SEP 12

Matthew 26:59-68
Memorise John 3:30
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”

After Christ was denied a fair trial before His own people and given a death sentence, He was humiliated further as He was blindfolded (Luke 22:64), punched, slapped, and then taunted to identify who had struck Him! The ‘they’ who did this were the servants who came close to Him, not just to physically hit Him but also to spit upon His face - an act of great contempt. All this was vindictive and personal and not what we would expect in the due course of a trial, all the more so one in a religious court. They were the blasphemers, not Jesus. He was the Son of God but they treated Him worse than a common criminal. Christ had done nothing to warrant such malicious and dehumanizing treatment. He had not shown disregard for the proceedings of the court nor tried to escape. Throughout it all, Jesus remained calm and collected. He was truly the fulfillment of prophecy. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7)

Are you prepared to be humiliated for Christ? You may think you are, but do reconsider. It is not mere embarrassment or to be made to feel awkward or self-conscious. Humiliation is to be publically shamed, to lose one’s dignity and self-respect. How do you react when someone finds fault with you? Or makes jokes about your name or your appearance? Are these easy to bear? Have you reacted in anger, or felt it in your heart? We are proud and quick to defend our image, our reputation. Whereas when people mock Christianity and take God’s name in vain, isn’t it all too easy to let it pass and keep quiet? What makes you think you will not shirk away from being humiliated for Christ? In fact, I think most of us have already showed how little we are prepared.

Before the Jewish council, our Lord and Saviour did nothing to defend Himself from the miscarriage of justice, the illegal and dehumanizing treatment. He was prepared for it. He knew the world was so lost in sin. The perpetrators were those whom He loved and had come to save. How it must have broken His heart. We can be better prepared to be humiliated for Christ by having a low esteem of ourselves in light of what Saviour Jesus Christ has done for us. When you are humiliated for Christ, remember the love of Christ and thus the love we ought to have for the lost. The question should not be whether Christ is worthy to suffer humiliation for, but whether we are worthy to suffer humiliation for Him.

Thought: Do you find it difficult to esteem others better than yourself?
Prayer: May I actively live out John 3:30 each and every day.