In Humility

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

IN HUMILITY

Luke 2:1-7

2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

NIV

It does seem strange that Jesus should be called a Nazarene and that one denomination has taken that name to define itself when he was actually born in Bethlehem. Shouldn't he be called Jesus of Bethlehem instead? Even when he appeared to Paul on the road, when asked who he was, he replied that he was Jesus of Nazareth. This has nothing to do with the life lesson but just an interesting thought. What we want to focus our attention on is, of course, the humble setting in which our Lord came to us. Much has been said about this by many scholars and theologians, yet it does bear some thought. Jesus could have come to us in a whole lot of pomp and ceremony riding a white horse and appearing on some mountain top declaring his right to the Savior, the Christ, the Messiah and King, then all of Israel would have accepted him. But he came to us in a manger, in a stall within what would have been consider today a barn, among the animals. He came in this manner for many reasons, but the one we should consider is his humble entrance as an example of how we should also be. There is other scripture teaching us not to think more highly of ourselves than we should, yet we do see so many of us puffed up and self-aggrandized. We have to be careful not to judge the quality of someone’s character by their appearance. When we do that we are thinking more highly of ourselves. Humility is a difficult trait to exhibit yet that is the way Jesus was and if we say we want to be more like Jesus then we need to be more humble than we are. This does not mean we yield to untruth. We still have to insure false teaching is corrected but doing it in love, in humility, not in a prideful puffed up manner. Jesus has shown us the way, humility at its finest.