A Missing Piece?
Do we need to learn the life of humility?
Is humility the missing piece? Is it what we need most in this hour? To write “most” might be a bit too dramatic, but still, I think it’s a good question. Perhaps it’s what has always been needed. Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 could have used a dose. It wouldn’t have hurt Cain either. True, the word “humility” is thrown around quite a bit. But I wonder if our ideas of humility match up with what it means to be truly humble. I recently read that “ironically, in Western culture the word humility is used most comfortably as a way of portraying an individual’s gracious bearing of success.” Is this what it means to be humble? Not bragging about one’s achievements?
So what is humility? And specifically, what does the Bible have to say about it? I have discovered several ideas—perhaps definitions— about humility that I like. Here’s a sampling:
True humility doesn’t consist of thinking ill of yourself but of not thinking of yourself much differently from the way you’d be apt to think of anybody else. -Frederick Buechner.
Humility is not feeling a certain way about yourself, not feeling small or low or embarrassed or even humiliated. Instead, humility is a proper understanding of who God is and who we are as a result. -Hannah Anderson
Humility is from the very nature of things, the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every virtue. -Andrew Murray
Humility is a way of life rooted in submission to God and is demonstrated in actions that foster mutuality rather than competition. -Dennis R. Edwards
Naturally, if we are going to discuss humility we have to talk about Jesus. In his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul pens a most beautiful picture of Jesus. It’s a picture of what Paul desires to become. It’s also a story by which Paul wants to see acted out in his own life (Michael Gorman calls it Pauls’ “master story”). Paul writes:
Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,
who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be used for His own advantage.
Instead He emptied Himself
by assuming the form of a slave,
taking on the likeness of men.
And when He had come as a man
in His external form,
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.
For this reason God highly exalted Him
and gave Him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
of those who are in heaven and on earth
and under the earth—
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.-Philippians 2:5-11
These verses exude humility. Jesus, in coming from Heaven to earth, decides not to use his God-ness as something to flaunt, but instead empties himself by giving himself over to his creation. In doing so, he serves us by giving up his life to a death that is perhaps still considered to be the most humiliating way to die.
So because Jesus embraces humility, that is, lives out in full who the Godhead really is (yes there is a humility within God), then he is exalted. He is given the name that is above every name. Now I want to be a bit careful here because I feel there is a tendency for us to read these verses of exaltation and get the idea that humility is only a means to greatness. In other words, if you want to achieve success in life, then to live a life of humility is the way to get it done. But is that what is being communicated here?
The Gospel writer Luke records a dispute among the disciples—I wonder how many weren’t written about. It concerned who would be the greatest. I find it so interesting here that Jesus is on his way to his death and the disciples are worried about their ranking in the Kingdom. But Jesus tells them: The kings of the Gentiles dominate them, and those who have authority over them are called ‘Benefactors.’ But it must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever is greatest among you must become like the youngest, and whoever leads, like the one serving. For who is greater, the one at the table or the one serving? Isn’t it the one at the table? But I am among you as the One who serves (Luke 22:24-27).
Jesus asks a good question: Who is the greatest? Naturally, we say it’s the one who serves. It’s pretty obvious. But again, it’s easy for us to see service to another as a means to power. It is a way to get noticed. But this is not what Jesus is saying here. And what he’s communicating here in Luke ties in nicely with humility. So it’s not that humble service leads one to greatness, it is greatness in and of itself. In other words, a life of humility is not good because it leads one to achieve the American dream. Not is a life of service considered good because it helps you to get ahead. The life of humility is greatness! A life of serving is greatness. PERIOD.
So back to the question I asked at the beginning. Is humility the missing piece? And by humility I mean the type of humility that Christ exhibited by placing himself at the disposal of his creation. A humility that sought the good of others more than a need to be recognized. A humility that was willing to trust and obey the Father regardless of what that might mean. Is this a missing piece in our world today? Or to be more concise, is this the missing piece needed in our churches today? Or to get even more specific, is this the missing piece needed among church leaders and pastors?
In a world of competition and one-upmanship, I believe the answer is yes. In a world where narcissism is beheld as a virtue, we as the people of God need to embrace a life of humility. For the sake of unity, we need to consider others better than ourselves. We need to not only look out for our own interests, but for the interest of others. In a day where we are told to make America great again, we must remember that greatness looks much different than just being at the top of the food chain. In fact, greatness according to Jesus has nothing to do with what we deem as success. It means dying to oneself. It involves taking up a cross. It involves a life where we bow the knee. It’s a life all about the other.
There’s much left unsaid today. Perhaps another day of discussing humility is needed. But for today, this is all I have. I feel I have written way more here than I’m able to live out today. I’m always constantly reminded of the words of Martin Luther when he wrote that we need to be “worried when people become scholars through writing lots of books—but do not have the slightest idea what it means to be Christian.”