<p>18:4&nbsp;<i>Whoever therefore shall humble himself</i>- This is the very language of the Lord Jesus on the cross; the hymn of Phil. 2 speaks of seven stages in the Lord's self-humiliation until He finally died &quot;the death of the cross&quot; (Phil. 2:8), and then the hymn speaks of seven stages of exaltation. This is yet another indication that the little child, the one who would be greatest in the Kingdom, was to be seen as representative of the Lord personally. The disciples had initially followed John the Baptist, and his message had been that men must be &quot;brought low&quot; (s.w. 'humble self'; Lk. 3:5). And yet they had clearly not grasped this, even though in chapters 12 and 13 the Lord seems to rejoice that they had responded to John in spirit and truth, unlike Israel generally. Such was His grace and positive feelings about His beloved. To humble oneself suggests conscious effort, and yet it is almost impossible to make ourselves more humble by our own act of the will, or by some self-instigated internal intellectual process. Paul speaks of how&nbsp;<i>God</i>&nbsp;humbled him (2 Cor. 12:21), and Peter speaks of humbling ourselves &quot;under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you&quot; (1 Pet. 5:6). He is willing to humble those who wish to be humbled, and so the essence of self-humiliation is surely to appreciate that God is seeking to humble us, and to cooperate with this, allowing His mighty hand to humble us, rather than resisting the process. We need to daily carry this in mind- that today, God seeks to continue His process of humbling us, so that He might exalt us in His time.</p>
<p>So how, then, can we &lsquo;humble ourselves&rsquo;? When Israel was a child... she was humble, as we should be after our spiritual rebirth at baptism. It is evidently not something natural; for it is a fruit of the spirit we must develop. It isn&rsquo;t a natural timidity or nervousness or shyness. By realising our own sinfulness, we will realise our condemnation, and thereby be &lsquo;brought down&rsquo;. For we are condemned for our behaviour, but saved out of that condemnation. The exact, vast debt is reckoned up- before we are forgiven (Mt. 18). We have been invited through the Gospel to sit down in the Kingdom: &ldquo;But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted&rdquo; (Luke 14:10-11). Humbling ourselves is therefore sitting down in the&nbsp;<i>lowest</i>&nbsp;place- not just a low place. Strictly, the Greek means &lsquo;the farthest&rsquo; away from the Lord Jesus, who sits at the head of the table. Like Paul we must somehow get that deep and genuine apprehension that we are &ldquo;chief of sinners&rdquo;- and sit in the&nbsp;<i>lowest, farthest</i>&nbsp;place. This would mean that we &lsquo;each esteemed our brother better than ourselves to be&rsquo;, not in any na&iuml;ve, meaningless way; not seeing strengths where they simply don&rsquo;t exist; but seeing him [or her] that way simply in comparison to our own lowness. Seeing others as higher than ourselves is a sure remedy for every case of ecclesial friction and division. So often pride develops from a worry about what others will think of us, a desire to be seen as acceptable and not unusual. It leads to a hyper-sensitivity regarding what others may be implying about us [I am verily guilty of this]. The humbled mind will not see things in these terms.&nbsp;<i>If only we would each, personally, learn this lesson, or at least grasp the truth and beauty and power of it</i>. The publican was so worried about his own position before God that he paid no attention, so we sense, to the hypocritical brother next to him: &ldquo;The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner&hellip; this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for &hellip; he that humbleth himself shall be exalted&rdquo; (Luke 18:13-14). That sin-conscious man is an essay in self-humbling. This is why David sometimes parallels &ldquo;the meek&rdquo; and the repentant sinner (e.g. Ps. 25:8,9).<br />
