Proper 20 (September 25, 2024)

Numbers 12:1–15 NIV84

1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. 2 “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this. 3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.) 4 At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them came out. 5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, 6 he said, “Listen to my words: “When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. 7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them. 10 When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam—leprous, like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy; 11 and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. 12 Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.” 13 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “O God, please heal her!” 14 The Lord replied to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.” 15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.

James 3:13–4:10 NIV84

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. 17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness. 1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Mark 9:30–37 NIV84

30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. 33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. 35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” 36 He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

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Our Lord Jesus Christ is the leader of the Church, this congregation, our home, our lives. His leadership is perfect in every way. When things are amiss in various arenas, what is needed is not better leadership, but better followership.

The first of September we began a new preaching series on being Followers of Christ. The first message in this series we talked about following with from the Heart; the next Sunday we talked about the purpose of Christ power is not to make our lives better, but to prove that He is in fact God’s only begotten Son come to save us. And last Sunday you heard that being a follower of Christ means we are armed for battle. All in all, we look to Christ to empower us with his Spirit so that we might better follow his lead.

Today all our readings address an important topic in being a follower of Christ. In a word it is Humility, which is the polar opposite of pride. Pride exalts self at the expense of God and others. Humility exalts God and others at the expense of self. Pride is the essential vice, for it increases one’s hunger for all other sins. Humility increases one’s hunger for the forgiveness and healing found in Christ. The one who is proud demands to be served. The one who is humble is not content unless he is serving others. St. Augustine described it this way: “It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.”

As we see all Christ did to serve us, our hearts melt; it should change us. You see, within us grows a Christ-like obsession to serve others, without counting the cost, without any desire to be repaid. Those who are in positions of Christian leadership understand that their leadership can only be achieved through servanthood. Servanthood that is not earned, but a gift, and is demonstrated by us. Followers of Christ are humble servants.

Followers of Christ are Humble Servants

Servanthood Is Not Earned

Our humility and service do not measure up to God’s perfect standard.

Like the disciples, we would rather be served than serve.

Even when we serve, our motive is often self-serving—we look at what we are going to get out of it.

We make comparisons: “I have served more than you.” Pride creeps in to stain our service.

Illustration: It is this way in the local church as well. Very often when asked to serve on a committee or board our sinful flesh is apt to cause us to say, “I’ve done my part now it is someone else’s turn.”

Shouldn’t we extend grace to everyone, because no one is righteous no not one?

Sometimes we unknowingly judge others based on a standard that we ourselves can’t even keep. We get upset because someone is not respecting our suggestion in an area we’ve been asked to assist, when we are not respecting the authority of the one over us as a supervisor or teacher, or whatever the position happens to be.

Or, we make a judgment about someone based on incomplete or faulty information.

The truth is, pride is the root of all other sin.

Sometimes we think we can merit favor with God by our humble service.

Jesus refused to seek people’s respect under a false pretense:

Mark 9:30 NASB95

30 From there they went out and began to go through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know about it.

You see, Jesus just wanted to serve. He was not looking for fanfare or recognition.

The comedian from yesteryear, Rodney Dangerfield, would always lament in his stand-up comedy routine, “I get no respect.” You and I may get our nose bent out of joint if we feel someone isn’t paying us the respect we think we deserve. For we desire the “that aboys” and the “pats on the back.”

Luke 17:10 ESV

10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”

The only way to merit any favor before God is opened by honest admission that in ourselves we are not worthy people.

We are all beggars in need of God’s forgiveness — which is why we confess our sins when we gather together at our Lord’s feet.

And we are beggars and as such, we need someone else to show us the way to life.

And that is precisely why Jesus became man to show us the way to go. And in so doing, He lavishes us with His grace and pours His gifts upon us. And that is what servanthood is: it is a gift.

Servanthood is a Gift

Christ Jesus earned it for us.

He humbled Himself all the way to death on a cross to atone for our pride. Mark 9:31

Mark 9:31 NASB95

31 For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.”

His rising from the dead guaranteed our acceptance before God. Death no longer has a hold on Him, neither does it have a hold on us. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we, too, rise on the Last Day!

You see, when we believe that Christ died and rose for us, we can be sure that God accepts us as heaven-worthy people.

Christ Jesus has given us His humility in exchange for our pride, pride that was nailed to the cross with Him.

Christ has bestowed on us His greatness in exchange for our smallness; His righteousness for our unrighteousness.

When His absolution is proclaimed over us, everything that Christ Jesus earned through the cross and the empty tomb is applied to the baptized believer. It truly is as Luther said, it is as if we are being baptized all over again. The old is gone! Our sin is thrown as far as the east is from the west, and is remembered by God no more.

Servanthood is Demonstrated By Us

When we serve along-side those people who do not deserve our respect:

We willingly place ourselves last (Mark 9:35

Mark 9:35 ESV

35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

We willingly serve without recognition or praise and thereby foregoing greatness as the world sees it (Mark 9:34). Servanthood is also demonstrated by us…

When we serve along-side people who are not in a position to reward us for our service.

Little children are not in a position to reciprocate our service to them (Mark 9:36) any more than we are able to pay God back for having served us in His Son.

Yet, when we serve even the least of God’s children, God notices and even respects our service for Jesus’ sake and graciously rewards us (Mark 9:37).

The television series Downton Abbey portrays a great household, clearly divided between nobility and servants. There is little doubt about who is greatest here: Lord Grantham, with his family arrayed underneath him. The servants are beneath the members of the family. They slave away to provide the family with a life of comfort, ease, and luxury. The lowest in the house, at least as the series begins, is the kitchen maid Daisy. Her duties include kneeling down to dirty her hands cleaning the fireplaces. She is last of all and servant of all. Here are the world’s standards of greatness and service.

Jesus’ words turn this well-ordered world upside down. True greatness does not come from having servants arrayed underneath one, but from serving others. Jesus’ words would declare Daisy the greatest in the household, above any member of the family. When Jesus came to this world, he came as a servant, working like the servants in Downton Abbey to serve us. He dirtied his hands, stained with his own blood, to cleanse us from sin. Jesus’ Church rejoices in the Son of Man who comes to serve us, freeing us from sin.

When we are putting ourselves last and serving someone who needs serving and could never repay us, we are living Christlike lives, being genuine followers of Christ. We are serving God. In Christ we find that true greatness is found in true humility.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.