When my family lived in Kansas City, my oldest daughter rode the bus each morning to school. And every morning, she (and everyone else) had to put up with a verbal "bully" who would loudly control the conversation the entire way to school. This usually meant everyone was expected to agree with her on whatever opinion she was spewing forth that day.
One morning, this bully was lauding her own best features, things like "humorous," "intelligent," "athletic," and more. My daughter, as she listened to this girl declaring her greatness to her fellow bus-mates, quietly said to her seat mate, "Yeah, and she's extremely humble too!"
The bully overheard my daughter, and said, "Wait... humble? Doesn't that mean fat? Well, then you're double-humble!!!"
Hopefully you know better than the bus bully that "humble" has nothing to do with the fat percentage of your body, but rather has to do with the posture of your heart and view of self. A humble heart is the opposite of this girl's declarations. Rather, it means you think of others appropriately more than yourself and care for them.
Jesus displays this type of healthy humility in our key passage (Matthew 11:28-30) for this Heart of Christ blog series. In verse 29, Jesus describes Himself as "gentle" (which we talked about last week) and "lowly in heart." That short phrase "lowly in heart" is a poetic way of saying "humble."
Now, Jesus is not like my daughter's bus bully and declaring His humility with great boasting meant to impress us. He is communicating that He is more concerned about you than He is about Himself. He isn't worried about whether He is going to find rest. He is offering you and me rest (Matthew 11:28)! His heart is truly for you, making Him the greatest example of humility.
But don't just take His word for it. Take His actions as well. While Jesus had no sin (Hebrews 4:15), He still died in the sinner's place upon the cross (Romans 5:8), meaning He put your spiritual needs before His own safety. His humility put you first, even if it meant His death on your behalf.
And when you see that kind of heart in the Risen Savior, you can't help but be drawn to Him and find rest for your soul!
(Speaking of rest... if you missed Sam Shaffer's sermon on how Jesus is The True & Greater Sabbath, make some time to go listen to it.)
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