The Humility of Christmas By JERRY NEWCOMBE for The Stream
Winston Churchill was a man of great wit. Much of that wit came in the form of insulting barbs. It was once reported, “When Winston Churchill was told that Clement Attlee [former British prime minister] is a modest man, he said: ‘No doubt he is. And Mr. Attlee has plenty to be modest about.’”
But all joking aside, genuine humility is a beautiful and God-like trait. The first Christmas was really quite humble.
Why Christmas Resonates
Perhaps that is why Christmas resonates in the hearts of many, even many non-religious people … because of its utter humility.
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Of course, we Christians believe God became a man in Jesus Christ. But when He came, He didn’t come in pomp and circumstance, living in an ivory palace. He came in a humble and lowly way.
He didn’t even sleep in a bed that first Christmas. He was laid in a manger — a feeding trough for animals — in a smelly stable. Hay served as the baby’s mattress.
He did it voluntarily, as the Apostle Paul notes: “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
One of the verses of the classic 19th century Christmas carol “What Child Is This?” asks, “Why lies He in such mean estate, / Where ox and ass are feeding?” At that time, “mean” meant, “Of little value; low in worth or estimation.”
Here is a lesson to us all. No one in this world, no matter how lowly, no matter what side of the tracks they come from, would find Jesus unrelatable. He is accessible to all.
Mary — Humble Servant of the Lord
Mary was a Jewish teenage girl, maybe 13 or 14. She was betrothed to be married to Joseph, which entailed more of a legal commitment to marriage than our modern day engagement.
They lived in Nazareth of Galilee in Israel, which was under the thumb of the Roman Empire. Later on, when one of the 12 apostles, Nathanael, first learned that Jesus was from Nazareth, he exclaimed, “Nazareth? Can anything good come from Nazareth?” It was viewed as backwoods.