It seems to me that so often in His teaching, the Lord was speaking to and about Himself. We understand from Phil. 2:8 that on the cross, the Lord &quot;humbled himself&quot;. He used just those words in speaking of how the greatest in the Kingdom, the one who would be the most highly exalted (and He surely had Himself in view) was the one who would be the most servile in this life. His references to&nbsp;<i>becoming</i>&nbsp;as a servant He therefore spoke partly as exhortation to Himself (Mt. 18:4; 23:12; Lk. 14:11; 18:14). The Mt. 18:4 reference speaks of humbling oneself in terms of being converted and becoming like a little child. This was lived out by the Lord in His life and ultimately in His acceptance of the death of the cross. Yet this is what &quot;conversion&quot; is essentially about. In the same way as the Lord Jesus Himself had to be &quot;converted&quot; even at the very end of His life, to accept the awfulness of the crucifixion with an almost child-like simplicity (in some ways- e.g. His silence when surrounded by evil accusers, just like &quot;the child in the midst&quot;), so we too will pass through stages of 'conversion'. Note in passing that the same idea of the humble being exalted is used by the Lord in Lk. 18:14 with reference to how the humble man recognizes His own sinfulness. Whilst the Lord was sinless, perhaps part of His humiliation and taking on a servant-form involved His acceptance of the full horror of sin, and His willingness to bear it for our sakes.</p>
<p>Whilst humility isn't a natural characteristic of children, we are asked to take as it were a snapshot of that child in that situation, looking at the ground, pining away inside himself. The Lord said that the child had &quot;humbled himself&quot; (Mt. 18:4)- showing that He didn't see children as naturally humble. But as he stood (or sat, Mt. 18:2 Gk.) in the middle of the circle, the impishness and immature self-assertion was driven out, and in a moment the child was humbled. That child in that situation, the Lord said, represented the true disciple; and it represented Himself, the Lord of glory. It seems to me that the Lord was standing next to the child, identifying Himself with it, in the middle of the circle of disciples.&nbsp;<i>In the very same context, a few verses later</i>&nbsp;the Lord spoke of how He was&nbsp;<i>in the midst</i>&nbsp;of the disciples (Mt. 18:20). There is no doubt He saw that humbled child as the symbol of Himself, possibly implying that He Himself had been progressively humbled, from one level to another. Yet in Lk. 9:48, the Lord goes further: the child represents not only the believers and their Lord, but also&nbsp;<i>the Father</i>&nbsp;(Mt. 18:5; Lk. 9:48). The humble surroundings of the Lord's birth, the way the exalted Lord of life and glory appeared from the tomb dressed like a working man (whilst the Angels, far inferior, had shining white garments), the way during His life He spoke in such a way that reflected His lack of formal education (Jn. 7:15)- all this shows a humble, super-human Father. And His Son was and is the same. Indeed, Lk. 2:12 RV (cp. Is. 7:11,14)&nbsp;says that&nbsp;<i>the</i>&nbsp;sign would be that the Son of God would be laid in a cattle trough; this was to be the extraordinary indication that God Himself was involved in this wonderful birth.</p>
<p><i>As this little child</i>- In&nbsp;<i>Against Celsus&nbsp;</i>3.55, Origen defends Christianity against the allegation that it requires men to leave the world of men and go mix with women and children in &ldquo;the washerwoman&rsquo;s shop&rdquo;- presumably a house church Celsus knew. Lucian of Samosata even mocked Christianity as being largely comprised of children and &ldquo;old hags called widows&rdquo;. Marcus Cornelius Fronto likewise mocked the way &ldquo;children&rdquo; [and by that term he would&rsquo;ve referred to teenagers too] participated in the breaking of bread [<i>Octavius&nbsp;</i>8-9]. The teaching of the Lord Jesus was attractive to children / young people. They like women were treated as of little worth; the Greco-Roman world considered that children had to be taught, and couldn&rsquo;t teach a man anything. But the Lord Jesus repeatedly set children up as examples of discipleship (Mk. 9:36,37; Lk. 9:47,48; as Heb. 12:5-9). So we can understand the appeal of early Christianity to young people, teenagers, especially girls. O.M. Bakke has written a fascinating study entitled&nbsp;<i>When Children Became People</i>. The thesis is that the teaching of Christianity gave disenfranchised people an identity and meaning as persons- women and slaves are obvious