Live With Guts

Finally (the end to which all things relate, the aim, the purpose),¹  

all of you, be like-minded (share the same perspective, the same mind, be harmonious, enjoying divinely-inspired harmony, i.e. knowing God’s mind, His thoughts, as He reveals it through faith),  

be sympathetic (be “with suffering” for each other, suffer or feel the like with each other, be understanding, mutually commiserative),  

love one another (love like a brother, an affectionate friend, be brotherly, like the love between fellow family-members in God’s family),  

be compassionate (tender-hearted, have good, positive gut-level sympathy, empathy, compassion– i.e. live with guts),  

and humble (lowly of mind, regulated by the inner perspective of having a humble opinion of oneself, a deep sense of one’s moral littleness, lowliness of mind, the inside-out virtue produced by comparing ourselves to the Lord rather than to others, bringing your behavior into alignment with this inner revelation, living in complete dependence on the Lord, with no reliance on self). 1 Peter 3:8 

Peter is writing mostly to fellow believers in the above letter, and he writes that love is the end to which all things relate, the purpose, the aim – a certain kind of love. A love that keeps on walking, though we stumble, towards having the mind of Christ, suffering with each other in the mutual pain of this world as Jesus did and does for us. To love and accept each other as family. (Think of it, we always put up with more from our family than “strangers.”) To live with guts, as Jesus did here on earth, from the center of our being, with empathy and compassion for our fellow strugglers/travelers. To view ourselves from the inside-out, for we know what’s in there, we and God. Yes, that is the aim of this Christian walk. But there is a bigger purpose. 

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:35 

“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples.–The thought of their state of orphanage when He should depart from them is still present. He gives them a bond of union, by which they should always be linked to Him and to each other in the principle of love. The followers of great Teachers and Rabbis had their distinctive marks. Here was the distinctive Christian mark, which all men should be able to read. It is instructive that the characteristic mark of Christianity should thus be asserted by its Founder to consist, not in any formulary or signs, but in the love which asserts the brotherhood of man. The apologists of the first centuries delighted in appealing to the striking fact of the common love of Christians, which was a new thing in the history of mankind; and while the Church has sometimes forgotten the characteristic, the world never has. By their love for each other, for mankind, for God, is it known or denied that men who call themselves Christians are really Christ’s disciples.” — Ellicott’s Commentary 

This is our distinctive mark! That we love each other. Do I have that mark? Is it obvious to people that I am a Christian because of how I love?  

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:12 

Loving each other is how we love the unseen God. Even more wonderful, as we do this kind of love towards God and each other, we become as Jesus walking on the earth. 

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like (just as, corresponding to fully, exactly like) Jesus. 1 John 4:16-17 

And what happened when Jesus walked down here? The meek and the lowly, the people ready to receive Him, were drawn to Him, and they were healed and saved and changed. That is “the end to which all things relate, the aim, the purpose” of this love to which we are called. 

 I am not sure that we are where God desires us to be yet, at least not me. And I know that I can never be there on my own. And it’s only by fixing my eyes on Jesus, working towards aligning my words and my doings and my guts with his, and putting my powerless hand into his strong one on this rocky path that I am ever going to make it. The only way that any of us will ever make it home. Let’s live with guts! Compassionate, tenderhearted, with gut-level empathy. Let our hearts be broken for each other that we might be like Jesus, bringing life and light. 

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” Mark 1:41 (NLT) 

There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him … He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh (moan, groan from grief) said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). Mark 7:32, 34 

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled … Jesus wept. John 11:33, 35 

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it … Luke 19:41 

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Mark 6:34 

¹Amplification from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, and HELPS Word-studies at Bible Hub.

