Last Monday, Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation from the papacy. Citing advanced age and declining health, the 85-year-old pope declared that he no longer feels able to fulfill the duties of the papal ministry, and that he will officially leave the position on Feb. 28. Understandably, this announcement has been met with surprise across the world, as news outlets and commentators scramble to analyze Benedict’s papacy and make predictions about the next pope.

This is, of course, the news. Yet while the Pope’s announcement is clearly significant, here at Biola it’s easy to feel disconnected from all of the commotion. After all, Biola is a Protestant evangelical institution with an overwhelmingly Protestant student body. Most of us see the proceedings at the Vatican, if we are aware of them at all, from an outsider’s perspective. Given this, it can be difficult to see why the pope’s resignation is important to us.

I submit, however, that the pope’s decision to leave his office is of deep importance to all Christians. There are many reasons you should care, not least of all that the College of Cardinals might soon recognize the global nature of Christianity by electing an African or Latin American Pope. More generally, though, here are two reasons why you should care that the pope resigned last week.
       
First off, you should care about Benedict XVI’s resignation because, regardless of who you are, this is history. The last pope to resign, Gregory XII, did so in 1415 — not only well before the American Revolution but even before the Protestant Reformation. Let that one sink in.
       
The Pope is one of the world’s most influential public figures and, like it or not, one of the most visible Christian leaders in the world. Whatever happens in the modern world, the pope will be involved in the discussion. This is clearly true in matters of faith but even extends to the rest of the public sphere. During the Cold War, John Paul II actively worked to end communism in his native Poland. In the same way, Benedict XVI has served as a strong voice in the ongoing global debate of sexuality and abortion. Whatever conversations and tragedies come to define the next years of history, the pope will be deeply involved.
      
An understanding of the global importance of the papacy lets us see the uniqueness of Benedict’s resignation. One of the most remarkable things in this world is the relinquishing of power. It runs contrary to all of our human greed and self-love. It doesn’t happen often, and when it does it is an act of true humility. The greater the power that is refused, the vaster is the humility required to give it up.
       
This leads to the second and greatest reason why you should care about Benedict’s resignation. The act of leaving one of the most powerful positions in the world is an act of Christ-like humility for the good of the Church. By Church I do not mean only the Roman Catholic Church, but the “small c” catholic — which means universal, the Church of all believers. In John 17:21, Jesus asks the Father that believers “may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
       
The Church is one, and that oneness does not depend on our beliefs on the Virgin Mary or transubstantiation, but on the lordship of Christ. Simply because we may disagree about the pope’s authority and some of the doctrines he professes is no reason to deny the unity that Christ himself declares. So we can see in the resignation of Benedict XVI not only a shift in the power of Roman Catholicism, but a humble and loving submission to the power of Jesus Christ. Let us pray that we can learn such humility, and that the Holy Spirit may guide the College of Cardinals to elect a Pope who is similarly obedient to the will of Christ.