The Messiah Comes in Humility
Scripture: Zechariah 9:9
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

The God We Hardly Knew
by Óscar Romero

No one can celebrate
a genuine Christmas
without being truly poor.
The self-sufficient, the proud,
those who, because they have
everything, look down on others,
those who have no need
even of God — for them there
will be no Christmas.
Only the poor, the hungry,
those who need someone
to come on their behalf,
will have that someone.
That someone is God.
Emmanuel. God-with-us.
Without poverty of spirit
there can be no abundance of God.

DOWNWARD MOBILITY
Author Henri Nouwen writes, “The story of our salvation stands radically over and against the philosophy of upward mobility. The great paradox which Scripture reveals to us is that real and total freedom is found only through downward mobility. The Word of God came down to us and lived among us as a slave. The divine way is indeed the downward way.” He continues, expanding upon this vision of Jesus.                    

Indeed, the one who was from the beginning with God and who was God revealed himself as a small, helpless child; as a refugee in Egypt; as an obedient adolescent and inconspicuous adult; as a penitent disciple of the Baptizer; as a preacher from Galilee, followed by some simple fishermen; as a man who ate with sinners and talked with strangers; as an outcast, a criminal, a threat to his people. He moved from power to powerlessness, from greatness to smallness, from success to failure, from strength to weakness, from glory to ignominy. The whole life of Jesus of Nazareth was a life in which all upward mobility was resisted.

There is something beautiful about the downward path, but its beauty has nothing to do with how easy it is. Jesus, Paul tells us, “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant … he humbled himself” (Phil. 2:7-8). Jesus’ gracious entrance into the world was not met with welcome and celebration (John 1:10-11). He was rejected. This is the harsh reality we must come to grips with as we consider this downward path. Jesus makes it known that the same world that hated and rejected him will hate and reject us as well (John 15:18-19). Often, we hear God’s call to embrace our weakness or move in sacrificial love and we imagine that ultimately this will result in our heroism – overcoming all odds and becoming powerful. In other words, we imagine that Jesus has just given us a more surprising and challenging way to achieve power and success. We still believe we will get what others want, but the difference is that we will go about it “in the right way.” This is simply not what Jesus tells us. Embracing the way from above is often a hard and lonely road, but it is the true path of life.

The way of Christ is the way of vulnerability and love. These are two central features of living a genuinely human existence, and yet they are often the very things we are afraid of. We want love, but we want love without vulnerability. We want love in our strength, but not in our weakness. But that is not love. We think we want community, but deep down we want to be in a group that makes us feel special. Jesus offers something else, something distinctively more profound. Jesus calls us to himself, that we may partake in his life. But Jesus’ life was marked, not by success, domination, and victory, but by love. In this world, love is marked by suffering, crying out, and a deep and abiding longing for the day when God “will wipe away every tear” (Rev. 21:4). While being a witness to the invisible way of Christ won’t often feel like the path of life, it is the calling of faith to embrace this way regardless. This is the way against evil, and as such, it is the way of Christ.

Prayer
O Lord our God, as we celebrate again the festival of Christmas, we ask you to make us humble and loving like Jesus, who did not come to be served but to serve, and who said that it is better to give than to receive; so that, in his name, we may devote ourselves to the care and service of all those who are in need. We ask this through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
Stephen S. Smalley

Jamin Goggin & Kyle Strobel
Taken from the new book The Way of the Dragon or The Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that has Abandoned It, Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Kyle Strobel
Author
Assistant Professor, Institute of Spiritual Formation

Jamin Goggin
Author
Pastor of Spiritual Formation, Saddleback Church