Photo by Jack Bair

Stop with Me

A man’s wisdom (discretion, knowledge, prudence, sense, understanding, wisdom) 

gives him patience (makes him slow to anger); 

it is to his glory (splendor, beauty, bravery, glory, honor, majesty) 

to overlook (pass over, let pass by, cause to take away)  

an offence (rebellion, sin, transgression, trespass). Proverbs 19:11 

Sounds like God, doesn’t it? Slow to anger, passing over our trespass because of the blood. Proverbs 17:9 also says: 

He who covers over an offence promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. 

The word translated “covers over” is the Hebrew kacah. It means to plump or fill up the hollows, to cover, clothe, conceal. It is also used here: 

He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy conceals a matter. Proverbs 11:13 (NASB) 

This word is used for covering the nakedness of the priests with pure, white linen. 

You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh; they shall reach from the hips to the thighs; They shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they come into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy place, that they do not incur iniquity and die. Exodus 28:42-43 (NKJV) 

The word was also used when Noah’s sons covered both his nakedness and his transgression when he got drunk. 

But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backwards and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness. Genesis 9:23  

This reminds me in the New Testament of clothing ourselves with Christ and the “new self.” 

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Romans 13:14 

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on (clothed yourselves with) the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:8-10 

I think we really need these verses right now when people are trying to kill each other for forgetting to turn on their turn signal, when people are forever cut out of our lives over words, when rage and violence erupts for the least misstep or mistake. We need to let some things pass. We need to be slow to anger. We need to clothe ourselves and each other. As my pastor, Dan Wolfe, used to say, we need to be a sponge sometimes and just let it sink in, be absorbed, and stop with me. 

Photo by Jack Bair

On Behalf of Humility

In your majesty ride forth victoriously in the cause of truth, humility and justice; let your right hand achieve awesome deeds. Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet. Psalm 45:4-5 

This verse jars me. It seems to me that riding forth in victory for the cause of humility (the Hebrew word means gentleness, meekness, humility) is a curious oxymoron. But there is a clue to its meaning and significance in the only other place in the Old Testament where this form of the noun is used. 

You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness (meekness, humility) made me great. Psalm 18:35 (ESV) 

His gentleness or meekness made me great or exalted me. The NIV 1984 edition translates this “you stoop down to make me great.” Still, victory over enemies and being great or exalted are not things I usually associate with humility or meekness. In this world, and in these days – all days – the humble and meek get trampled over. 

This made me wonder, what is the opposite of humility or meekness? Wouldn’t that be what rides forth victoriously? Here are some near antonyms and antonyms from Merriam-Webster: 

Near Antonyms for humility: aggressiveness, assertiveness, attitude, audaciousness, boldness, brashness, brassiness, cheek, cheekiness, cockiness, cocksureness, forwardness, overconfidence, swagger, swash, temerity, impertinence, impudence, insolence, nerve, sauciness, boastfulness, chest-thumping, self-applause, self-assumption, self-centeredness, self-complacency, self-conceit, self-glorification, self-importance, self-opinion, self-partiality, self-satisfaction, vaingloriousness, vanity, disdain, scorn, flamboyance, ostentation, ostentatiousness, showiness  

(Wow, did you see all those self-words?) 

Antonyms for humility: arrogance, assumption, bumptiousness, conceit, egoism, egotism, haughtiness, hauteur, huffiness, imperiousness, loftiness, lordliness, peremptoriness, pomposity, pompousness, presumptuousness, pretense, pretension, pretentiousness, pride, pridefulness, superciliousness, superiority, toploftiness 

You know what the opposite of humility sounds like to me? It sounds a lot like this: 

How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 
You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ (Isaiah 14:12-14 ESV) 

According to the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, the “Day Star” is a reference to Lucifer, “a fallen Once-bright Star.” It is “a title truly belonging to Christ (Re 22:16), ‘the bright and morning star,’ and therefore hereafter to be assumed by Antichrist.” 

The one who comes, riding forth arrogantly, assuming victory, with all his self-stuff and antonyms of humility – himself an antonym for our Lord – comes only for his own sake, comes as our enemy with nothing good for anyone outside his Self. 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 

Jesus came that we may have life, and in doing so He came in just the opposite way as did the enemy of our souls. 

