Now, whatever may be the meaning of these great passages, whatever the pre-incamate riches and glory of Christ, He voluntarily submitted to the surrender of the resources of a Divine state for the lowliness of a human lot and the extreme of human poverty, and to the relinquishment of His equal participation in the Divine glory in exchange for the nethermost depth of human humiliation. Exactly what was involved in His self-humiliation from the Divine to the human is treated specifically imder the articles on Pre- EXISTEN'CE, Kenosis, and lNC.\llN.\TION. Con- lining our attention, then, in this article to His earthly history, we find that His whole life. His entire sojourn on earth, was a humiliation. His incarnation was but the first stage in His humilia- tion, \vhich continued by a deepening descent to the very end of His eartlily life. His whole career in this world was a protracted humiliation or succession of humiliations between the humiliation of His incarnation and the humiliation of His crucifixion. It is worthy of note that the words of St. Paul, ' he humbled himself ' (in Ph 2'), refer to experiences of His earthly life and not to the process of His incarnation.
2. Sis earthly life to the assumption of the Mes- sianic mission. — The circmnstances of His birth were most painful. It occurred, not in the sheltered privacy, and amid the comforts, of home, but while His mother was on a humiliating and painful pilgrimage, and among the feeding beasts, sur- rounded by the filth of a stable, and possibly under the observation of strange and uncouth men. But the child Jesus was not a year old before He be- came the object of jealousy and persecution, and had to be taken on a long and painful journey into a foreign land to save His life — a baby fugitive on the face of the earth. Showing at the age of twelve a wisdom which astonished the wisest men of the nation, and which would have secured for Him recognition, position, power, and renown. He yet willingly returned to the obscure and humble home at Nazareth ; and there for the space of nearly twenty years He submitted Himself, day after day, to the control of two plain peasant people, and to the occupation and drudgeiy of common manual labour.
3. Humiliations of the Messianic ministry.— \\q knew from the beginning what the Messianic mission meant and how it would end. It wjis not to Him an honour to be enjoyed ; it was a Imrden to be borne. It cost Him a struggle to submit and
adjust Himself to that Mhich He knew -ttivs so fraught with diiiic ulty, jier-erution, humiliation, loneliness, suspense, an. I sulieiing, ending with the linal agonies and the ilealU of abandonment and shame. This is the reason why He needed — and received — the expression of His Father's approval at the moment of His self-dedication to the work of Messiah (Mk 1", Lk 3^). This was the meaning of His temptation in the wilderness. This was why at the sharp turning-point in His ministry, when He looked out on the dark and lonely way of obedi- ence unto death and deliberately chose to walk in it alone. He needed again — and again received — the assurance of His Father's recognition, approval, and sympathy (Mk 9', Lk ^).* It was the burden of the ^lessianic task that made Him, beyond all men, a man of sorrows. More than once we are told that He wept ; but never that He laughed. Almost from the beginning of His ministry He \\ as looked on with jealousy and suspicion by the p|J^^ eilul leaders of the people, from whom He had a li-lit til expect encouragement and supjiort. They k'-yi a vatch on Him, they found fault with Him, they misconstrued His actions, they per- verted His sayings, they dogged His steps, tliey nagged Him at every turn, they accused Him of being a law-breaker, a blasphemer, an imjMstor, a lunatic, a demoniac, an emissary of the powers of darkness (Lk W'). They laid plots to catch Him and to kill Him ; and they never ceased until they succeeded. Not only so, but little by little He lost His early popularity and was abandoned by the people. He came to those whom He had the ri^'ht to claim as His own ; they refused to receive Him, turned against Him. His personal ministry was comparatively a failure, and He practically an outcast. He did not even have a refuge among the friends of His youth, the people of His old home at Nazareth. They also turned agarinst Him, rejected His claims, drove Him out of their village, made a desperate attempt to kill Him (Mk 6', Lk 4-8). The members of His own family failed to understand Him, refused to accept Him, were alienated from Him (Jn 7*). Probably they thought Him either a fanatic or a frauiL Pro- bably on account of His strangeness and growing unpopularity they were ashamed of Him. He w;i.s subjected to the humiliation and pain of constant misunderstanding and sometimes even criticism on He was rebukeil one of them, sold and delivered into the hands of His enemies and murderers for a few pounds by another (26"-'°), deserted by all (Mt 26=*, Mk 14»"). Added to these things, He sufi'ered the humiliations of a painful poverty. Rejected at home, ejected from home. He had no place of His very o^vn where He could feel that He might retire when weary or lonely or heart-sore, and enjoy rest w-ithout the fear of intrusion or molestation. He was dependent on charity, He was supported by charity (Lk 8'). He had to borrow a room for His last meal with His disciples (22"). He had to borrow an ass to ride into Jerusalem on the day of His triumphal entry (11)33.34) Another man's stuble was borrowed for Him to be bom in (2') ; another man's grave for Him to be buried in (Mt 27'»- ^).