God’s ways are not ours

God shows that his ways are not those of humans when he chooses David, the youngest of Jesse’s sons, to be the future King of Israel (I Samuel 16:7). A serious reflection on the story of Jesus will show that he came to show us a very different approach to life from the approach we humans are ordinarily inclined to follow.

“Jesus was innocent and yet accepted all this humiliation and suffering for the sake
of humanity.”

The Son of God came to show us the way to the Father, not just by dying for us and being sacrificed on our behalf, but by showing us how to conduct ourselves in relation to the Father—how to develop godly values, in other words.

First, we see how Jesus, in obedience to the Father, denies himself the glories of heaven and coming down to be born as a human being; and, as if to be human was not enough, he chose to be born in a stable as a poor, helpless and vulnerable baby.

This is expressed beautifully in Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “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” (2: 6-7).

Jesus’ act of obedience to the Father by not clinging to his equality with God is the opposite of the behaviour of Adam and Eve. The two sinned against God by succumbing to their appetite for a delicious fruit and their desire for wisdom and ambition to be like God (Gen 3: 1-6). They chose to follow their ambitions and bodily desires at the expense of God.

In Matthew 4, we see Jesus undergoing similar temptations:

• The temptation for instant bodily gratification by turning stones into bread (2-4);

• The temptation to do the spectacular by throwing himself down from the highest point of the temple (5-6),and

• The temptation for power and control (8-10).

If Jesus had done what the devil was asking him to do, he would have challenged the power and will of God the Father as Adam and Eve had done.

The greatest test for Jesus was at the end of his life when he was tempted to avoid the cross: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me” (Mt 26:39). However, he immediately submitted himself to the Father: “Yet not as I will but as you will.”

True enough, the Father’s will was that he should die. But as Paul puts it, Jesus humbled himself to the point of dying on the cross: “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

Not only was it a painful death—it was a shameful, disreputable death. It was bad enough abandoning the glories of heaven and being born in a stable, but nothing was as humiliating as this: He who had been a great preacher and teacher drawing huge crowds, was now stripped naked, a public display, dying a shameful death between two criminals!

He was innocent and yet accepted the responsibility of undergoing all this humiliation and suffering for the sake of humanity.

Paul goes on to explain that it was this very act of painful and humiliating selflessness, this complete reversal of common human values and expectations, that earned him the greatest name and the highest position in heaven.

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord…” (Philippians 2:9-11).