TEXT:

SUBJECT: Jesus Christ humbled Himself

To become our Savior, Jesus Christ humbled Himself. He stepped down from His high station and took the lowest place He could find. God became a man at the bottom of society. He submitted to the Law with all its demands and severe penalties. He took the abuse of His own people and foreigners too. Then He died on the cross, under the curse of God. Finally His body was taken down from the cross and put into a tomb—a rich man’s tomb, yes, but a tomb nonetheless, a place for the dead.

At the Lord’s Table we must remember what He went through to save us from our sin and misery. But not only that. His story does not end with his death and burial. For if He humbled Himself…

God exalted Him. If He became a man, God glorifies His humanity, making Him even greater than He was before. If He is born in a manger, God sets Him on a throne. If He submits to the Law of Moses, God makes Him Lawgiver to the Church. If men ridicule Him on the cross, angels praise Him in heaven. If men leave Him for dead, God makes Him alive!

The Lord we come to remember and worship at His Table is not in the manger and not on the cross. He’s in glory. His exaltation starts off with the Resurrection, when a dead man enters into life—and not the same life He had before, but a life worthy of the name ‘life’. It rises even higher with Ascension, when He rises to heaven on the chariot of God. Even higher it goes, as He takes the favored place in heaven—God’s Right Hand it is—where He rules the universe in the Father’s name. Finally, He comes again, and every knee bows and every tongue confesses, Jesus is Lord.

Hymn 211—See the Conqueror Mounts in Triumph (tune #269)

Hymn 215—The Head that Once was Crowned with Thorns (tune #293)

Hymn 213—Golden Harps are Sounding (tune #587)

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Lord’s Supper

Closing Hymn 122—Of the Father’s Love Begotten (tune #268)