Stepping Down to Step Up

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.    —Matthew 1:24-25

Like Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus, I was a carpenter in my younger days. I built a couple houses, installed many kitchens and bathrooms, and replaced way too many roofs. My business partner and I even had dreams of building a model home and owning a home building franchise. If our dreams would have succeeded, we may have built a few more houses in the area and hopefully made a better than decent wage.

All of that changed as I became more involved in the church and grew in my walk with Jesus Christ. The more opportunities I had to serve in the church and preach, the more I felt God calling me to something more. I eventually accepted God’s nudging into full time ministry, but in order to follow God’s plan and will, I had to step down from my carpenter business and step away from my future plans for building homes.

How many of you have heard of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris? Probably quite of few, but how many know who designed it? It was Jean Chalgrin. What about the Pentagon? George Bergstrom and David Witmer were the chief architects. Joseph the Carpenter, the husband of Mary and step-father of Jesus, might have designed and build many earthly things had it not been for God’s plan and will for his life.

Joseph stepped down into surrender and humiliation in order to step up into God’s grander purpose for his life. Joseph may have had great hopes and dreams for himself. Maybe he was planning to offer an entire new furniture line. He may have had in his mind plans for the greatest building in the Middle East. As with other great structures, as the years pass, very few people would have remembered his name. Although he was known as “the husband of Mary” (Matthew 1:16), and listed as the “so it was thought” father of Jesus (Luke 3:23), Joseph was included in the greatest adventure and plan of the universe. Joseph shared in the salvation of the entire world and will be remembered forever as a servant of God.

Jesus, Himself, epitomizes the stepping down to step up mode of the Kingdom of God. Philippians 2:5-11 tells us that Jesus, “Who, being in very nature God … made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant … and humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.” Jesus stepped down from heaven on Christmas Day and became a helpless human baby. He then lived a perfect sinless life and gave His life on the cruel Roman cross to pay for our sins and the sins of the entire world.

In the resurrection on Easter morning and His ascension to heaven, Jesus steps up into the glory of God the Father and is exalted above every name. Jesus stepped down in humility, service, and obedience, but He stepped up higher than anyone or anything in all creation.

Many of us think that to totally surrender our lives to God’s will for our lives means we must sacrifice all the good things we had hoped for. God’s plan for our lives far surpasses the greatest earthly joy and human achievement without God. God knows you better than you know yourself. God has plans and goals that will benefit others and the Kingdom of God. Stepping down from human plans and up into the glorious plans of God never disappoints. James tells us, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (4:10). Peter repeats, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).