Humility: Trading Status for Glory

Years ago I was part of a puppet show done for neighborhood kids at a church. For one show, a good friend of mine, Scott Homesly, was playing the part of the "tax collector" who, when he prayed, "would not even look up to heaven, but would beat his breast and pray, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'" Scott's puppet character would slowly beat his breast with his chubby little cloth hands and bow his head with obvious shame, creating a perfect visual of what it means to be humble. I think of this visual every time that I read Luke's account of Jesus parable.

Jesus ends his parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee by saying that God justifies and exalts the one who is humble. From this parable, I think that we can understand that humility means acknowledging our sinfulness, our need of God and our complete lack of judgment of others. The tax collector prays away from the others because he considers himself unworthy to be around them. It is God's business to judge them for hypocrisy, not his. He is so aware of his own shortcomings that he has no time, place, nor inclination to consider theirs.

I do not believe that God wants the focal point of our lives to be our own sinfulness. Our focal point should be thankfulness for the goodness and greatness of God that is shown daily in his love and mercy. At some point, to focus on our own wretchedness becomes a selfish act and even denies the all-sufficiency of God. But just the same, humility is key to our relationship with God. Isn't it great to know that the key for us is not how much we love others, how well we serve, or how well we use our gifts? The key thing for us is to realize the truth from the bottom of our hearts: we are sinners; we deserve nothing. This is precisely the point at which God can justify and exalt us.

Ok, so what do I do right now?

I have been an "ok, so what do I do right now?" kind-of-guy for some time. Maybe always. This has been my gut response to anyone who claims to have some kind of teaching that I am supposed to embrace or, more generally, some kind of sermon/harangue that they wield. What is it that I am supposed to do right now if what you are saying is true? The fact is if there is nothing that I am supposed to do in response to a lecture, I am not inclined to keep listening.

When I began hearing God for what seemed like the first time, it was immediately obvious what I was supposed to begin doing right now. I was to stop living so selfishly and being so full of pride and began loving other people, looking after their interests instead of mine own. Begin loving right now. Start being kind. And gentle. And everything else that I'm supposed to do and be but don't and aren't.

Another thing that I began to do, another heuristic that I began to live by, was to be a servant. Join into God's work of by being a servant. It is the way that God was teaching me to express love, serving others instead of myself.

To love and to serve others is not a bad way to try to orient your life. Loving and serving is what Jesus did and does. But my thinking is continuing to grow as I think about some of the things that N.T. Wright says in Simply Jesus, his new book in which he tries to get us to think about and respond to Jesus in a fresh way. Jesus rules. How did that happen, how does he exert his rule now and what is our part in that rule right now?

So what about you? What is it that you live by? What is your response to Jesus right now?