A Continuing Theme From The Cradle To The Cross To The Crown

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the cross of Christ as well as His resurrection.  Of course I have!  It’s the Passion Week of our Lord!  It’s Holy Week!  It’s that stretch from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday when all of Christendom rejoices in the sacrifice Christ made for all mankind as well as in His miraculous resurrection from the grave.

My mind has gone back even further, however.  It’s gone back to the Christmas story, as well.  The fact is, without Christmas, there would be no cross & no resurrection.  And yet without the cross and the crown (of resurrection and ascension), Christmas would have no eternal significance, either.  They are ALL inter-related. 

As I’ve been pondering these great events, ONE PRIMARY THEME has continued to come to my mind.  One steady thread of fact and beauty runs through ALL these great occasions.  That theme & thread is the HUMILITY of our Lord.  Whether we bow at the side of His straw-filled cradle, worship at the foot of His blood-stained cross, rejoice at the emptiness of His garden-side tomb, or wonder in amazement at His now-empty clouds of ascension — we’re reminded again and again how truly HUMBLE Jesus, our Lord & Savior, always was.

Philippians 2 tells us the story in such vivid detail.  “…Christ Jesus, Who being in the form of God did not consider His equality with God something to be grasped tightly or clung to, but made Himself of NO REPUTATION and took upon Himself the FORM OF A SERVANT (slave), and was made in the LIKENESS OF MEN.  And being found in fashion AS A MAN, He HUMBLED Himself and BECAME OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH – even the death of the cross…” ( v v. 6 – 8 )

It’s no wonder we humans are admonished just before that explanation ( in v v. 3 – 5 ) to, “Do nothing through STRIFE or PRIDE, but in HUMBLENESS OF SPIRIT, esteem OTHERS BETTER than yourself.  Don’t be SELFISH, but always be GIVING to OTHERS.  Let this DISPOSITION (attitude, spirit, mind-set) which was IN CHRIST JESUS .. also be in YOU!”

There are many lessons to be learned from the cradle, the cross, and the crown of Christ.  None, however, is any more important than His sterling example of endless HUMILITY!  It’s the “thread that runs so true!”  Let’s emulate it and exemplify Him — every day!