Humility in Christ

        Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father and His only Son, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

        I once had a good friend to whom I lent a large amount of money. He never repaid me and he no longer talks to me. I should not be surprised, as the great bard once said in one of his plays: “For loan oft loses both itself and friend…”

        Many of us have probably heard this advice: ‘Neither a borrower nor a lender be’ and ‘To thine own self be true’ We repeat these sayings as advice but rarely practice them. Why do we quote words from a tragic play written by a man in the 17^th century? Because the advice is true and useful!

        Strangely, we have even better advice from King Solomon, a true man of God, which we often ignore. His inspired words from the Holy Spirit were so valued that the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied them down so they would not forget.

      “Do not go hastily to court;

For what will you do in the end,

When your neighbor has put you to shame?

        Debate your case with your neighbor,

And do not disclose the secret to another;

        Lest he who hears it expose your shame,

And your reputation be ruined.” [Proverbs 25:6-10]

Here the advice is to speak to your neighbor about any transgression between you so that it may be resolved without bringing it to court and thus having the chance of more iniquities being brought into the light in public.

        It seems today that we do the opposite. We become obsessed with our rights and our demands to have our own way. We call it justice, but when it is self-serving and damaging to our neighbor and our community it becomes sin.

        Instead of thinking of others, we think of ‘what’s-in-it-for-me?’ We place ourselves first – first in line, first to take a share, and first to be loved. We call ourselves cunning and clever when we are able to push our neighbor to the side so that we get the lion’s share. We justify our actions by telling ourselves that it is only natural that the strong survive while the weak perish.

        We have all witnessed more than once, a person pushing their way to the front of the line, or making loud demands for preferred treatment. Usually the person making the most noise or causing the greatest commotion is not of a position to make any sort of demands whatsoever. Often these people are given what they want just to maintain peace or to get rid of the troublemaker as soon as possible for the comfort of the rest of the people.

        Yet what happens when someone stronger pushes back? What happens when we run into someone with more power than we? This is the problem with the philosophy of striving to be king-of-the-hill; there is always someone strong enough to knock you down. Because of this attitude, society breaks down. Everybody can’t be number one. Everybody can’t be first in line.

        In addition, what happens to those who are weak in body or spirit? They are cast aside and forgotten, or worse, used and abused as stepping stones for the powerful. This is why it is so difficult to be a true follower of God. Jesus Christ declared to us that we should not push and shove our way to the top, but to think of others first.

        King Solomon had some advice about this.

        ^“Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king,

And do not stand in the place of the great;

        For it is better that he say to you,

“Come up here,”

Than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince,

Whom your eyes have seen.”

Jesus spoke a parable with this same message. He told this parable when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. He told it to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor. They all fought for the best seat to show their own prominence. At the end of the parable Jesus gives us some good advice, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” [Luke 14:11]

        Jesus is not saying to look to our humility and unselfishness as meriting righteousness and salvation on the day of His return. Nor are we to be hypocritical or falsely humble with idea of achieving exaltation. We are to avoid the idea that we merit reward or repayment for what we do.

        Humility does not earn exaltation; repayment in the resurrection is not earned by unselfishness. Rather, humility and unselfishness are parts of Christian living which is the fruit of faith.

        For just as we have faith only by the grace of God, so also our humility comes by the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The knowledge of our sin and of whom and what we are by nature is what humbles us before Christ. By Jesus giving up his life in crucifixion, by his death and by his resurrection three days later, we have all gained righteousness before God and eternal life in His kingdom. Jesus humbled himself to be born human so that by his work we would be saved. By Jesus humbling himself, we have gained victory over death.

        To do as our Lord commands, we must change our minds. We have conditioned our way of thinking to be sinful and selfish. We need to turn from this path and return to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Another term for this is repentance. When we turn away from that mirror in which we admire ourselves so much, and look to the needs of our friends, family and even our enemies, we turn towards Christ.

        It will take some effort to change from the former habits and selfish desires but it can be done. We have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit – the spirit of God himself! With the Holy Spirit living in us, we have the ability to love our neighbors and to serve them.

        We have the Holy Spirit because of Jesus Christ. It was his sacrifice on the cross that paid the debt of our sin. His body and blood were given as the final offering for forgiveness. His death was our death and his resurrection to life is our life eternal.

        When Moses died, God made this promise to Joshua:

“No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.” [Joshua 1:5]

King David wrote in Psalm 118:

      “The Lord is on my side;

I will not fear.

What can man do to me?” [Psalm 118:6]

With these words of promise from God, we too can stand before the strong and powerful without fear. We can turn from looking inwards to looking out. We now have the power of Christ to love one another and to serve one another because, ^“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” [Hebrews 13:8]

        St. Paul has this advice for us:   

 ^“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name…” [Philippians 2:5-9]

        This is where a Christian finds humility – through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Yet this humility does not cause us to lose all sense of self-worth because through Christ our worth is now a precious thing in the eyes of God the Father. We take comfort knowing that our true glory is in Christ and not in anything we do. We can be unselfish to our neighbors, our brothers and our sisters, because Jesus has made us rich beyond all earthly treasure.

“Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” [Hebrews 13:15-16]

Amen