The Heart of Jesus: Humility

The Heart of Jesus: Humility

I. Hook – The Sons of Zebedee

Luke 9:51-56

As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival. But the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem. When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. So they went on to another village.

Would anyone here consider themselves super competitive? Are you the type of person who gets a little too into playing board games? Or sports? I bet we have some pickleball champions here today. Maybe you watch the Great British Baking show and you just know your cake decorating skills are better than anyone you’ve ever seen on that show and you’re just ready to submit your audition tape to show everyone your skills.

My thing is MarioKart. And I love playing and dominating other people playing MarioKart. It’s a Nintendo racing game our family plays. And if I’m not winning, heads are gonna roll. I get so competitive playing MarioKart. I take so much pride in my MarioKart skills, that if I’m not winning, I mean…I used to play online back in the day and at one point I was ranked #4 in the world on this particular course called Delfino Square. So I’m pretty good. And just because I know some of you are wondering, my chosen character is Waluigi. Here he is. He’s an absolute menace to society. The best character in the game, by a longshot, and it’s not even close.

But let me tell you something. My daughter Audrey got pretty good a few years ago and she started beating me often. And at first, I was just coming up with all these excuses for how she could beat me. Well, she’s got safe steering on, which is when the computer helps keep you on the track. And she turned safe steering off and still beat me. Then I started blaming the controller. So she let me pick my own controller. Still beat me. Then I started complaining because she stole my character and Kart setup, so that’s why she was good! Then she changed that and still beat me! Now, what I do is convince myself the game knows how good I am and that it’s actively working against me so that I lose. 

It’s ridiculous. I hate losing when I’m playing this game. But here’s the truth. As I stand here in front of you all today as my witnesses, I am choosing to properly profess this truth: Audrey is better than me at MarioKart. Now, of course, she’s not here today. She’s in Columbus with the state theatre guild getting a show ready. I’m willing to humble myself, but I have my limits! There’s no chance I would ever allow her to revel in the victory of knowing her father has admitted publicly that she is the superior MarioKart player!

Look, don’t come at me afterwards. I’ve already told her. And she knows anyway. This is not news…

II. Book – Exploring the Scripture (Biblical Foundation: The Sons of Zebedee & Humility)

Amongst the disciples, there are a couple of brothers named James and John. Their dad is a guy named Zebedee. And like their father before them, James and John are fishermen. And they work in the Sea of Galilee. Their mother is traditionally identified as a woman named Salome, who only appears in the bible a couple of times at the end of Mark, and she is one of the women who follows Jesus and also supports his ministry. This family likely has some resources. It’s mentioned in the bible that they have servants. It’s also possible they are related to Jesus. It’s thought they were cousins because there is some suggestion that Salome and Mary, the mother of Jesus, were sisters. 

When Jesus calls James and John to follow him, there is no hesitation from either of them. The bible tells us that they immediately dropped their nets and joined Jesus at once. Because of this, they are seen as men of tremendous faith and action. They possess a radical obedience and they’re excited to be called by Jesus to join his ministry. Then it turns out Jesus invites them, along with Peter, to be part of his trusted inner-circle. 

Now, aside from their faithfulness to Jesus, the thing that really defines who they are is their ambition and maybe their competitiveness. The most famous example of this occurs is a passage in Mark 10:35-45 . Jesus has just completed some teaching and then he predicts his death and resurrection. He’s giving away the climax of the story! And the first thing James and John think to do is come up to Jesus and they’re like, “Hey man can you do us a favor?” And Jesus says, “What is your request?”

James and John look at him and say, “You know, we were thinking…when you go up to the skies and sit on your glorious throne, we kinda had this idea that maybe one of us would sit on your right and one of us would sit on your left. In places of honor, you know. Because of the whole inner-circle thing.” And they’re cutting Peter completely out of this…

And I just imagine Jesus looking at them like (make a face) almost how your parents might look at you when you’re trying to convince them to let you go to a party, and you know there’s probably going to be some stuff going on there you shouldn’t be a part of, but you promise that you’re not going to be a part of any of that…

Yeah, okay…I can tell you’ve put a lot of thought into this…um, but you don’t know what you’re talking about. And that’s what Jesus says to James and John. “You don’t know what you’re asking!” And then he continues, “Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering from which I am about to drink? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?”

And they’re like, “Yeah, totally, Jesus! We can do that!”

