For Christ belongs to those who are humble-minded, not to those who exalt themselves over his flock.
The scepter of God's majesty, the Lord Jesus Christ, did not come with the pomp of arrogance or pride, though he had the power to do so, but in humility, just as the Holy Spirit spoke concerning him. For it says:
“Lord, who has believed what we heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We proclaimed him before him as a child, as a root in thirsty ground. He has no form or glory. We saw him, and he had no form or beauty; instead, his appearance was dishonored, failing even in comparison with the appearance of other people—a man under blows and suffering, acquainted with bearing weakness. Because his face was turned away, he was dishonored and was not esteemed.
He bears our sins and suffers pain for us, yet we regarded him as being in suffering, under blows, and in affliction.
But he was wounded because of our sins and made weak because of our lawless deeds. The discipline that brought us peace was upon him; by his bruise we were healed.
All of us wandered like sheep; each person wandered in his own way.
And the Lord handed him over for our sins. Though he was afflicted, he does not open his mouth. Like a sheep he was led to slaughter, and like a lamb silent before the one who shears it, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.
Who will recount his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.
Because of the lawless deeds of my people he comes to death.
And I will give the wicked in place of his burial and the rich in place of his death, because he committed no lawlessness, nor was deceit found in his mouth. And the Lord wills to cleanse him from his wound.
If you make an offering for sin, your soul will see long-lived offspring.
And the Lord wills to remove him from the suffering of his soul, to show him light and fashion him with understanding, to justify the righteous one who serves many well. And he himself will bear their sins.
Therefore he will inherit many and divide the spoils of the strong, because his soul was handed over to death and he was counted among the lawless.
And he himself bore the sins of many and was handed over because of their sins.”
And again he himself says: “But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach among people and despised by the people.
All who look at me mock me; they speak with their lips and shake their heads: ‘He hoped in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him. Let him save him, since he delights in him.’”
You see, beloved, what example has been given to us. For if the Lord humbled himself in this way, what should we do, who through him have come under the yoke of his grace?