A Fruit - one of the nine a day we need.
Philippians 2: 1-13 Matthew 21: 23-32
A Fruit one of the nine a day we need.
My wife tells me every day about how humble and full of humility I am. Oh, sorry, I got that wrong; she reminds me of how I lack both humbleness and humility.
I looked up the words Humility and humbleness.
Humility: Having a modest, unpretentious view of oneself; not thinking less of yourself, or having low esteem, but thinking of yourself less; shifting focus away from your ego to acknowledge your limits, to value others and stay open to learning. Having an accurate self-view, knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Other-centredness.
Humbleness: The quality of being modest, free from pride, not thinking you are better or more important than other people.
What is the opposite of humility? Arrogance?
What is the opposite of humbleness? Vanity?
I don’t think these are listed as fruits of the Spirit.
Arrogance: Offensive displays of pride and self-importance. A state of acting as if you are better, smarter, or more important than other people, often showing rudeness or a lack of respect.
Vanity: having too much pride in your looks, abilities, or achievements.
What is humility in practice? It could be letting someone finish speaking, and not assuming your point of view is more important or more salient, It could when we do something where we are not leading but being part of the team that does the action, not always being the lead, supporting other people as they seek to do things and consider how to do things well, encouraging other people to be the lead. Not thinking that only I know how everything should be done. Allowing and encouraging people to take over from us. Are we part of a team? Or do we only want to do things where we are the leader, gaining all the attention and praise?
As John the Baptist said, I must decrease, and He ( Jesus) must increase.
In some churches I have seen people doing things who treat this as a stage to perform on and not a Dias. Stages are where we are glorified, and a Dias is where God should be glorified.
Would the Jewish authorities have applauded Jesus if he had come with all the worldly trappings of power and success? Arriving on a mighty chariot, wearing fine clothes, holding the latest iPhone. Instead, he came with humility, riding on a donkey, humble, and if they had been invented at that time, perhaps with an old Nokia. Yet how he came fulfilled the scriptures. The teachers of the law were well aware of and were truly familiar with these prophecies, but their ideas were focused on the world around them and their standing in it. They were not interested in the world God had foretold about. What would we have done? What would we have applauded?
In Philippi, the composition of the church reflected the diverse nature of the city. Not unlike the society we occupy. Paul is asking that we all respect one another, considering others as we would consider ourselves, not putting ourselves above others, not putting our needs or wants first. He does this by showing how Jesus humbled himself, showing how much Jesus loved us; it is our job to love sinners the same way and to show that love. Not to seek our rights but to seek to serve others; how do we relate to that? Are we like the son who said yes, but had no intention of serving his father, or are we like the son who said no, and then realised he should serve his father, substitute father for others?
The word humility, or humble, is mentioned in the New Testament dozens of times; the exact number I could not find out, as the word humble and humility have been changed in translation and to convey different meanings, in the whole of the bible, including the Old Testament, that bit before God became a Christian, it is mentioned just under 100 times. In Paul’s letters, humility is mentioned about 16 times.
Galatians 5:22-23 tells us, “The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control.” So, a gift to aspire to.
Paul, when defending his ministry to the Corinthians, says in 2 Corinthians 10
By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you – I, Paul, who am ‘timid’ when face to face with you, but ‘bold’ towards you when away! I beg you that when I come, I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be towards some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.
Thus, the call to humility is important. Have you ever worked for someone who is anything but humble? Seen drivers who never give way? What were they like? What impression did it leave you with? The person who says, never say sorry.
It is not thinking of yourself as worthless; it is thinking that other people and their gifts matter as much as yours do. It is not putting people on a pedestal and thinking they are perfect and no one can do better than them. Because that is just praise of people and not of God.
In the commentary I used about how humble Jesus became, it says he humbled himself in that he did not demand normal rights but subjected himself to persecution and suffering at the hands of unbelievers. I think it is worse than that, in that he subjected himself to believers who sought only the law and religious practices and hence obstacles that they had made up. Unbelievers I could cope with; after all, he came to save sinners, but those that proclaimed a belief, but in word only, with no deeds- people who had studied the ancient scriptures, so were looking for a Messiah, and knew where he would come from, yet they denied him. That, to me, could be likened to a church today, saying we believe in serving the people as Jesus did, but then turn our backs on them, or turn a blind eye to needs right in front of them; we will pray for the poor, but we won’t dirty our hands by getting close to them.
