Matthew 11 records one of the many debates Jesus endured regarding Who He was and what He was doing.  As the debate drew to a close, Jesus urged the people to come to Him and learn from Him.  His reasoning, however, is very different from what we would expect.  Jesus said, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” Matt 11:28-30 ESV.

Speaking of that passage, D. L. Moody wrote, “Did you ever notice the reason Christ gave for learning of Him?  He might have said: ‘Learn of Me, because I am the most advanced thinker of the age.  I have performed miracles that no man else has performed.  I have shown My supernatural power in a thousand ways.’  But no: the reason He gave was that He was ‘meek and lowly in heart.’” 

Jesus wants us to learn from Him because He is humble.  We consistently go the other way.  We think people should listen to us and learn from us because we are superior, though we aren’t.  Jesus was superior in every way, but He called us to learn from Him because He is humble. 

Humility is a trait God highly values.  Philippians 2 tells us that God highly exalted Jesus because He “emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” 

Moody continues, “the one prominent virtue of Christ, next to His obedience, is His humility; and even His obedience grew out of His humility.” 

Christlike humility is not in vogue, even in our churches.  Like the disciples, we jockey for position and prominence.  We want others to see us and better than…  We want to see ourselves that way, too.  But if we want to be like Jesus and please God, we need to learn humility.  We need to incorporate Jesus’ humility into our hearts, minds and lives.  We need to actively pursue humility. 

1 Peter 5:5-7 says to “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’  Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you”.