Christ's Perfect Humility

In the scriptures we see the great humility of the Savior in many ways.  One of those is the way that He sought to elevate others to His level without fear of that diminishing His own position.  The way that Jesus showed a desire to bring greatness to all who would follow Him during His ministry was in stark contrast to the man who tried to kill him as a young child.  Herod “the Great” was one who was insanely jealous of his position as king, and because of it he executed several members of his own family including one of his wives and three of his sons.  From what I understand he did this because of his own frenzied fear about them being rivals to himself.  He could not let anyone else threaten his position and status.  Jesus, on the other hand, showed that He not only wanted to lift those around him; He wanted them to become even as He and His Father are.  

                Ae Jesus taught the apostles before His death, He told them this: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).  Not only did He expect that His disciples would do the kind of miracles that He had done, He wanted them to do “greater works” than He had done.  I’m not sure I understand how disciples can do greater things than the miracles He did—including raising people from the dead—but this expression of trust and confidence in those who would follow Him shows His perfect humility.  We see this in action in the way He dealt with the children among the Nephites.  We read, “And it came to pass that he did teach and minister unto the children of the multitude of whom hath been spoken, and he did loose their tongues, and they did speak unto their fathers great and marvelous things, even greater than he had revealed unto the people” (3 Nephi 26:14).  Not only did He allow the children to say miraculous things, but He had them reveal greater things than He had.   

We see this same attitude in His teachings.  Among the Nephites, Jesus taught the disciples, “Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am” (3 Nephi 27:27).  This is of course similar to the teaching He had given earlier to “be perfect even as I or your Father who is in heaven is perfect” (3 Nephi 12:48).  He did not want to hoard His own position; anything He had done or attained unto He wanted for His disciples as well.  He wants us to receive “all that [His] Father hath” (D&C 84:38). There is no holding back of our progress for us in order to preserve His own superior status; Jesus’s humility and love are so perfect that He wants us to have everything He and the Father have.  And that’s the kind of attitude we must learn to develop as we are in any position to teach others: our only motivation must be that those under our tutelage reach their greatest potential.