So, what about the two sons? It is fairly obvious what Jesus is talking about, but do we take it to heart? In my last church, a church that was a yes church, we more than made our freewill offering. If money needed to be raised, it was always done. We were not always like this, but we decided that we would give first to God, which was an absolute must in the budget: 10% of the gross income. It took a few years, and we nearly went bust, but we turned it around. There was a particular woman who had only been a convert for a few months; she came from an Alpha course, and she took the Christian message literally. She thought the down-and-outs really did deserve to hear the gospel. Now she was a very wealthy woman, but went and worked for nothing with the drug addicts, and what we would call the dropouts and the scum of society. Then one Sunday she brought 4 prostitutes to church. Did we welcome them? I think some of the people were a little frightened of being recognised as clients. They were shunned. But Ev, not to be put down, made a spectacle of herself the next Sunday and shamed the whole church. It had an amazing effect; the church got involved with reaching out to the down-and-outs. What would we do? It clearly says here that the outcasts will enter heaven before us. Jesus came to heal the sick, not the healthy; he wants us to join him. If anyone thinks, I have it right, you would be mistaken; I struggle so much with it. I am guilty of turning a blind eye on many occasions.
At the beginning of the chapter, we have the triumphal entry, and before that, Jesus turning over the tables of the money changers. Maybe that was the real threat to the Pharisees and their power. So, they want to question his authority and have a reason to deny him as the Christ.
Jesus shows humility. He says to the Pharisees, yes, I will tell you on whose authority I did these things, but will you tell me first why you went to see John the Baptist. He did have an advantage; he was and is God. So, he knew their intentions, but they could not admit to their duplicity in the question they asked.
Going back to our opening, do we grab the best places and cast crumbs to those we consider lower than us? They don’t speak right, they don’t have our table manners, they are homeless, so they must be drug addicts, they must be lazy. Even if they are, do we have the right not to care, not to give out of our abundance. I recently read that if every person on the planet had the same resources as the average person in North Lincoln, we would need three planet earths to support them.
How do we respond to the question of Jesus’s authority? Is it merely ok for Sunday, but not the rest of the week? In days gone by, some people came to church for business contacts; was that different to the money changers in the temple? Today we don’t come for social standing, because going to church does not enhance our social standing; meeting the right people in the gym is for that. At least that is an improvement. I remember putting on my CV some time ago that I was a committed Christian. I thought it would make me look honest and trustworthy, but the advice I was given was to take it off, as that would imply that I could not be open to doing deals that might be less than legal or moral, since morality was a flexible path.
The father asked the two sons for help. One thought his own way was best and said yes but meant no, but the other saw the need to change and follow the request of his father; the other said yes and did not follow. We can look respectable and do the right things on the surface, appear to follow Jesus, but really, we are doing our own thing. Jesus loves us all, but he does expect us to follow him and his example. Does he call us, and we say yes, meaning no?
We need to remember Jesus knows our intentions; saying yes but meaning no will not get us any heavenly brownie points.
Looking at the two sons, the first should have said yes straight away, but we don’t live in a perfect world, and God is able and willing to forgive. He is less tolerant when we say all the right things but do little or nothing to show his kingdom to the world.
Looking at the second son, what do you think will happen when it comes to the time when the father divides up his estate? Do you think he will have a place in the last will and testament? I think not. That could also be us, when we do all the right things on Sunday, saying yes to our holy father, but on Monday or Tuesday or the rest of the that week that follows, when we don’t do the bidding of the king, When we think that someone will laugh at us, or we think that person is a bit below us, or when we are in too much of a rush to help others, When we walk by those in need. Yet those that did not come on Sunday, and hear Jesus’s voice in the week, and realise who he is, and do his bidding, they will get the inheritance that we have given up. You see Jesus has the authority, the authority the Pharisees failed to see, he has the authority given to him by his Father our Holy and sinless God.
Andrew F