Christmas is about Humility.
God being willing to take on flesh in the form of a helpless baby.
God being willing to take on flesh in the form of a helpless baby.
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.
We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son,
who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1,14)
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.
We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son,
who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1,14)
There is a book by John Dickson,
Humiltas, An Excellent Chronicle of the Uniquely Christian Virtue.
Dickson, an expert in Classical Civilizations,
defines humility as
Humiltas, An Excellent Chronicle of the Uniquely Christian Virtue.
Dickson, an expert in Classical Civilizations,
defines humility as
"the noble choice to forgo your status,
deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself.
More simply, you could say the humble person is marked
by a willingness to hold power in service of others.” (p.24)
deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself.
More simply, you could say the humble person is marked
by a willingness to hold power in service of others.” (p.24)
In exploring the history of the word he says that in the ancient world humility was not an ethic people valued. It was almost only ever conceived in the negative, as in, being humbled.
So what is the origin of humility in a positive sense?
The study by the University of Macquarie concluded that humility in the positive sense of lowering oneself or holding one’s power for the sake of others can be traced to the onset of the Judeo-Christian worldview— In particular, to a Jewish peasant from Nazareth.
Please note: this university “has no division of theology or even religious studies” (p.99) thus stressing that the conclusion was not a religious one, but an accurate documentation of the history of cultural view of humility.
While Jesus was a humble man in the positive sense, a man who redefined greatness by saying things like “he who wishes to be first must be last” and other such statements and actions—
It was not so much
what He said and how He lived
that changed the way the Western world
understood humilitas,
but how He died.
The Christmas story is the beginning of greatest act of humility. He who was the Creator willing to be a creature. The King of the universe was willing to be born a peasant. He led a life of humility and died as a sacrifice.