B, Palm-Passion Sunday - Phillipians 2:8-10 "Hard to be Humble"
To be humble is possibly the hardest thing for us to be or do! Even those appearing to be humble usually
only appear to be humble. Most will
tout, they feel humbled, when they’re praised by peers. One could argue that feeling is not one of being
humbled, in the true sense of the word. Rather,
one feels honoured because they’re actually being exalted!
However, when one is truly humbled by their peers, they’re
not exalted, they’re made low! The
situation knocks them, one is put in his or her place, they’re made to feel
low, lower than what they once felt.
When one is truly humbled, rather than claim they’re honoured, they
complain they’re hard-done-by, or humiliated!
True humility calls for the death of self. When it comes to humility like this, you and
I, always look for another way. Why is
being truly humble so hard? Why is the
death of self so difficult that we continually search for other options? It’s hard to be humble!
In 1980, Mac Davis wrote a song. Some of you might know its chorus, “Oh Lord it's hard to be humble, when you're
perfect in every way. I can't wait to
look in the mirror; cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me; I must be a hell of
a man. Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble, but
I'm doing the best that I can.”
I imagine most will resonate with this song’s chorus, more
than Philippians chapter two verse eight.
“Being found in human form, he
humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross.” When death came to Christ,
he was truly humble. With his divinity
put aside, out of sight, he took the low way of the cross.
To be humble like Jesus, is strange and foreign to us. To be humble as Mac Davis sings, or more
precisely, to not be humble, is so much easier.
We resonate with this song more because of its
self-contradicting comedy, the lyrics are haughty and proud while claiming to be
humble. But whether or not we find the
lyrics amusing, they expose something not so funny. So serious is the truth of what they uncover,
the remedy comes only through the humility of Jesus Christ.
Like the song, our human humility actually is a humiliation
of our humanity, and this leads to death.
The belief we are perfect, or more perfect than the next fellow, is
buried within each of us. When we look
in the mirror, perhaps we don’t think we get better looking each day! Those
of us who don’t, still look in the mirror, compare, and picture ourselves
better than someone else!
Like the song, those that don’t love me are those that
obviously don’t know me! “I must be a
hell of a man!” Well actually, there’s
probably more truth here than the writer of the song intends. O Lord, it’s not hard to be haughty, at this we
all seek to outdo each other!
Even when we’re humiliated by others, we ironically still
seek to be haughty. “Woe is me! Nobody is as bad off as me”, might be the
gripe made! I’m more worse off than all
others worse off! This is a paradoxical
exaltation of one’s lowliness!
Then there’s also the rejection of humility by stating, “
I’m okay, others have it worse off than me!”
We’ve all been in this situation, and heard these words come from our
mouths.
Such is the haughtiness of our humanity. Humility and holiness are easily confused with humiliation of others and haughtiness! It takes Jesus Christ to sort it out for us on the cross. Before the cross, and our baptism into it, as enemies of God! As well as after the cross, and our baptismal lives carrying our cross, as the Holy Spirit works to recreate us as God’s holy children in Jesus Christ.
Do you remember the Warner Brothers cartoon character,
Foghorn Leghorn? He’s the loud-mouthed
rooster who’s anything but humble! In
his struggle to become the “top dog” on the farm he’s in a constant feud with
the dog. Once when he was outdone by the
dog he says one of his familiar sayings, “That dog, I say that dog is lower
than a snake full of buckshot.”
This saying is similar to an Australian expression,
“They’re lower than a snake’s belly!” On the scale of things, you really cannot
get much lower than the belly of a snake.
Both we and Foghorn Leghorn, make this statement from a haughty
height. Yet in reality, although we
wouldn’t get down in the dirt and look a snake in the eye, we’re already there,
humiliating ourselves in the dirt by the height of our human haughtiness.
Two weeks ago, we heard Jesus tell Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:5–6 ESV)
Being born of the Spirit is our baptism into Jesus’ death
and resurrection! Jesus goes on to
compare himself to the bronze serpent in the Old Testament, saying, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” (John 3:14 ESV)
As much as you or I wouldn’t get down in the dirt to look a
snake in the eye, none of us would willingly allow ourselves to be humbled and
lifted up with the shame and lowliness, of a snake’s belly, or a snake full of
buckshot.
It’s at about this point, we realise we have hoodwinked
ourselves, between our unwillingness to truly be humble, and our desire to be
haughty. So, without any humour in our haughty
humus, we cry out to God, “O Lord, it’s hard to be humble.” The best we can do is not good enough! I am a worm of a man; I am lower than a
snake’s belly! And yet, this low, I find
myself ungrounded, debased, and like dirt, infested with weeds.
One of Job’s friends who wrongly takes the haughty position
in judgement over Job, wrongly misuses God’s truth, saying, “How then can man be in the right before
God? How can he who is born of woman be
pure? …how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!” (Job 25:4, 6 ESV)
Jesus is greater than any friend of Job! He, the Son of Man, gets down with the
afflicted, humiliated by our own affliction, by our own foolish deeds. As the Psalmist wrote, inspired by the
pre-incarnate Son of God, “I am a worm
and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at
me; they wag their heads.” (Psalm 22:6–7 ESV)
Jesus becomes that worm, that maggot, lower than a snake’s
belly! Yet, he is lifted up and displayed
like a snake, in affliction for all who are afflicted with sin. The Sinless One, is lifted up afflicted and
debased with our sin! Where we find it
too slippery to sort out our true humility from our haughtiness, he came down
into the slithering cesspool of our sin, became sin, without sin, and was
lifted up for forgiveness of sin.
We, like those on Palm Sunday, may very well have invited
Jesus into Jerusalem with shouts of hosannah!
Yet, as we will sing to Jesus shortly, “We made your crown with
thorns from deep inside us, hammered your hands with nails no-one supplied
us. We need no help to stage a
crucifixion; it’s our affliction.”
How quickly the heights of our hosannahs are reduced to the
reality of our human haughtiness in the face of the cross. Although we did not need help to stage a
crucifixion, Jesus now bears your affliction!
We killed him, yet he needed to be killed for us. His death was unjustifiable! Our killing him, is the height of human
haughtiness, that condemns us.
But the paradox of the passion is this; his death justifies
us! He humbled himself in the face of
human haughtiness, and this now saves you and me from our haughtiness.
As you’re led to a deeper knowledge of your haughtiness, see
the purity of him, who humbled himself and took the heaviness of your haughty sin. See the weight of your sin on him! Let the Holy Spirit produce in you the true
humility to carry your cross. Just as he went through the hardship and
humility of the cross, be led to glorify
him in your relationships of forgiveness with one another. Amen.
