God’s Word is full of paradoxes, two seemingly incompatible statements, such as the one from our passage today: the one who humbles himself as a child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Normally we do not equate greatness with being a child, or a king with humility. Yet the kingdom of heaven is so counter-cultural to world in which we live.
This humility is simply emptying oneself to be a servant, but it is a position of absolute powerlessness and acknowledging our own inability as far as spiritual things are concerned. A humility that realizes that there is nothing we can do. A humility that relies solely on Christ for our forgiveness, hope, and peace.
That’s part of what Ash Wednesday is about – realizing that we are sinners with no hope and no future without Him, that without Him our future would be nothing but ashes and dust. Yet through Christ and Christ alone we have hope, we have forgiveness, and we have His promise!