Who, being in very nature God, 

    did not consider equality with God  

something to be used to his own advantage; 

rather, he made himself nothing 

    by taking the very nature of a servant, 

    being made in human likeness. 

And being found in appearance as a man, 

    he humbled himself 

    by becoming obedient to death— 

        even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8) 

In Psalm 45 above, right after the psalmist declares that Messiah will ride forth victoriously, there is this plea: 

Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet. Psalm 45:4-5 

 Yes! Jesus’ sharp arrows of Truth and Love have and will pierce the hearts of all of us – His enemies and hostile combatants – and the nations have and will fall beneath His feet. Jesus made a way for the gentile nations to come to God. Their – our – hostile, enemy-hearts have been pierced and we who love and follow Him are being changed and made into new creatures, falling at His feet. And, but, yet (!) every knee shall bow, changed or not, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  

Yes, our Lord Jesus did ride to bring victory in the cause of truth, humility, and justice, but it wasn’t on a snorting, pawing, white battle-horse (at least, not yet!), but on a lowly donkey’s foal.  

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9 

In your majesty ride forth victoriously … 

Image, Donkey by x70tjw https://flic.kr/p/re7XLj  

The Lamp

Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin! (Proverbs 21:4)   

This is one of those verses that it’s easy to just skip over thinking, “Well that’s not me.” But then, I would be just fulfilling the verse wouldn’t I? So I decided to take a closer look. And it’s not what I thought.

The Hebrew word for “lamp” in this verse actually means untilled or fallow ground. I think this verse means that the proud have not plowed up, examined, their ways or thinking, therefore they are in the sin of pride. That is one of the things that our lamp is supposed to do – illumine our wrong thinking and doing. Jesus said:   

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good (single, clear, sound, whole, folded together), your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad (diseased, derelict, blind, evil, wicked), your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! Matthew 6:22-23   

What does that mean: single, clear, sound, whole, folded together? That Greek word is haplous and comes from a root word that means “to plait, braid, weave together.” Woven together with what?   

There are two words in Hebrew for hoping or waiting. Qavah, which means “to bind together (perhaps by twisting),” and tiqvah, which means “literally, a cord (as an attachment).” Could Jesus have meant that if we are hoping and waiting on God (woven together into a single cord, attached to God heart to heart) our lamp or eye is good?   

Another thing, in Numbers 8:2 the Lord gives instructions for setting up the Temple (remember we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit now). He says to set up the Lampstand so that it continually shines “in front” or across the room and illumines the table of the Bread of the Presence. Our lamp, our eyes always upon Jesus, the Bread of Life, God With Us, the Word.   

When Jesus talks about the eye as the lamp of the body here in Matthew, and in Luke 11:33-36, it is in the middle of pointing out a lot of wrong thinking – being a hypocrite, caring about what people think, setting your heart on treasure, serving/loving money, worrying, lack of faith in God, being legalistic but not obeying God’s commands.    

Wrong thinking is when you are not woven together with (or abiding in) the Lord, therefore you don’t have the mind of Christ. You have not allowed the Lord to plough up your hard, stony ground. The light within you is darkness. It is no longer shining on the Bread of the Presence, on the Word of Life, but on yourself. That is why haughty eyes and a proud heart is a lamp of the wicked, a dark lamp. A person with haughty and proud thinking would never shine the light of the Word on any wrong ways but would imagine they are right in whatever they think or do. It is revealing that it says five times in Proverbs that the way of a person can seem right to them but be wrong.   

