February 25, 2007

The Humility of Jesus

Matthew 11:28-30

            It was January 30, 1994 and Super Bowl XXVIII was being played out at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.  The NFC champion Dallas Cowboys had just defeated the AFC champion Buffalo Bills, 30–13.  Dallas scored 24 unanswered points in the second half, and Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith was named the Super Bowl MVP, with 30 carries for 132 yards and 2 touchdowns, while also catching 4 passes for 26 yards.  At the end of the game, Buffalo Bills player Thurman Thomas stayed on the Buffalo bench with his head in his hands.  It had been Buffalo’s fourth straight Super Bowl loss.  The Bills became the first team to both appear in and lose 4 consecutive Super Bowls.  During the game, Thomas fumbled the ball three times which had contributed to the Bills losing the game.  But Thomas looked up from the bench to see the Dallas Cowboys’ star running back, Emmitt Smith standing in front of him.  He was holding his small goddaughter.  Smith looked at her and said, “I want you to meet the greatest running back in the NFL, Mr. Thurman Thomas.”  Smith and Thomas were competing for NFL records, but there was no gloating on Smith’s part.  Emmitt Smith, if you do not follow sports, retired from the NFL in 2005 as the NFL’s all time rushing record holder, and one of the greatest players in the history of the game.  He is also a professing Christian.  One article states, “Emmitt founded an organization called the Open Doors Foundation to help underprivileged children overcome and be successful. In an amazing act of selflessness he has donated much of his personal memorabilia collection, and has auctioned much of it off to support the foundation.  Some of the items donated and auctioned include his first NFL touchdown ball, his 150 TD ball, and his record breaking uniform and ball.”  The article concludes, “This is just another example that Emmitt played for the game itself rather than the glory.” 

            Emmitt Smith is a contemporary example of Christian humility.  Humility is a Christian character quality, because it was part of the character of Christ.  He said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29).  He is telling us that as we learn to follow his example of humility, we will find rest.  Pride and arrogance throw us into turmoil, but humility allows us to rest from that competitive spirit.  The book of Romans admonishes us: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment. . . Do not be proud. . . Do not be conceited” (Romans 12:3 & 16). 

            I want to point out three main areas that display the humility of Jesus.  The first is: His focus was on the Father’s will, not his own.  Here is the crux of the Christian faith.  Whether or not we have entered into the Christian faith and become a disciple of Jesus is determined by whether or not we are doing our will or God’s will.  You can know that you are Christian if you are no longer living by your own will, but have surrendered and are seeking to live out God’s will in your life.  Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38).  He prayed as he was facing the cross: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.  Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).  And if we are going to belong to Jesus and be like Jesus, we have to come to the place where we live to do the will of the One who made us and sent us into the world. 

            It is important to seek to be like Christ, who is our Savior and model for life.  The Bible says, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:5-8).  Doing God’s will brings us into a relationship with Jesus, for he said, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). 

            Pride and rebellion make us determined to have our way and bring ruin, but humility enables us to surrender to the will of God and experience peace.  What we discover when we put on the yoke of obedience to Christ is that his will is difficult, but we also discover that it is not nearly as difficult as not doing his will.  Stubbornly refusing to surrender to the will of God invites disaster into our lives, but accepting his will brings peace and rest to our souls.  We want to imitate the life of Christ, so we say with the Psalmist, “I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8).  The Scripture says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).  The end result of doing God’s will is eternal life, for the Bible says, “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:17). 

            But dong God’s will takes humility.  It means that you finally understand that you do not know it all, and cannot do it on your own.  It means you die to your stubborn pride and surrender to the will of God. 

            The second area that displays the humility of Christ is: His focus was away from himself, not on himself.  He came to do his Father’s will, not his own.  He came to serve, not be served.  He came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).  Because we are to be like Jesus, the Bible says, “Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others” (1 Corinthians 10:24).  Proud people are self-focused people.  They cannot stop talking about themselves.  If it is not about their accomplishments, it is their illnesses and trials.  It is about the minutiae of their lives which no one really cares about, but they think everyone should know about.  Somehow, these folks never ask how someone else is doing, or what is going on in others’ lives.  It is all about them.  They are the most important person in their universe. 

            Baseball legend Cal Ripken, Jr. was interviewed about his success as a baseball player.  Many believe he is one of the greatest players in baseball history, but his individual success was not what mattered most to him.  In the interview, he said: “I’d much rather be referred to not as an individually great player, or someone who tore up the record books, but someone who came to the ball park and said: ‘Okay, I’m here.  I want to play.  What can I do to help us win today?’  A lot of people ask, ‘What is your greatest play — your greatest accomplishment?’ I say, ‘I caught the last out of the World Series.’  It wasn’t a great catch — I didn’t dive, I didn’t do a cartwheel and throw the guy out at first base.  People’s mouths didn’t drop open on the play.  We all want to be part of something bigger.  But we all have our little jobs that we have to do as a member of a team.  Everybody has their individual responsibilities, but they all have to come together for a main goal. . .  So the most fulfilling moment I could ever have, again, was catching the last out of the World Series — knowing we did it!” 

