Philippians 2:8

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

(v8, NIV)

We are to have the same attitude as Christ Jesus. He is by nature God, but he didn't even consider grasping equality with God. Though he could have been high, he made himself nothing. He lowered himself by taking the form of a servant. Why is he doing all this? Why would Jesus willfully make himself nothing, taking the appearance of a man? Would you like to dress up and pretend to be a pig? How would you like to magically be transformed into a donkey? Being transformed into something lowly like an ant isn't quite the same as what Jesus did, but it helps a bit in understanding. Why would someone do something like that? Jesus was humbling himself in obedience.

Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

(1 Corinthians 11:3, NIV)

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul talks about men having their head uncovered when they pray and women having their head covered when they pray. Without getting into much detail, it is about order. This isn't to say that men are more valued than women. This is not about value, it's about order. The head of man is Christ and the head of Christ is God. Who was Jesus obedient to? Jesus is obedient to the Father. In his obedience he humbled himself taking the form of a servant.

To what degree was Jesus obedient? Jesus was obedient to the point of death. In addition, he wasn't obedient to any kind of death. He was obedient to the worst kind of death. Back then, to be crucified was the worst anyone could receive. If you didn't already know, I will briefly try to explain it. There first may be beatings and torture with whips beforehand. The person is stripped naked with wrists and ankles nailed to a cross. There they would hang for long periods of time often being mocked by people watching. It would be very painful, and apparently the person would suffocate. The person would need to push up with their legs each time to get a breath and this would be very tiring. Eventually, if enough time has passed, the person's legs would be broken so that they could push up to breathe no more and they would eventually die. I probably missed a lot, but that's some of what it's like to die on a cross. A modern day equivalent would be the electric chair. The Romans used death by crucifixion as a state penalty to scare others from committing crimes. In the same way, some places in the world use the electric chair or maybe hanging to execute people as a penalty for committing crimes. However, death by crucifixion is much worse than hanging or the electric chair.

How obedient are we? We say we follow Jesus and call ourselves Christians, but are we really willing to follow him? To what extent will we follow? Will we stand for Jesus even it if means a shameful and painful death? Let us have the same attitude as him who humbled himself in obedience to the Father, even to death on a cross.