The way of a fool is right in his own opinion, but the one who listens to advice is wise. (Proverbs 12:15)   

There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way that leads to death. (Proverbs 14:12)   

All a person’s ways seem right in his own opinion, but the Lord evaluates the motives. (Proverbs 16:2)   

There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way that leads to death. (Proverbs 16:25)   

All of a person’s ways seem right in his own opinion, but the Lord evaluates the motives. (Proverbs 21:2)   

I know I am mixing a lot of metaphors here, but we need to humbly surrender to being woven together with Him, heart and soul and mind and strength. We need to let the Light of God shine on our wrong thinking and plough up our hard hearts. That we might know him. That we might be like him – a light in a dark world. 

The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being. Proverbs 20:27

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105

You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. Psalm 18:28  

He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. Psalm 25:9  

God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. 

Examine me through and through; 

find out everything that may be hidden within me. 

Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. 

 See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, 

and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways— 

the path that brings me back to you.  

Psalm 139:23-24 (The Passion Translation) 

Image of oil lamp by Bee Collins https://flic.kr/p/bSdftM

The Most Important Piece of Clothing

Since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves,

you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy,

kindness,

humility,

gentleness,

and patience.

And the most important piece of clothing you must wear is love.

Colossians 3:12, 14 (NLT)

 

 

Photo, My closet, from m01229 on flickr

The Raven’s Croak

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out (croak, cry of a raven), “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:15 (NASB)

It makes me smile that the Greek word translated “cry out” here means to croak, like the cry of a raven. We croak like a raven, “Abba! Father!” I feel like I croak a lot.

Jesus told us to consider the ravens, alluding perhaps to Psalm 147.

Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds! Luke 12:24 (NASB)

He gives to the beast its food, and to the young ravens which cry. Psalms 147:9 (NASB)

Why ravens? Why not something beautiful like a dove? The raven was on the list of “unclean” birds under the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 14:4, Leviticus 11:15). In Leviticus it says they are to be regarded as an abomination, as filth, detestable, disgusting. They eat dead things and maggots.[i] Yet (!) Jesus chooses this bird for his illustration of God’s care for us.

In a sermon called The Raven’s Cry, Charles Spurgeon wrote the following:

I can hardly leave this point without remarking that the mention of a raven should encourage a sinner. As an old author writes, “Among fowls He does not mention the hawk or falcon, which are highly prized and fed by princes. But He chooses that hateful and malicious bird, the croaking raven, whom no man values but as she eats up the carrion which might annoy him. Behold then, and wonder at the Providence and kindness of God, that He should provide food for the raven, a creature of so dismal a hue and of so untuneable a tone–a creature that is so odious to most men, and ominous to some.”[ii]

Encouragement for the sinner. Is this why Jesus chose the raven? To show us that no matter how disgusting, unclean – untuneable – that we think we are, or others think we are, or that we really are – God accepts us, God loves us, God takes care of us. What a picture of grace and mercy!

There is another amazing and curious mention of ravens in the Old Testament. It is in the retelling of Elijah hiding from Ahab. God told Elijah to hide at the Brook Cherith and that ravens would be sent to feed him (1 Kings 17: 3-4). Again, God didn’t choose a beautiful bird or a noble bird, or even a bird good for eating – but dirty, croaking ravens to feed Elijah – birds that probably had just been eating roadkill. I wonder what Elijah thought about that. And when the water ran out there at the brook, God sent Elijah to another sort of unclean raven, the Sidonian widow (1 Kings 17:9).

The Sidonians were idol worshippers. They worshipped “Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians (2 Kings 23:13).” This worship included ritual prostitution (we call it human trafficking today) and child sacrifice. The notorious Jezebel was the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians (1 Kings 16:31).

So detestable were the Sidonians to the Jews, that when Jesus reminded them of this incident while speaking in a synagogue, He was almost thrown off a cliff (Luke 4:25-29). Yet(!), God sent Elijah there. And Elijah humbled himself to take food from the widow’s “unclean” hands – a widow, however, who was willing to give all she had for herself and her son to Elijah to obey the Lord God – and he ministered life and salvation to her and to her son.