examples- but this also applied to children / young people. They too were disregarded as people in Mediterranean society; and yet in Christ they were given their value as people. In the house church setting, we can imagine how this happened. Celsus mocks how teenage boys go to Christian house churches to be taught by women- reflecting how attractive Christianity was for young people. Solomon&rsquo;s words: &quot;I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in&rdquo;, i.e. to rule God's Kingdom (1 Kings 3:9) are alluded to in Mt. 18:3,4; become a child so you can rule the Kingdom; Christ was the greatest child as he will be the greatest ruler. This sets Solomon up as our example in this respect.</p>
<p><i>The same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven</i>- Elsewhere the Lord taught that he who humbled himself would be &quot;exalted&quot; (Mt. 23:12; Lk. 14:11; 18:14), a word which is used both about His 'lifting up' on the cross (Jn. 3:14; 8:28; 12:32 and His ascension to Heaven (Acts 2:33; 5:31; Eph. 4:8), with all the subsequent 'exaltation'. Again, we sense that He has Himself in mind here- He who made Himself the lowest, was to be lifted up both on the cross and to Heaven. Paul makes a telling allusion to this idea in saying that he has humbled himself, not so that&nbsp;<i>he</i>&nbsp;would be exalted, but so that the weak brethren in Corinth might be (2 Cor. 11:7). When Peter later preached that Jesus was 'the exalted one' (Acts 2:33; 5:31) he perceived finally what the Lord was driving at here- that&nbsp;<i>He</i>&nbsp;was the greatest, the most exalted one, because He had humbled himself the most. And therefore all argument about seniority or greatness amongst the body of Christ was therefore irrelevant and deeply inappropriate.</p>
<p>On at least four separate occasions, the Lord taught that he who&nbsp;<i>exalts</i>&nbsp;himself will be&nbsp;<i>abased</i>, and he who&nbsp;<i>humbles&nbsp;</i>[s.w. abases] himself will be exalted (23:12; Lk. 14:11; 18:14). This was clearly a major theme in His exposition of the Gospel of the Kingdom; this is what will happen when that Kingdom is established at His return. He paralleled conversion with humbling oneself (Mt. 18:3,4). The humble will be exalted, and the exalted humbled. Because this will happen, we must&nbsp;<i>now</i>&nbsp;humble ourselves, so that then we might be exalted. The majority of references to humility in Scripture refer to humbling<i> oneself</i>; humility, hard as it is to define, is something consciously done, as an act of the will. Yet the Father confirms us in our efforts. The Lord&nbsp;<i>humbled himself</i>&nbsp;to die on the cross (Phil. 2), and yet the cross<i> humbled him</i>&nbsp;(Acts 8:33). If we don&rsquo;t humble&nbsp;<i>ourselves</i>&nbsp;now, then God will do this to us through the process of condemnation at the judgment. In this lies the insistent logic of humility. It was the logic Israel failed to comprehend... &quot;When Israel was a child...&quot;. It is prophesied of those who will be condemned: &ldquo;Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty [as Moses did in this life]. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low&rdquo; (Is. 2:10-12). &ldquo;And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment&rdquo; (Is. 5:15,16). There are many similar passages; the theme of &lsquo;bringing down&rsquo; pride is a major one in the first half of Isaiah (2:17; 13:11; 25:5,12; 29:4; 32:19). They pave the way for the announcement that in man&rsquo;s response to the Gospel of Christ, &ldquo;Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain&rdquo; (Is. 40:4). By the hills of human pride being brought down, and the giving of confidence to those so low in the valleys of hopelessness and lack of self respect, there is a levelling of all those who respond to Christ. But more than this; in this lifting up of the hopeless and bringing down of the proud, there is a foretaste of what will happen in the future day of judgment. In essence, &ldquo;we make the answer now&rdquo; by whether or not we bring down our pride, or whether we summon the faith in God&rsquo;s grace and imputed righteousness to believe that we, who are nothing, are lifted up in His sight. &ldquo;Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low&rdquo; (James 1:9-10).</p>