Strength in Humility

Embracing God Amidst Humiliation

True strength is found in humility. As we face humiliation with the power of God, we are drawn closer to Christ and empowered to reflect His character to the world. Think of people like Nelson Mandela. He was a man that many would call a great leader, a heroic achiever, or even a noble character. And while he was all these things, he was, more importantly, humble. After years of prison, living in a country that hated him and minimized him because of his ethnicity, you could expect him to wield power with a heavy hand. Instead, his first actions were actions of unity.

Mandela said, “In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one's social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education... But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one's development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others - qualities which are within easy reach of every soul - are the foundation of one's spiritual life.” To me, it sounds like he learned a great truth from God.

In our passage this week, Jesus faces extreme humiliation and unjust treatment as He is wrongly accused and mocked before His crucifixion. The text illustrates the power of God at work as Jesus humbly submits to the will of the Father, embodying true strength despite His suffering. Today, I will try to show that in our moments of humiliation or suffering, we can draw strength from God's power and presence. Jesus’ example should reassure us that humility is not weakness but a divine strength that can lead us to deeper faith and resilience in adversity.

Humility is a powerful stance rooted in trust in God. Just as Jesus exemplified humility in the face of injustice, and as Mandela did, all Christians are called to embrace humility as a means of overcoming challenges and reflecting Christ's character in our lives.

1. Strength in Silence

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 19

19 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and clothed him in a purple robe. 3 And they kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” and were slapping his face.

Then Pilate had Jesus flogged. To set the scene, Pilate has met with Jesus, sent Him to Herod, who returned Him to Pilate. Pilate had offered to give Jesus to the crowds as a Passover gift, but they chose Barabbas instead. Hoping to placate the crowd, Pilate gives Jesus over to the Roman cohort in Jerusalem and has Him beaten. We don’t know whether the soldiers taunted on Pilate’s order, or whether they were just having a good time with their anti-Semitism. But we do know that they took Jesus’ punishment to new levels and made sport of Him.

None of this should be very surprising: people often behave badly. The old saying goes, “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We are not made for power. Only the Lord is made for power, but, I’m getting ahead of myself. The cohort abused their power all for a few laughs. Yet, Jesus said not a word.

Jesus faced physical and emotional abuse as soldiers mocked and scourged Him. Yet, despite this degradation, Jesus’ strength was evident in His silent endurance and trust in divine justice. This reminds us that true power often lies in quiet composure and trust in God's purposes even when humiliated. And, I don’t know about you, but I do NOT like that! I want to fight back! I want to share my thoughts and opinions! I demand that I be taken seriously, treated with dignity, and that everyone follows the way I BELIEVE! What a sinner I am! How many of you identify more with me than with Jesus?

My devotional last week talked about the burnt offerings given to God by the Israelites. It mentioned that the symbolic point of the offering was to give something that is detracting from our connection and relationship with God and to reduce it to the ashes it truly is! The devotional author asked this question, “What is God calling you to burn out of your life? What ashes does He need from you? What has pride clung on to that keeps you from Him?

[pause for a selah moment]

All God truly wants from us is, us. The trappings of life that we bring with us are a distraction. When we try to fall back on our names, our authority, our strength, our pride, what we find is that, in truth, they are all just ashes! The Lord God alone gives us the power, strength, fortitude, and peace we need to get through life. Yes, our ashes function well in “good times”, don’t even look or feel like ashes, but, they are just an illusion of personal strength. We must, like Jesus, find our strength in trusting God’s Will. Remember, it is written:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 8

28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

When we trust God will handle things, we, like Jesus, can stand strong, silent, and humble, knowing that, in the end, the Lord will deliver and esteem us. Now, it is important to mention here: humility does not mean passivity. Humility is a profound inner strength that endures suffering with grace. We see Jesus here not cowering from them, not afraid to answer, not lashing out in anger (like I probably would). We see Him, instead, relying on the inner peace and strength that only God can provide. The Romans did their best to break Him, to belittle Him. They did their best to make Him small.

TRANSITION: A person put under extreme pressure shows their true nature. Psychologists, police, and others will often intentionally ask frustrating, attacking, or insulting questions because, even under that little unease, most people will be more honest and reveal things that they were trying to conceal. When put into a stressful situation, people tend to breakdown in tears, get extremely angry, or fold in on themselves and give up. When we instead tap into the reservoir of strength which is the Lord God, we find that we can react in disarming ways.

2. Power in Perception

So, Pilate was acting in a way to project his power over the Jews. The Jews were acting in a way to protect their understanding of God. And Jesus was the object of their scorn and hatred. The doer was doing, the posers were posing, and people all beheld what they would see.