Jesus says to them, “Well, I’ll tell you this…you will drink from that bitter cup and you will be baptized with suffering, but it’s not anything like what I’m about to go through. Furthermore, it’s not my place to tell you where you can sit when we’re all in the skies. The Father has prepared those places for us.” What Jesus is telling them is that they may be persecuted and die for their faith in him, but in no way will it equal the price Jesus is about to pay suffering for the sins of humanity

And this whole thing starts an argument with the other 10 disciples. Until Jesus sorts them out by telling them this, “You know, the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you all, it’s gonna be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must first be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and give his life as a “Ransom for many.”

Jesus sets the tone. Leaders in his kingdom will trade their prideful ambition for selfless humility. They will seek holy ambition through prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. You want a place in the skies next to Jesus? You better check yourself before you wreck yourself. We don’t got enough room in our hearts for both Pride and Jesus. 

III. Look – Applying the Truth

These guys are ambitious, which can be good, but the way they’re going about it needs to be curbed. And for us, ambition to achieve status in the kingdom of heaven is not normally how we think about this on a daily basis. But where we do experience this is in our attitudes towards other people. This could be people we have disagreements with, family members who have wronged us in some way, or even groups of people we don’t understand because we don’t have the privilege of spending a lot of time around them. Or when we’re playing our daughters in MarioKart

Whatever it might be, I would make the argument that it’s probably a good idea for us to consider what it looks like to be a citizen of heaven on a more regular basis. I think by taking that step, we open ourselves up to the possibility of looking more like a church like heaven. Let me explain.

There’s a theme with James and John that develops over the course of reading through the gospels. The story about their ambition is not the only time where they need to be redirected.

So, you might have heard there’s beef between Jews and Samaritans during the time of Jesus. This is something that dates back centuries. It started when Israel split into two kingdoms, one being Judah and the other being Israel. Israel was to the north, Judah to the south. The capital of Israel is Samaria, and the kingdom there had turned away from The Lord and turned towards idolatry. Judah remained faithful to the Lord (called Yahweh) and its capital was Jerusalem. 

Well, around 722 BC Israel, the northern Kingdom, was conquered by the Assyrian empire. And what they do is deport most of the Israelites. But, some of them remain in the northern Kingdom and they intermarry with the people who moved in with the Assyrians and a new people group is formed called the Samaritans. 

The Jews from Judah, the southern Kingdom, see the Samaritans as unclean and compromised because of their mixed heritage and also because of their worship practices. And these two people groups go back and forth destroying each other's temples and causing all sorts of heartache for many, many years.

Luke 9:51-56

So Jesus and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem. And they need to spend the night in a Samaritan village. He sends some messengers ahead of the group to try to make some arrangements for accommodations. But whoever they talked to in this town makes it pretty clear that they don’t want Jesus and his party to stay there because they’re Jewish and on their way to Jerusalem. 

So James and John, who have recently heard Jesus tell them they will be able to do the same things he can do at some point, look at Jesus and ask if they can reign down fire from heaven and destroy the village. 

One thing is clear. These guys know their scriptures. They get this idea from Elijah, who in 1 Kings and 2 Kings does this three times against the enemies of God. And they just want to do the same thing. 

But Jesus rebukes them. Why? Because he came to save the world, not to condemn it. He doesn't need to nuke this poor little village in the middle of Samaria to prove anything to anyone. What he wants is for James and John to think differently about their prejudices because if they are going to be able to do the work of Jesus, they need to be able to think and act like Jesus. 

I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Nairobi back in 2017. Nairobi is the capital of Kenya and I went there with some people from my church and also some firefighters from around the country who were putting together some training programs for the firefighters over there. 

Our church had partnered with a couple different organizations in order to do some child sponsorship programs and also to fund the building of elementary schools in the Nairobi slums. 

Of anything I’ve ever done in my life, this trip was one of the more formative things for me. But a particular story sticks out to me in the context of humility. 

We happened to be there during a Kenyan presidential election. The elections over there are fairly tame. But there was some concern for the safety of travellers, so it was advised for us to stay in lockdown on election day just in case anything went off the rails. 

Well, we had rooftop access at the bed and breakfast where we stayed. My good friend Donovan, who has travelled all over the world and who spent most of his childhood in South Africa looks at me and says, “Let’s go up and take a look.” And I’m like…”take a look at what?” And he’s like, “The street. Come on. It’ll be fine.” So we go up and lean out over the edge of the building. To look at the street.

About that time, we see a parade of what are called medium tactical vehicles coming down the street and they are filled with what look like soldiers. They aren’t in uniform, but every single person has an assault-style rifle. And I’m just like, “Why are we not inside right now?” 

