Because He Stooped So Low

“It takes more grace than I can tell to play the second fiddle well.”

So goes the saying, referring to the difficulty of being subordinate to someone else – second in command, inferior in perceived status, weaker in power. No one can argue that the role does indeed require grace…

“But,” my adopted dad used to say, “the second fiddle plays the harmony.” And harmony is a beautiful thing. It takes the melody and makes a masterpiece of it. It takes the message and carries it to the heart. It embellishes and completes the efforts of the solitary first violinist.

It’s the beauty of subordination. But in our culture we’re more familiar with its opposite – insubordination. The refusal to take orders, the inability to walk in the shadow of others, the insistence on equal billing. It’s the independent/equality streak in our American mentality, gone awol. And it’s everywhere – in the schools, in the workplace, sometimes in the church (sadly), and often in the home.

Are you in a position that calls for subordination? I think, in some area or another, we all are. So where can we second fiddles find a role model? Who has done it right? Who has sung the harmony perfectly and gladly and without apology?

Jesus Christ, who, “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing… [and] humbled himself and became obedient to death” (Phil. 2:6-8 NIV). And “[because He stooped so low] God has exalted Him” (2:9 AMP). In fact, God has given Jesus a name to which every knee will one day bow and every tongue will proclaim as Lord.

Jesus made Himself nothing intentionally, premeditatedly, and without begrudging or complaining. Gethsemane tells us it wasn’t automatic or pretty or pleasant - quite the opposite. But it was worth it, for Him and for us.

As Bill Hybels wrote in Descending Into Greatness (highly recommended reading, by the way), “If we want to follow in the footsteps of the Son of God, we have to consciously move down.”

Consciously, on purpose, imitating the One Who stooped so low for us. I’m becoming more and more convinced that I don’t have to be afraid to do the same. How about you?