My High School US History teacher taught me one of the most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned. It has to do with our understanding of both history and the current times. What he said was this, “perception is more important than reality.” The way people think things are drives them to act to a much greater degree than the way things actually are. Its like the Iceberg Principle, where just a small amount is visible: we can steer our ship wide and still hit some of the submerged ice.

Pilate thought that he was portraying Jesus as a weak fool, someone not to be taken seriously. Pilate tried to trivialize the entire incident. Yet, the Jewish leaders and the Chief Priest, I believe, must have felt it salt in an open wound!

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 19

4 Pilate went outside again and said to them, “Look, I’m bringing him out to you to let you know I find no grounds for charging him.” 5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

Behold, the man! Here is your “king”. I believe that Caiaphas and the others must have seen this as Pilate belittling them. More importantly, they saw that Pilate was not taking them seriously. They saw that he did not intend to carry out the execution they desired. And so, they cried out!

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 19

6 When the chief priests and the temple servants saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”

Pilate responded, “Take him and crucify him yourselves, since I find no grounds for charging him.”

7 “We have a law,” the Jews replied to him, “and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”

8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was more afraid than ever.

I realized when I did my first read of the text last Sunday night, that I had never heard anyone really talk about Pilate being afraid. That idea gripped me. Let us put ourselves in Pilate’s sandals for a few moments… For a few years he has heard tales, rumors mostly, of the Rabbi from Galilee who made the blind see, the lame walk, and even had raised the dead. His wife has sent a message, according to Matthew’s account, that she had had disturbing dreams about Jesus: she advised her husband to avoid Christ. To a Roman pagan, the idea that demi-gods walk among us was very real. And, now, this mob in front of him is clamoring for the execution of one who, “made himself the Son of God.” . Now, Pilate finds himself being asked to kill the divine, and this scared him!

Pilate had lost the plot, as they say, and he saw that he was losing control. His idea of how things should be, the Jewish leaders’ ideas, and what was playing out were clearly different plots. Through this, Jesus' humility is misunderstood as weakness. Too often, we take silence and compliance as weakness. Jesus had already been to Gethsemane and had accepted that God’s Will be done, not His. So, there was NOTHING they could do to Him that He did not already accept and welcome: for it was for the glory of the Father.

This highlights the disconnect between worldly perception and divine perspective. As believers, in facing injustice or humiliation, we're encouraged to maintain our humility as a testament to our faith, trusting God to work through our circumstances for His purposes. And, it is possible.

Let me tell you about Richard Wurmbrand. Solitary confinement, physical and mental torture, extreme hunger and cold— these were the experience of Pastor Wurmbrand during his fourteen years in prison in Communist Romania. His crime, a fervent belief in Jesus Christ and a public witness concerning his faith. He was arrested many times. The cell he was kept in for most of his time was barely big enough for an average adult to lie down in. Every time he was freed, he would return to preaching the Gospel. Finally, at the urging of friends and supporters, he moved away to start what became “the Voice of the Martyrs’”: an organization dedicated to helping persecuted Christians to be bold in their faith.

We, like Richard, can choose to give up, to give in, or to give the Gospel. Like him, we can follow Jesus’ example to be strong, silent, humble and speaking the truth in love. It is very easy to lose hope. It is easier to lose our tempers. It is easy to just fold and “let them win.” But, when we understand the true source and Author of power, when we rely on His strength instead of our own, we will find that authority will fall on our side...

3. Authority Amidst Adversity

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 19

9 He went back into the headquarters and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus did not give him an answer. 10 So Pilate said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you?”

11 “You would have no authority over me at all,” Jesus answered him, “if it hadn’t been given you from above. This is why the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”

In light of Pilate’s fears about Jesus’ divinity, he retreats back inside to question our Lord again. He knows that Jesus is from Nazareth in Galilee, as shown by him trying to pawn the problem off on Herod. So, what he is really asking here is, “Jesus, are you human or God?” Again, Jesus maintains His silence and humility.

An exasperated Pilate lashes out, probably trying just as hard to convince himself as to convince Jesus that he is in charge, he questions if Jesus understands what is going on. “If you don’t answer me, I can kill you!” “If you don’t answer me, I can make life unbearable for you.” Its almost like an infatuated girl who cannot understand why her crush won’t text her back the instant she texts him! And, it further illustrates who is REALLY in command.

Despite the power dynamics, Jesus boldly declares that all authority comes from God. It is an audacious statement to make to a Roman official. In essence, “the big difference between you and me is I know Who has true power, and it ain’t you, bub!”

This suggests that in moments of humiliation, we are reassured by God's sovereign control over our lives. Christians can draw from Jesus' example, knowing that humility aligns us with God's will and empowers us with divine assurance amidst life's trials. And it truly is an AWESOME power that our Lord has.