            Some of the saddest words in the New Testament are concerning the disciples at the Last Supper.  Jesus had repeatedly told them of his betrayal and coming suffering and death.  He announced that one of them was about to betray him, and the next verse says, “A dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest” (Luke 22:24).  How incredible that they could think only of themselves when they needed to have their thoughts on each other and on Jesus more than at any other time!  Jesus has just told them that one of them is going to betray him.  This was a time for humility, not a time to worry if you are the greatest.  Someone said, “Humble people don’t think less of themselves .  .  .  they just think about themselves less.” 

            Shane Claiborne, who spent a summer in the slums of Calcutta with Mother Teresa, wrote about her experience there.  She said, “People often ask me what Mother Teresa was like. Sometimes it’s like they wonder if she glowed in the dark or had a halo.  She was short, wrinkled, and precious, maybe even a little ornery — like a beautiful, wise old granny.  But there is one thing I will never forget — her feet.  Her feet were deformed.  Each morning in Mass, I would stare at them.  I wondered if she had contracted leprosy.  But I wasn’t going to ask, of course. ‘Hey Mother, what’s wrong with your feet?’  One day a sister said to us, ‘Have you noticed her feet?’  We nodded, curious.  She said: ‘Her feet are deformed because we get just enough donated shoes for everyone, and Mother does not want anyone to get stuck with the worst pair, so she digs through and finds them.  And years of doing that have deformed her feet.’  Years of loving her neighbor as herself deformed her feet.” 

            Humility means that our focus is away from ourselves and not on ourselves.  The Scripture says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). 

            The third thing that I see in the humility of Jesus is: His focus was on serving, not being served.  Imagine the King of heaven coming down to save the people of earth.  Imagine the One who ruled and reigned in glory washing his disciples’ feet.  Imagine the One who had the power to destroy the world being willing to suffer at the hands of men and then die for them. 

            L. T. Jeyachandran is executive director of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Singapore.  He gives this important insight: “The image God has given us in the Trinity is an image of three co-eternal, co-equal Persons giving themselves to one another in eternal self-effacement.  The glory of our God is not a thunder-and-lighting quality, but a self-giving love within the Trinity.  And Jesus’s prayer for his disciples (and us) is that this same glory may be given to us that we ‘may be one’ even as they are one.  Is there any question why servanthood and relationship-building is no longer an optional extra for the Christian but essential to reflecting the glory of the Triune God?” 

            Nowhere do we see the humility and servant-spirit of Christ more than at the Last Supper when he washed the feet of his disciples — the very ones who would betray him, deny him and run away from him.  After Jesus washed their feet, he said to them: “Do you understand what I have done for you?  You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:12-15). 

            Tom McDawley, a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor reported on a poll conducted in January 2006 by the Terror Free Tomorrow organization.  The poll suggested that humanitarian aid delivered by real human beings is a very effective way to improve how Muslim countries view the United States of America.  In May of 2003, not long before the country was devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami, research indicated that only 15 percent of people in Indonesia — the world’s most populous Muslim nation — had a favorable view of the U.S.  In the year that followed, humanitarian aid poured into the affected areas from the U.S. and other Western nations.  As a result, a January 2006 poll showed that Indonesian people with a favorable view of the U.S. had nearly tripled, jumping to 44 percent.  In addition, information from the well-respected Indonesian Survey Institute showed that “support for Bin Laden and terrorism has dropped to its lowest level since 9/11.”  Finally, the ISI reported that Indonesians with a “very unfavorable” view of the U.S. had fallen to just 13 percent — down from 48 percent prior to the tsunami.  It made a huge difference that we showed we cared. 

            That’s just one small example of what can happen when we humble ourselves and take on a servant spirit — even serving our enemies and doing good to them.  So often, we want to find the perfect argument for defending the Christian faith, and we miss the most powerful argument we have — the example of our lives.  So, perhaps, when we understand that our best argument — the best defense of the Gospel — is the quality of our lives, we will begin to win the debate.  But only when we do it in humility, a humility that focuses on the Father’s will, not our own; focuses away from ourselves, rather than on ourselves, and focuses on serving rather than being served. 

Rodney J. Buchanan

February 25, 2007

Mulberry St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org