Hiding Behind Christ: Humility in Practice
On the morning of August 21, 2017, I was fortunate enough to be in Wilson, Wyoming. It’s a beautiful spot of the country regardless of the season, but this day was special.
Nearly my entire extended family had gathered to experience this moment together. The town was abuzz over what was about to happen. No, a famous musician was not coming to town. No politician was coming to make lofty promises. No tech company was hiring for high-paying jobs.
It was about to go dark in Wilson. But not because of a power outage or because it was nighttime. Wilson was about to actually be hidden from the sun’s view behind something larger and greater than the town. Some of you are picturing the scene from Independence Day where the alien spaceships block out the sun, but that’s not it either.
Wilson was about to be eclipsed by the moon. We were about to be hidden from the sun’s gaze and the excitement was at a boiling point.
THE ANOMALY OF HUMILITY
It’s the most notable time I can remember in my life where people were actually eager to be hidden from view. The reason this was such an outlier among my memories is that our desire as humans to be seen and recognized is everywhere and our craving for notoriety is seemingly impossible to kill. It’s so sneaky.
Of course, we would all say that humility is a good thing. I’m sure many of us desire to grow in humility—and perhaps pray for that. But do we contradict our prayers by simultaneously seeking to be recognized for our humility?
Maybe you haven’t been duped into that contradiction, but I have. Desiring to be recognized and pursuing humility are simultaneously present at times within my praise-hungry heart. I have literally had the thought and desire to be famous for being humble. How crazy is that?
So how do we practice humility? What does it look like for us to serve the Lord in humility?
HUMILITY IN ACTION
Over the past few years, it has become clearer to me that humility involves a perpetual desire and effort to hide behind Christ. I mean that in all things, we take tangible steps to see Christ be increased in our lives to the decrease of our own agenda and notoriety.
Outside of Christ’s profound example of humility that he showed by taking on flesh and submitting to death on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins (Phil. 2:6–11), John the Baptist might be the greatest example of humility I have found in the Scriptures. It says this about him in John 1:
And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said” (John 1:19–23).
John, when asked who he is, could have easily given them his résumé: “My birth was foretold by angels! My dad was mute for months because he doubted God could bring me into this world. My ministry was prophesied hundreds of years ago! I have been used by God to direct hundreds of people to the Lord!”
But he doesn’t. He wasn’t even asked if he was the Christ, but he made positively sure that he wouldn’t be mistaken for Him or anyone else of tremendous significance. It seems to me that he is intentionally and purposefully lowering his own status before men. He is simply a “voice,” he claims.
DESIRING OBSCURITY
John the Baptist is essentially saying he desires to be hidden from the view of the world. He wants only to be a voice directing people to the Lord. He is constantly stating in John 1 that he is lower than the Christ, that he is unworthy of untying His sandal straps, and that he is vastly outranked.
As Jesus walks by, John the Baptist even exclaims “Behold, the Lamb of God!” within earshot of his disciples. What happens? His disciples leave and follow Jesus. When John says those words about Jesus—“He must increase, but I must decrease”—I’m beginning to get the feeling that this was not as passive as I had once thought. John actively wanted to see his own decrease, so that Christ might be exalted. He wants Jesus to be seen, so John takes tangible steps to make himself small and then hides behind Christ as the superior One.
When the Holy Spirit regenerates our dead hearts through the preaching of the gospel and we are born again, what is our profession of faith, other than an expression of desire to hide behind Christ?
Before we are in Christ, we desire to be seen. We desire to make ourselves known. We foolishly believe we could be judged positively before God Almighty, thinking our works are good enough to get us into heaven. We earned it. We ought to be credited.
But when we are called to Christ through the effectual work of the Holy Spirit, we no longer desire to be seen. Our belief in Christ’s work on the cross on our behalf and our profession of faith in Him is essentially saying that we want to hide behind Him. We don’t want the world and certainly not God the Father to see us for who we truly are at our core. We don’t want to be defined by the terrible things we’ve done.
But hiding behind an object is more than just whitewashing the bad qualities. It is concealment of the entire person. We aren’t defined by anything bad we’ve done, but we are also no longer desiring to be defined by anything “good” we’ve done. We desire it all to be concealed as we hide behind the One with a perfect, spotless righteousness and are given His record as our own.
PRACTICING HUMILITY
What would it look like if we kept that desire and effort to hide behind Christ daily? I think it would change a number of things.
It would change our view of social media. How often are our intentions to exalt ourselves on social media, whether through bragging about our adventures, displaying our family in only perfect ways, or having the more subtle attitude of “I want to be the most influential guy who sends out wise little blurbs about the Christian life”? How many of us would be pleased to direct people towards the heart of Christ even if it meant we’d lose “followers?”
It would affect our relationships with our employers. If we are to take John the Baptist’s career advice, we will not promote ourselves endlessly and try to make ourselves look better than we are, but instead refuse to blast our own horn. We’d faithfully do our work, drawing as little attention to ourselves as possible, and desiring that Christ would be pleased. After all, the men around him certainly didn’t say this about him, but look at the words Jesus spoke regarding John: “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John” (Luke 7:28). I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have that than a promotion. And if you are promoted, you can be surer it was only because of the work of God and not because of your own manipulative agenda.
I think it would change the way we interact as we communicate with others. We’d be far less focused on how we are perceived and far more passionate about being a consistent and accurate voice as we seek to see Christ exalted in and through us. We desire to be the person who discipled one or two or ten people with faithfulness over being put in a history book for doing something “notable” among crowds of thousands.
HIDE BEHIND CHRIST
The solar eclipse in Wilson, Wyoming was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Being hidden from the sun’s gaze was a moment of awestruck wonder that I will not soon forget. I was momentarily invisible to the most powerful and life-giving object in the entire solar system and nearly invisible to those around me.
I want more of my life to be like this moment: my “good deeds” being hidden from view from God the Father by Christ’s superior work and for my minimal notoriety among men to decrease even further, to the glory of Jesus.
I urge you today, Christian, hide behind Christ. Don’t seek glory. Don’t seek fame. Don’t seek recognition or notoriety. In fact, I urge you to avoid it.
Hide yourself behind Christ, so that He might be the One to receive any accolades headed in your direction. For we ought to desire far more than the accolades of men. We desire to hear the opinion of only one person—the One whom we hide behind.
Mike Rettler lives outside Detroit, MI with his wife of five years, Kate. Three years ago, he left an engineering career in the automotive industry and now serves as the Associate Pastor for the Plymouth Campus of Woodside Bible Church in Plymouth, MI. He received a Master of Theological Studies from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.