The true saint of God knows that authority and power are not things we should desire. Charles Spurgeon said it this way, “Suppose any one of us had power over the weather, to make it rain or make it shine, just as we pleased. I think I would not like to be that individual, because I would have people at me from morning to night, tearing me to pieces, one wanting rain and another wanting sunshine. I would rather not have any such power, but if God gave me the control over winds and waves, and clouds and rain—if I had it tonight—the first thing I would do when I reached home would be to go upstairs and say, “Lord, you have given me power over the wind and the rain, but I know that I shall make all manner of mistakes with it. I do not have the understanding to manage these matters; O Lord, graciously tell me what to do.”

If you do like that, is it not much the same thing as if you did not have any power and left it to God altogether? You may have just as much rest as that, and even more, for to be without the power is to be without the responsibility.”

300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon The Power and Responsibility of God (1 Kings 3:5–9; Job 42:1–6; Isaiah 26:20)

Suppose any one of us had power over the weather, to make it rain or make it shine, just as we pleased. I think I would not like to be that individual, because I would have people at me from morning to night, tearing me to pieces, one wanting rain and another wanting sunshine. I would rather not have any such power, but if God gave me the control over winds and waves, and clouds and rain—if I had it tonight—the first thing I would do when I reached home would be to go upstairs and say, “Lord, you have given me power over the wind and the rain, but I know that I shall make all manner of mistakes with it. I do not have the understanding to manage these matters; O Lord, graciously tell me what to do.”

If you do like that, is it not much the same thing as if you did not have any power and left it to God altogether? You may have just as much rest as that, and even more, for to be without the power is to be without the responsibility.

Finding the power of humility is not easy. It can only be done with the aid of the Holy Spirit. But, it gives us power that surpasses those around us. One last, brief story for you.

Sundar Singh was born into a Sikh family and converted to Christ by a vision when he was fifteen. He immediately told his family. “Some said I was mad; some that I had dreamed; but, when they saw that I was not to be turned, they began to persecute me. But the persecution was nothing compared with that miserable unrest I had had when I was without Christ; and it was not difficult for me to endure the troubles and persecution which now began” . Soon after, he left home and became a Sadhu. When a little later he returned home, At first my father refused to see me, or to let me in, because by becoming a Christian, I had dishonored the family. But after a little while he came out and said: “Very well, you can stay here tonight; but you must get out early in the morning; don’t show me your face again.” I remained silent, and that night he made me sit at a distance that I might not pollute them or their vessels, and then he brought me food, and gave me water to drink by pouring it into my hands from a vessel held high above, as one does to an outcaste. When I saw this treatment, I could not restrain the tears from flowing from my eyes that my father, who used to love me so much, now hated me as if I was untouchable. In spite of all this, my heart was filled with inexpressible peace.

Years later his father also turned to Christ.

The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott Sundar Singh’s Persecution by His Family

Sundar Singh’s Persecution by His Family

Themes: Conversion; Persecution

Sundar Singh was born into a Sikh family and converted to Christ by a vision when [he was] fifteen. He immediately told his family. “Some said I was mad; some that I had dreamed; but, when they saw that I was not to be turned, they began to persecute me. But the persecution was nothing compared with that miserable unrest I had had when I was without Christ; and it was not difficult for me to endure the troubles and persecution which now began” (p. 102).

Soon after, he left home and became a Sadhu. When a little later he returned home,

At first my father refused to see me, or to let me in, because by becoming a Christian, I had dishonoured the family. But after a little while he came out and said: “Very well, you can stay here tonight; but you must get out early in the morning; don’t show me your face again.” I remained silent, and that night he made me sit at a distance that I might not pollute them or their vessels, and then he brought me food, and gave me water to drink by pouring it into my hands from a vessel held high above, as one does to an outcaste.

When I saw this treatment, I could not restrain the tears from flowing from my eyes that my father, who used to love me so much, now hated me as if I was untouchable. In spite of all this, my heart was filled with inexpressible peace. (pp. 108–9)

NB: Years later his father also turned to Christ.

SOURCE: Sundar Singh, With and Without Christ (Cassell, 1929).

The messages of Lent are not easy messages to hear. They are messages of self-denial, self-sacrifice, and selflessness. They are lessons that will enrich our souls. But they are usually not easy. Setting your pride aside is not easy. Setting your will aside is not easy. People will often hurt us when we allow ourselves to be humble. And, as Sundar Singh found, sometimes, family members may break your heart.

Trust that God’s Will for you is to bless you. Because then you will find the true strength found in humility. And, as we face humiliation with the power of God, we are drawn closer to Christ and empowered to reflect His character to the world.