MOSAIC: HOW GOD CREATES BEAUTY FROM LIFE’S BROKEN PIECES
PRIDE AND HUMILITY
DR. JIM DIXON
2 PETER 5:5
MARCH 15, 2009
Our Lord Jesus Christ once told the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, and you can read that story, that parable, in Luke’s Gospel, the 18th chapter. Now, Jesus tells us that two men went up to the temple to pray. One of them was a Pharisee, the other a Publican. And Jesus tells us that the Pharisee stood in the temple, in the midst of the temple, and prayed thusly with himself: “God, I thank you that I’m not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this Publican over here, this tax collector over here. For I fast twice a week. I fast two out of every seven days. I give tithes of everything that I have.”
Jesus tells us then that the Publican, the tax collector, would not even lift his eyes toward Heaven, but with head down he beat his breast, crying, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you the Publican, the tax collector, went home justified, and not the Pharisee. For he who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Now, when I read a parable like that it occurs to me that in many ways this Pharisee was a good guy. He was doing some good things. If he was telling the truth, he didn’t extort people. If he was telling the truth, he was just. If he was telling the truth, he was faithful to his wife and was not an adulterer. He also had piety, hopefully not false piety, where he fasted and prayed. He fasted twice a week. He fasted two out of every seven days. He was a giver, and he gave tithes of everything that he had. And yet something was wrong in his heart. Obviously, he was not humble. He was prideful, self-righteous, and he really didn’t understand that before God he was messed up. Jesus then tells us that the real example for us is the Publican who beat his breast and said, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.” Humility.
We look at humility this day and there are a few thoughts I’d like to share this morning. The first thought is this: Humility is counterintuitive. Have you ever thought about that? Humility in this world seems counterintuitive, and I think that’s because of the Devil. I think that’s because of Satan. The Bible tells us that at the dawn of time, Satan, perhaps an archangel, high and lifted up, in the midst of his pride, was cast down. He said, “I shall ascend above the stars of God.” And in his pride God judged him and he was cast down. He has come to earth, and Jesus tells us that Satan is actually the archon, the prince of this world. That means that Satan is the ruler of this world and his thoughts have permeated our culture. Indeed, his thoughts have permeated cultures all over the Earth, and that’s why humility is counterintuitive to the world’s mindset. In a sense, we have the mind of Satan, and we seek self-exultation. So, humility is counterintuitive.
I was reading this past week about a hang-glider and the sport of hang-gliding. I have personally never gone out and practiced hang-gliding. And if ever you see me hang-gliding, you’ll know that I’ve had a lobotomy recently. But I do read about stuff like that, and I was reading about this one guy named Pinkerton. His name is Ronald Pinkerton, and he was hang-gliding one day and he took off from this cliff and he was about 300 feet above the ground as he was hang-gliding and he was just enjoying the majesty of it all when suddenly he caught a violent downdraft. He caught an airborne riptide, and he just began to rapidly descend to the face of the Earth and there was this panic. His heart was just beating in his chest, and he was like, “What do I do?”
With all of his skill and with all of his ability, he tried to resist the downdraft and he tried to lift himself up, but he couldn’t do it as the wind just forced him downward. At 200 feet above the ground, just six feet to the side of him he saw a red-tailed hawk. The red-tailed hawk was in the same predicament, going down in this downdraft. But he noticed the red-tailed hawk just suddenly turned and just went with the downdraft, just intentionally just dove. Instead of resisting it, just dove right into the downdraft. He thought, “Wow, I can’t do that.” It was counterintuitive, right? But he thought, “Wow, this hawk has to know what it’s doing.” So, he did the same. He just turned and went into a dive right with the downdraft, right with that airborne riptide. Sure enough, as he got to about 100 feet above the ground, he suddenly received uplift and began to rise along with the hawk, and his life was saved.
We live in a strange world. We live in a world where sometimes you’ve got to go against what is intuitive. And that’s true with regard to pride and humility. The leaders of this world would say, “Exalt yourself.” The leaders of this world would say, “There’s proper pride.” But Jesus always calls us to humility. And so, often the Bible tells us it’s when you lower yourself intentionally you find God raising you up.
Many of you read Guideposts. I’ve read it from time to time. There is a story in Guideposts about a man named Tracy Bailey. The name Tracey Bailey may kind of ring a tune for many of you. You might recognize the name Tracey Bailey. 1993, Tracey Bailey was given National Teacher of the Year. In the White House, the Rose Garden, Bill Clinton, former President of the United States, gave him this recognition as National Teacher of the Year. He is a science teacher in the state of Florida. The amazing thing about Tracey Bailey is that just 15 years earlier, 15 years before he received that National Teacher of the Year award, he was in prison. Pretty amazing. He was sent to youth prison for alcohol and drug abuse and also for criminal activity. He’d been in the sports world, and he had a coach that had told him, “Never bow your head—not any time, not in front of anyone. Hold your head high and always be proud.” And he really believed that. So, when he went into court and the judge heard his story, he showed no humility. He did not bow his head. He did not in any sense lower himself. He held himself high and he was proud, and the judge didn’t like that and sentenced him to five years in youth prison.
