<p>23:12&nbsp;<em>And whosoever</em>- The singular &ldquo;greatest&rdquo; person in view in :11 was the Lord Jesus; He was speaking of Himself, and in a sense speaking obliquely to Himself as well as to His immediate audience. But He now teaches that all in Him must pass through the same path of humiliation and exaltation. The same words for &lsquo;abase&rsquo; and &lsquo;exalt&rsquo; are used about all believers, e.g. &ldquo;Humble yourselves s.w. &lsquo;abase&rsquo; in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up s.w. &ldquo;exalt&rdquo;&rdquo; (James 4:10; 1 Pet. 5:6). The Lord gave a parabolic example of what He meant when He also used the same words together about how the proud Pharisee would be &ldquo;abased&rdquo; and the convicted sinner &lsquo;humbled himself&rsquo; and would later be &lsquo;exalted&rsquo; (Lk. 18:14). The Lord&rsquo;s path of humiliation and exaltation is therefore to be that of us all; and Phil. 2:4-12 clearly applies this to His whole life and supremely to His death on the cross and exaltation subsequently. &ldquo;He&nbsp;<em>humbled Himself&nbsp;</em>(s.w. &lsquo;humble&rsquo; and &lsquo;abase&rsquo; here in Mt. 23:12)&hellip; unto death&rdquo; (Phil. 2:8). He there is therefore no longer a mere historical event, but rather a living pattern with which we engage throughout the progressive humiliation which the Lord&rsquo;s hand brings upon us, so that we might be exalted in due time. This, in one sense, is what the paths of our lives are all about- progressive humiliation under His mighty hand, both pushing ourselves down and being pushed down.</p><p><em>Shall exalt himself</em>- Again relevant to the Lord Jesus, who was highly exalted because of His servanthood. But He was exalted by God, not Himself (Acts 2:33; 5:31 s.w.). And the very same word is used of the Lord's lifting up on the cross (Jn. 3:14; 8:28; 12:32,34). This was the true exaltation.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Shall be humbled</em>- This is the very same word used in the next clause: &ldquo;He that shall humble s.w. &lsquo;abase&rsquo; himself&hellip;&rdquo;. In the end, we are brought down. We are humbled by our own humanity and weakness. We either bring ourselves down, or God will bring us down. So we may as well humble ourselves so that we shall be exalted by God, rather than exalting ourselves so that God will eternally bring us down in condemnation at the last day. It&rsquo;s humility, bringing down, either way. So certain is the connection between humility and exaltation that James 1:9 can say that the brother who is &lsquo;abased&rsquo; (AV &ldquo;of low degree&rdquo;)&nbsp;<em>is</em> exalted- in the eyes of the God who sees outside of our time, for whom all live unto Him even now.</p><p><em>And whoever shall humble himself shall be exalted-&nbsp;</em>God recognized Mary&rsquo;s &ldquo;low estate&rdquo; humility and exalted her above all women (Lk. 1:48), just as He would exalt His Son among men. The same Greek word is used in Acts 8:33: &ldquo;In his humiliation &lsquo;low estate&rsquo; his judgment was taken away&rdquo;. It occurs too in&nbsp;Phil. 2:8: &ldquo;He&nbsp;<em>humbled himself</em>&rdquo;. In the cross, indeed throughout the seven stage self-humiliation of the Lord which Phil. 2 speaks of, He was living out the spirit of his mother. She taught him the life and the way of the cross. Hence the way she insisted on being there at the end, and the comfort she would have given Him, and the love He showed by asking for the only one who really understood Him to be taken away, for her sake as well as His own. The Lord directly alluded to His mother&rsquo;s pattern of humiliation and exaltation by using the same word again here in Mt. 23:12: &ldquo;Whosever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself s.w. be abased- we must either humble ourselves or be humbled, it&rsquo;s such a powerful logic shall be exalted&rdquo;. Thus Jesus alludes to His mother's words in order to set her up as our pattern &ldquo;whosoever&rdquo;. And yet He Himself showed the ultimate obedience to her pattern in the death of the cross. For this and many other reasons,&nbsp;the Lord&rsquo;s mind was upon His mother in His time of dying. And according to the Messianic Psalms, He even asks God to have mercy upon Him&nbsp;<em>for Mary&rsquo;s sake</em>&nbsp;(Ps. 86:16; 116:16).</p>