Look, I trusted Donovan, and he told me we didn’t have anything to worry about and nothing was going to happen to us. But when you’re experiencing something like that for the first time, it has a tendency to put a person on edge. And unlike any other time in my life, I was absolutely out of my comfort zone

Afterwards, I remember having some conversation about all this. The soldiers we saw that day weren’t part of the Kenyan government. They were some other type of militia. And as you might know, the developing world often sees its people suffer at the hands of those who jockey back and forth for power. And we absolutely saw that when we were over there. The gangs in the slums have a lot of influence and it’s hard for the policing system to do much about it. And people’s lives are affected by this every day. 

This begs the question, “What do you do in a situation like this?” We were in a controlled environment with no real threat to our safety. But as we were processing all of this, some people felt prone to apply their own American experience to this situation. Like “Why don’t they just do this” or “Why don’t they just do that.” Which I think is a pretty natural response. But the truth is none of us were equipped with even a basic understanding of the complexities of what goes on inside the Kenyan culture. It was a hard, but beneficial time of learning. 

And what happened at the end of the conversation was we realized we just had to take a step back. Humble ourselves. And seek a better understanding of what was happening over there. And that’s not easy, especially when you can see the suffering of people up close. We were already doing all we could. By supporting the local firefighters, who at the time, had a pretty volatile relationship with the public there. They would show up in the slums to fight fires and get pelted with large rocks because they were associated with the government. With our child sponsorship program. By helping to build schools and resourcing the churches over there. All of it by working through the locals and missionaries who lived there and understood what we did not.     

IV. Took – Taking It Home

So here’s the thing, the Christian circles I’ve been in throughout the years don’t talk about humility nearly enough, because it’s hard and uncomfortable to talk about. Humility goes against human nature in a lot of ways—people naturally want recognition, control, and self-sufficiency. Admitting weakness, serving others, and surrendering pride can feel like losing. 

And that has made humility almost like a foreign concept to us. I mean what we constantly see on display in our culture is unrivaled ambition, pride, and the idea that we need to win at all costs. 

And not only winning at all costs, but rubbing our opponents faces in it when we do win. And for me, I just want to be able to consider what that looks like for those out there who need to hear the good news of the gospel. We can’t fall into the trap of being set in our own ways. Our ways need to be in line with the heart of Jesus. Humility is one of those ways. 

And some people in my position might be prone to take this conversation down a path that attempts to push some personal agenda on people about the way things should and shouldn’t be. Not that I don’t have thoughts about some of the stuff going on in our culture. But the truth, as far as I read it…this is about obedience for me. Plain and simple. Jesus is calling us to a much higher standard. That happens by keeping his commands. I don’t want to ruin my witness because of my own selfishness. Listen, I like to be right about things just as much as the next person, and I love to win…but it can’t be at the cost of my witness. 

It’s critical for me to remember who the enemy is. It’s not flesh and blood. For James and John, it’s not the Samaritans. It’s not a single person or group of people we may disagree with. It’s Satan. Remember Satan? He hates you and wants you to lose and he will twist your thoughts beyond recognition trying to convince you to hate everyone else and to forget about him completely. Humility brings us back to that understanding.

We have a savior who loves us. And he wants to walk alongside us to do good things. And we need to put our own ambitions aside and make sure the path to Jesus is wide open. Remember the words of Jesus at the very end of Matthew’s gospel. 

Jesus came and told his disciples, Matthew 28:18-20 “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

“Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you”

There’s a lot in the bible to learn about Jesus. But as I read the message of what he’s trying to teach us, here’s the conclusion I come to:

Jesus's message is one ushering in the Kingdom of God through love, grace, showing us how to do this by the way lives his life…and salvation through his death and resurrection. With humility serving as the desired character trait to enter and live within that Kingdom. 

James and John make the critical mistake of forgetting who the enemy is. To them, the Samaritans are the enemy and the solution is to annihilate them. But the rebuke of Jesus must draw their attention back to Satan being the true enemy because eventually, they figure it out. 

These guys are looking for a fight, but they are misguided. Yes…the war is raging, but this is not a fight that requires destroying the lives of other people just because they don’t want you sleeping in their town. It’s a fight that requires servant hood. Because nothing drives Satan away faster than when we trade our pride to selflessly serve the needs of another. 

Ending

 I want to leave us with two things this morning:

Number one: Where do you need to replace pride with humility? Do you desire a servant's heart? Write in a journal or piece of paper what that looks like for you this week. Strive for a practical humility that allows your heart to soften just a little but.

The last thing is this. Maybe something that’ll help you get there. It’s a quote from the Christian philosopher .  “God creates out of nothing. Wonderful, you say. Yes, to be sure, but He does what is still more wonderful: He makes saints out of sinners.”  - Soren Kierkegaard, Christian Philosopher

Will we allow Jesus to do the same for us?