Consider the ravens. Yes, we are all ravens. We are all Sidonians. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all have eaten our share of the maggots of lies and idolatry, and maybe still are. Yet (!!) we are loved. And we have been called (even the ravens were called to feed Elijah at the brook!) and chosen to humble ourselves and minister His life and love to all the other fallen, unclean birds. We are not called to judge and condemn, but to love. And we can stand in the strength and grace that He gives. We can abide, we can rest in the assuredness that we are His and He will care for us. That we are His adopted sons and daughters, and that He hears, and is delighted, when we croak “Abba, Father!”

(Abba! Another good one-word prayer? See A Thousand Defects )

 

[i] Wikipedia, The Common Raven

[ii] Charles Spurgeon, The Raven’s Cry, A sermon delivered on Sunday evening, January 14, 1866 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. Reprinted in, The Power in Prayer. Whitaker House, 1996.

Image, Raven by Jim Bahn (background color changed) https://www.flickr.com/photos/gcwest/186088713/in/album-72157594158104053/ 

 

Hurling My Worries

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:5b-7 (NIV)

Did you ever wonder why Peter combined the ideas of humility and anxiety in these verses? God opposes the proud – humble yourselves and cast your anxiety on him. I wondered, what do those two ideas have to do with each other? I have actually thought in the past that worrying and being anxious showed I was lowly and humble, that I knew I couldn’t do it. I mean, if I was confident about something wouldn’t that mean I was proud? But recently I have been reading a very good book on humility by C.J. Mahaney, and I read this:

“Where there’s worry, where there’s anxiousness, pride is at the root of it. When I am experiencing anxiety, the root issue is that I’m trying to be self-sufficient. I’m acting independent of God.”[i]

Ah, pride is so slimy and cunning and can disguise itself even as humility! Even though I picture myself as humble, really, I’m still thinking I can do it, or I have to do it. That somehow my worry will change things. I am still trying to be the Wonderful One. Oh, sure I am asking God to help me do it, but in my mind it’s still up to me.

The Greek word translated “anxiety” or “care” is merimna (μέριμνα) and comes from a word that means divided or disunited “through the idea of distraction.” Worry distracts us, divides us from God and his promises. It reminds me of James 1:6-8:

But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded (or divided) man, unstable in all his ways. (NASB)

I like how the Message says that last verse: “People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.” Ouch! Just in case God can’t do it, I’m keeping my options open, I’m still available to worry about it.

But Peter says to cast all our anxiety on God, trusting that he cares for us. The word translated “cast” means “to throw or place upon”. You have to let go of the worry to throw it, and in doing so you are putting all your trust in God. You are humbling yourself. Daniel Wallace put it this way: [Casting your anxiety] “is not offering a new command, but is defining how believers are to humble themselves … Humbling oneself is not a negative act of self-denial per se, but a positive one of active dependence on God for help.”[ii]

Psalm 55:22 (NIV) says to “Cast your cares (or burdens, the lot you have been given) on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” Hebrew is a passionate language and the word for “cast” is quite a bit more zealous than the Greek. The word is shalak (שָׁלַךְ) and means to “throw, cast, hurl, fling.” I love that! Hurl your burdens on the Lord. Yes, that is definitely “active dependence on God for help.” There is a sense of total abandon there – like a little child trustingly throwing herself off a high place into the arms of her father. But, it’s not just a vague, cosmic “letting go.” Like a discus thrower, hurling the discus, we are flinging our burdens to a defined target – God’s unfailing love and care.

“This is an important spiritual truth as is also the admonition in Psalm 55:22 to cast our burdens on the Lord. That is, our cares and burdens, are to be thrown away, abandoned into his care, so that we have nothing more to do with them.”[iii]

“Nothing more to do with them.” Wow, that’s scary stuff to the self-sufficient, proud person who secretly doesn’t trust God to get it right without her help. Lord, forgive me for my ridiculous pride and double-mindedness, for not trusting in you. Give me the grace today to humble myself under your mighty hand, to declare my total dependence on you, and to hurl my worries and my very self into your loving arms.