It was in prison was where Tracey Bailey began to read the Bible. He was not a Christian, had never been a believer—had never really understood the gospel—but he began to read the Bible. As he palmed through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and began to read the life of Christ, he realized the beauty of humility. He was so attracted to Christ that he gave his heart to him right there in prison. Tracey Bailey gave his life to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. He said in that moment he bowed his head and received the victory. He bowed his head for the first time. What a great testimony for National Teacher of the Year, a guy who had learned to humble himself before God. It was for him counterintuitive, and I think it is counterintuitive for many people in this world.
I know that probably all of you have heard of Tim Russert. Tim Russert died last year, June 13, 2008. Tim Russert was the moderator for the program Meet the Press. He was the Washington Bureau Chief for NBC, and a very prominent man. I don’t know what you think of his politics, but this was a man of significant talent. Now, there came a point in time where NBC wanted to interview the Pope. NBC wanted the Pope to come on Meet the Press and to have an interview with NBC that would be global. And they thought, “How do we get the Pope to do this?” This was when Pope John Paul II was the Pontiff. They said, “We’ll send Tim Russert because Tim’s a Catholic and as a kid he was an altar boy. He’s big and he’s important and he’s known all over the world. We’ll send Tim to invite the Pope.”
So, Tim went. He went to the Vatican compound in Vatican City to have an audience with the Pope and to strongly encourage the Pope to be interviewed by NBC. So, he’s approaching the Pope in an audience, and as he’s approaching John Paul II, suddenly his heart begins to accelerate and pound. Tim Russert was there on this mission for NBC, but all he could think about was his personal salvation. As he’s approaching the Pope all he could think about was his personal salvation. As he comes before the Pope, he lowers himself and he says, “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.” And Pope John Paul II says to Tim Russert, “Your name is Timothy, and they tell me you are a very important man.” What a set up by Pope John Paul II, what a set up! “They tell me you are a very important man.” And Tim Russell, head lowered, said, “No, I’m nothing. I’m nothing.” And Pope John Paul II smiled and said, “You are right.”
We live in a world where for a lot of people it just seems offensive to say that you are nothing. I know people who have told me they won’t even sing the hymn Amazing Grace because they will not sing those words, “That saved a wretch like me.” I understand that we’re created in the image of God, the imago Dei, and I understand that we are crowned with glory and we are precious in the sight of God and each human life is amazing, but I also know (and I hope you know) the human race is fallen. We have fallen and we are all sinners. There’s none righteous, no, not one. In the presence of the Holy God all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. There’s a humility that the human race needs to bring before God.
I was told this past week that we’ve had five phone calls recently, here to the church, complaining about me. That’s not an entirely unusual situation. But we’ve had five phone calls complaining about me with people saying, “We were really offended that Pastor Dixon told us we’re messed up.” I did say that and you know that, but I’ve always included myself, have I not? I’ve always said, “We’re messed up. We’re all messed up,” and I hope you know that. I will acknowledge that some of you are relatively less messed up, but we’re all messed up, right? I mean we’re all sinners. We’re all fallen. If we’re not messed up, then why did Jesus have to come and die for us? Because we are sinners in need of grace. So, we humble ourselves even though at times it’s counterintuitive.
A second thought about humility is that humility is team-oriented. I don’t know whether we’re all naturally team-oriented, and here in America there’s a lot of entrepreneurialism and kind of an independent spirit. One of the things I love about sports is, often times, at least in many sports, you learn to be a team player. There’s a certain humility that is needed for that. In the body of Christ, we’re a team with a great cause on the Earth and we need to learn humility.
I was reading recently about Alex Haley. I know surely most of you have heard of Alex Haley. Alex Haley wrote that great book (he died in 1992 at the age of 71) in 1976 called Roots: the Saga of an American Family. He was talking about his own family, which was an African-American family. And through fact and fiction Alex Haley traced his family’s history, beginning in the mid-l700’s in Africa, as his relative Kunta Kinte was kidnapped from Gambia and brought over to the United States of America as a slave. The book was written in 1976 and was made into a television series in 1977, an eight-part television series, and the final episode was amongst the most-watched television programs in the history of TV.
In the aftermath of it all, Alex Haley became renowned. He became famous. He received a Pulitzer Prize and he was acknowledged all over the world. He began to think, “I’m really something!” And then he had this encounter with God and in the aftermath of being humbled before God, Alex Haley began to put this picture up in his office that he always had there. It was always there, and it showed a turtle sitting on top of a fence post. People would come into his office to meet with him and ask, “What’s that picture about?” And Alex Haley would say, “If you look at it, if you really look at it and think about it, that turtle had to have some help. Every time I find myself thinking, ‘Isn’t it marvelous what I’ve done?’ I look at the turtle picture. I realized how much help I’ve had through the years.”
