christ became a curse for us so that God’s curse fell on Him instead of on us. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us:..” (Gal. 3:13-14).

 

28. Christ was humiliated for us in His burial. He was buried in a tomb belonging to someone else – Joseph of Arimathea.

 

He remained in “the state of the dead” for three days (Matt. 12:40). 

 

29. Jesus died for us so that He might remove the sting of death for us (1 Cor. 15:55-57).

 

In summary, Judas betrayed Jesus, His disciples forsook Him, The world scorned Him, The world rejected Him, and Pilate condemned Him. 

 

Conclusion: Considering what Jesus suffered for us, it will be foolish for anyone to continue to despise Him.

 

Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit.

 

· Your friend, I. I. Madubunyi.