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Selah.              Psalm 68:19 (NIV)

 

Image by Ron Gilfillan, 2017 Canada Summer Games. CC BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/2017canadagames/36281659232/

[i] Mahaney, C.J. Humility: True Greatness. Multnomah, 2005.

[ii] Wallace, Daniel B. Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.

[iii] M. Cogan, “A Technical Term for Exposure” (Journal of Near Eastern Studies 27:133-135 [1968J)

Put on Jesus, Part two

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5 NIV)

” … whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave–just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-27)

Put on Jesus Part one, explored the Greek word enduo which means to sink into, clothe, or put on, as in “putting on” Christ Jesus. There is another Greek word that means to clothe and that is egkomboomai (ἐγκομβόομαι). It is used only once in 1 Peter 5:5b, but it has helped me to understand better what it means to “put on” Jesus.

Egkomboomai has a very particular meaning. It means to engirdle oneself for labor, to put on “the apron as being a badge of servitude.” This apron “was the white scarf or apron of slaves, which was fastened to the belt of the vest and distinguished slaves from freemen, hence in 1Peter 5:5, ‘gird yourselves with humility as your servile garb’ means by putting on humility, show your subjection one to another. Also, this refers to the overalls which slaves wore to keep clean while working, an exceedingly humble garment.”[i] The root of egkomboomai is the Greek word komboo (κόμβος) which means to gird or to tie fast with a knot or band. Egkomboomai “seems to teach that humility is a garment which must be firmly fastened on and bound closely round us.”[ii] Perhaps this is because humility slips off us so easily, not being our natural state.

Jesus showed us how to do this, how to put on this slave garment of humility when he washed the disciples’ feet.

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (John 13:3-5 NIV)

The Greek word translated “towel” in this verse is lention (λέντιον), and it is “the linen towel or apron with which servants put on when about to work.” So that is what Jesus did, he put on the badge of servitude, the thing that “distinguished slaves from freemen.” It was probably this, as much as the washing of the feet, that shocked Peter so much. The Lord, the Messiah, the King who was supposed to come and set his people free from Roman domination and give Israel a reason to be proud again, dressing up as the lowest of the low – a slave. That was not how it was supposed to be!

But notice what is says in John 13:3 – “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.” Jesus knew who and whose he was. He knew victory was a done deal. He also knew that the victory the Father had in mind was not going to be accomplished by insurrection and violence and forcing his Kingship. It would be by emptying himself, becoming a slave, totally giving it all up. Victory would be accomplished by sacrificial love.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant (or slave), and being made in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:5-7 NASB)

When we “put on” or clothe ourselves with Jesus, we also are putting on the slave garment of humility. We are emptying ourselves to let God do whatever He wants with us. This is a hard thing to swallow for those of us who have wanted to do something wonderful for God – to be a great intercessor, healer, pastor, evangelist, missionary – blogger – something. To earn the approval of God and others, to be looked up to, maybe even (secretly or unconsciously) want to be admired, recognized. Instead, maybe to be forgotten, unknown, unrecognized, maybe even looked down upon. Possibly, to never know, in this life, if what you have done has made any difference at all. No wonder we need to tie the knot so tightly.

“God is not looking for impressive witnesses who will tell people about God but for humble witnesses who will “bear” God’s presence to others—be they powerful Pharaohs or poor beggars.”  J.C. Walt

“Bear God’s presence”! What an amazing, humbling thing! Could it be that putting on Christ Jesus, clothing myself with the garment of the humble Servant-King, is a way to bear His presence into a hurting, broken world? Lord Jesus, show me how to do that. Help me to tie the knot fast to you.

 

Image: Ford Maddox Brown, Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet [1852-6], Tate Archive, image  released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

[i] Thayer’s New Testament Greek-English Lexicon

[ii] The Pulpit Commentary, edited by H. D. M. Spence, Joseph S. Exell