I know in a room like this with so many wonderful people, many of you have accomplished great things, at least in some setting, at least in some subculture. You’ve accomplished something significant, but I’m sure most of you would acknowledge that it took a lot of help and a lot of people that were servant-hearted towards you. Now, we’re in the body of Christ here and we are the family of God, and we’re all to be servant-hearted towards each other, and we’re actually supposed to seek to lift one another up. Humility means to lower yourself for the sake of lifting up someone else. That’s the meaning of humility in the Bible. “Anavah,” the Hebrew word means that, and “tapeinos,” the Greek word means the same. One means to bow your head and the other one means to lower yourself, but both in the context for the purpose of exalting someone else. In the body of Christ, we’re all to be humble and we’re to be willing to lower ourselves to exalt each other that each person in our midst might be served.
We come to communion, and communion comes from the Greek word “koinonia,” and koinonia means common. Before Christ and under the cross we are all common, we are all equals, we’re a family and a community of equals. The word koinonia not only means common, but also a community of common people. So, as we come to the Lord’s Table, we are a community, we are a fellowship, we are a family of common people, and we’re equal. We each are willing to serve each other, hopefully, for the sake of that person’s blessing. So, we pray for each other. In humility we get down on our knees and we humble ourselves before God and we serve each other in prayer. We pray for each other. If somebody’s in the hospital, we visit them. If somebody’s fallen, we seek to help them up. If somebody’s poor, we reach out to them. If somebody’s sick, we pray over them.
After the service we’re going to have a time of prayer and anointing with oil for any of you who are sick with our elders, because this is the Body of Christ and this is how we function as a team. And it’s all based on the meaning of the Greek word for humility, and the Hebrew word as well. This is how we find wholeness. This is how we find health. We’re all part of the mosaic that God is working. All the broken pieces of our lives, God wants to take these broken pieces, make something beautiful, but he needs us all in humility to be part of it as we learn to serve each other.
A final thought: Humility is not only counterintuitive and team-oriented. But it is also Jesus-centered. Humility is Christ-centered. I hope you know that. I hope you look at Jesus every day. I hope you don’t let a day go by but that you don’t take some moment, some slice of your day, and just focus on Jesus. Because that’s where you’ll see the meaning of humility. We don’t think of God as humble, but God lowered himself to raise us up. Jesus is the greatest example of humility. In Philippians 2, the Bible says, “Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be clutched. But he emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. And being found in human form, he humbled himself.” Jesus humbled himself and became obedient even unto death on the cross. “Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed upon him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
So, we have this lesson in Christ. Remember when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet? An amazing act, as he bowed before these guys and washed the mud and the junk from their feet. When he was done, he said, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me master and Lord, and so I am. If I then, your master and Lord, have washed your feet, how much more ought you to wash one another’s feet? I’ve given you an example that you should follow in my steps.” So, we look at Jesus every day and we learn humility.
Today we look at Jesus as we come to this table and we remember his body broken and we remember his blood shed. We remember his humility, how he lowered himself, even to the point of death, and he did it for us. I was sharing with the elders this past week and with the department heads at the church (and also I shared at Midpoint, at our gathering worship service in midweek on Wednesday night) about an article I’d just seen. It was in Christian Century. I subscribe to Christian Century. It’s a Christian publication and it’s been around for a long, long time. It’s not really an evangelical publication. It’s kind of moved into theological liberalism, a little bit, and this cover story just appalled me. The cover story said, “God does not demand blood.” I opened it up and I began to read the article by an ELCA pastor and the article said the cross has no meaning. It certainly shows that Jesus was human and that he was obedient even unto death, but it has no meaning. He didn’t die for the sin of the world. That’s a horrible thought. There’s no such thing as atonement. God does not demand blood. God does not like suffering. God hates violence. So, the cross has no meaning. There is no concept of atonement in the cross, there’s no theology of atonement, no substitutionary atonement, no satisfaction atonement, no judicial atonement, no atonement.
I was incredulous. It’s a denial of countless passages in the Bible. It’s a denial that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It’s a denial of communion. It’s a denial of the Lord’s Supper. It’s a denial of the blood and the body broken and shed. It’s a denial that Jesus is the Savior. And this from a Christian magazine! And as your pastor, I warn you, be careful what you read. Be careful what you watch. Be careful what you listen to because we live in dangerous times and apostasy is growing. Run everything through the grid of the Bible and never forget the heart of the gospel. Jesus died for us. He died for me. He died for you. He died in my place. He died in your place. Substitutionary atonement. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
So, we come to the table this morning, and we come humbly, recognizing his sacrifice for us. And we come thanking him for his body broken and his blood shed, that we might find forgiveness and salvation. This morning as we have the Lord’s Supper together, let’s commit our lives anew to Jesus Christ. Let’s pray together.