“How NOT to be humble”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Thursday, August 24, 2023
Luke 22:24-30 (Forward, p. 26) CEV p. 1093
Humility is not the strong suit for many people today—just look, for instance, at many of our leaders, especially those running for election, about what they or their party will do—and it certainly wasn’t the strong suit for the first disciples either. Here, they are, at the most solemn occasion in the Jewish year, Passover, and they are squabbling about who is the greatest. And that, immediately after Jesus has predicted that one of them will actually betray Him. They move on from ‘who might do such a thing’ to who is the greatest. There is a profound ‘disconnect’ here.
Well, if Jesus was known elsewhere to put a cat among the pigeons, a fox in the henhouse, here He does it again. Rather than wanting to be great and rather than angling oneself to such a position, they should be like the least important of all. (That is, without being proud of being the ‘least’, or proud of being humble, which totally negates the whole thing). And, to give substance or form to that ‘least’ business, they should simply act as a servant to others. There is a thing about serving, if done in the proper frame of mind, that is, simply to help the other in the best way possible, that takes any thought of self simply out of the picture. One is focused on what needs to be done to help the other people and so ‘self’ just doesn’t enter one’s thinking. And, indeed, should we wonder just what that looks like, we can see it lived out, exemplified, in Jesus Christ. He clearly lived His life, not thinking about Himself, but only us.
And, should we truly do this, truly be with Christ, stay with Christ in His troubles, we will reap a surprising dividend. We will share in His kingdom and His rule, and this, not because we earned it or worked for it or wheedled our way into it, but simply as a gift from God. So, the bottom line is not to try to be humble—in fact, not to think of ourselves at all—but simply to concentrate on doing what God wants and be satisfied with that.
Forward notes: “But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves” (verse 26).
Commemoration: St. Bartholomew, Apostle
“When I was a child and we took long family trips in the car, my siblings and I always argued. There were five of us! We argued about who had to sit in the middle, who got the pillow, and whose milkshake spilled at lunch. Everything was up for grabs. We really were arguing over who was most important. So, I recognize the dispute among Jesus’s followers about greatness.
“When I first graduated from seminary, the bishop assigned me to a struggling small parish in Dade County, Florida, far from the glamour and excitement of Yale Divinity School. I wanted to be somebody, to do great things. And I quickly proceeded to alienate people by trying too hard. But thanks be to God, across the street from our house lived a lovely widow with a teenage son. She embraced my wife and me, so new to ministry. She assured us we were not terrible parents or preachers and that all would be well. When I grew up enough to hear the gospel, I realized that an ambitious pastor had been loved by a great pastor. Service is greatness. Bartholomew surely learned that.”
Moving Forward: “Can you find greatness in serving?”