whoever humbles himself

Station 9: Jesus falls the third time

The valiant one whose steps are guided by the LORD,

who will delight in his way,

May stumble, but he will never fall,

for the LORD holds his hand.

Psalm 37:23-24

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15-16

Station 10: Jesus is stripped of His garments

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down.24So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be,” in order that the passage of scripture might be fulfilled [that says]:

“They divided my garments among them,

and for my vesture they cast lots.”  John 19:23-24

A while back, I said something about being embarrassed to Ella.  She asked, of course, what embarrassed means.  I wasn’t sure how to answer, having never been asked for a clear definition of said word, so I resorted to an example.  Real life experience in story form has thus far been the most helpful tool in explaining anything to Ella.  She gets things so much more quickly when I attach a story to it.  I think that holds true for all humans.   Anyway, I told her being embarrassed is like when you trip and fall down in front of a bunch of people, and you feel silly and wish no one saw you do it.  I don’t know if that helped her understand, but that explanation came to my mind today when I was contemplating the 9th and 10th Stations of the Cross.  

On further examination of my explanation to Ella, I found it interesting that I should choose falling down in front of people as my example.  "Why should that be embarrassing?", I asked myself.  People fall down all the time, because we are human and prone to lose our footing.  When we are kids we cry because it hurts, when we are older, we hide our heads in shame, because we are embarrassed.  The embarrassment, I believe, is a result of pride.  I think all humans, myself included, walk around all day hoping against hope that anyone who meets us will find us similar to Mary Poppins: “Practically perfect in every way”.  We want to appear as though we have everything together, we are on top of it, and we don’t do lame stuff like tripping and falling.  That would prove we are fallen.  That would prove that no matter how much we might think we have it together, the smallest thing can get in our path and knock us to the ground.  Falling proves weakness.  Falling makes us feel vulnerable.  And I sure as heck don’t like to appear vulnerable to the world.  

After coming to this conclusion, I realized that station 9 and 10 are all about humility.  

Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Philipians 2:5-8

He chose to become man, and take on every ugly, undesirous result of our sin without sinning Himself.  This included falling in front of a large crowd that was already mocking Him, spitting on Him, cursing Him.  This included being stripped naked in front of that same crowd.  If falling in front of people is humiliating, being stripped in front of a crowd that is screaming for your death is completely dehumanizing.  Every inch of Jesus was opened to derision.  

He kept nothing for Himself, not even the clothes on His back, so that we might know what true love is, and that it requires humility.  It requires being willing to fall, to hurt, to be stripped of all things that take us away from the Beloved.    He showed us that Love bears all things, and that whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12).  


I pray we all may have the grace to imitate Jesus’ humility.  To become obedient, and to allow Him to strip us of any garment of pride or self-will that keeps us from giving ourselves completely to the one Who gave Himself completely for Love of us, His lost little sheep.  Peace of Christ be with you as we continue to draw closer to the Cross with Jesus.