I have been accused of many things, but I have never been accused of having
excessive humility. Yet Jesus told us to have the humility of a child. I
wonder why Jesus made the promise that the greatest among us would be those
who become as little children? Humble greatness is required in adults. We
are to repent, turn, to become as little children.
Then I remember the child I was! I was three and a half the first time I ran
away from kindergarten to go to work and earn my living. I recall vividly on
another occasion, running away from the kindergarten, climbing a tree,
swinging as Tarzan, and landing on the girls' toilet roof. I defied all
attempts to get me down, until the poor headmistress called the Fire Brigade
to rescue me with their ladders! In the first grade at Primary School our
teachers gave us small cardboard Union Jack flags to wear on our school
jumpers to honour Empire Day, May 1st. I showed my entrepreneurial skill by
collecting all the little flags from the others in my class and then went
from door to door among the shops of Box Hill, selling them for a shilling
each to the proprietors. One woman, who had no sense of loyalty to the
British Empire, phoned the Principal and I was hauled off! There was a large
hardware shop in my town and once I wandered into that shop, found the
rattraps and carefully set 25 of them along the edge of the counter for the
benefit of anybody who came in, and went on my way! Who wants to become a
child like that! Dennis the Menace is not my ideal of a Christian character.
Jesus must have had other qualities in mind!
To become as a child is to suggest adventure, daring, and mischief.
Nevertheless, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and
become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name
welcomes me." Matthew 18:3-5
There are some qualities in children that all adults ought to have. The
disciples of Jesus were ambitious and argued as to which of them would be
the greatest in the Kingdom. Jesus responded, "Unless you change and become
like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven." He never said
that we are to become childish. Some adults get very childish. They argue
and dispute with one another and become childish in attitude and temper. We
are not to become childish, but we need to possess the qualities children
have if we are to enter the Kingdom. There are two beautiful qualities that
children have that adults also should have.
1. CHILDREN WONDER
One is the sense of wonder. A child can sit and play with a flower and
notice how each petal is joined and how it becomes unjoined. A child
investigates things, pokes into machinery, looks under logs, and marvels at
a spider web with dew on it. A child has the capacity to wonder. All of the
greatest discoveries on earth have been made by adult minds that had
childlike wonder. Wonder is not full of self-concern or pride. It enables
clear insight that others miss because their mind is so full of themselves.
Stephenson's "rocket", for example. He wondered at the steam coming from a
boiling kettle. He gazed at it as every other child has looked at steam, but
then he wondered what it could turn, what it could push, what it could move,
until he harnessed that power in the steam engine. In the orchard, under an
apple tree, Isaac Newton watched the apples fall and wondered, "Why do
apples drop?" His wondering led to the law of gravity becoming a part of our
scientific understanding. Children keep asking all kinds of questions: "Is
God married?" "Where does your lap go when you stand up?" "What does blood
do all day?" "Why do apples fall?" Sometimes the questions lead to wonderful
answers.
Have we not sat in a bath, making waves and causing the water to go over the
edge? Adults have done that for years, but children ask, "Why?" It took
Archimedes to get in and out of the water, watching it go up as he went
down, and watching it go down as he got up, until he said "Eureka" as he
discovered the law of displacement. The capacity to wonder becomes one of
the greatest of God's gifts.
2. CHILDREN BELIEVE
There is another quality that children have, and adults need for the sake of
the Kingdom: the ability to believe. They believe in their parents, in
themselves, in their friends, in God. Adults become cynical and doubt but
children believe. The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to
please God. Hebrews 11:6 Jesus calls us to believe as children do. He says,
simply and sincerely, "Unless you change and become like children, you will
never enter the Kingdom of heaven." That belief is humble and sincere. The
greatest in the Kingdom are they who humble themselves and become like
children.
Great thinkers laud humility, yet humility is rarely the subject of public
addresses. Humility was never a characteristic of the proud Australian.
Humility is not on the national agenda. Humility is not mentioned at
University graduations. Yet humility is a secret of wisdom. Australian
hymnbooks ignore the virtue of humility. Humility grows within a Christian,
conscious of his own sinfulness and God's wonderful grace. This virtue was
found in the Apostle Paul. This is surprising. Paul's brilliance, his
debating skills, his leadership capacity and his incredible stamina and
persistence drove him over continents to expand the knowledge of
Christianity. We assume he had a clear knowledge of his own significance. He
did. Yet Paul was a humble man who advocated others should be too.
Self-esteem, Yes! Pride, No! More than any, Paul advocated humility in the
lives of those who followed him. Humility to Paul was the secret of his
strength: "for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in
hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am
strong." 2 Cor. 12:10
Christ's teaching on humility was revolutionary. People generally are proud
and arrogant, for they think this is the only way to get on. The higher up
they go the more they look down on others. But when Christ comes within a
person this is changed. For pride in self, and love for Christ cannot dwell
in one person. No matter how good, how pure, how perfect a man is; no matter
his intellect, his standing, his income; no matter his learning, his
position, his ability; when he comes face to face with Jesus Christ he is
completely overshadowed and his pride completely shattered! Pride is based
on our own achievements. Humility is based on our own deficiencies. If we
possess His mind, our actions will be different because our actions will be
like His: unselfish, humble, caring, loving, concerned for others. When Paul
wrote that we should be like Jesus in humility he had to coin a word,
because the Greek language did not have one to describe Jesus!
The Greeks believed, like many today, that if you want to make a mark on the
world you must be aggressive, assertive, pushing yourself forward. They had
no concept of placing others first! So Paul made up a new word that
described the character of Jesus and those who are His disciples:
lowly-hearted or humble! He even explained it: Philippians 2:3 "Do nothing
out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others
better than yourselves." Thirty-four times humility is advocated in the New
Testament. Humility is not self-depreciation, but affirmation of yourself as
the salt of the earth and the light of the world. The self-centred person
cannot fulfil his role as a Christian who must witness with his whole being.
A Christian witnesses to the good life and that cannot be accomplished by
the self-centred. A humble person is neither boastful nor domineering,
thinking more of his witness and work than of himself and his benefits.
Pride is arrogant self-worship. It is the sin of exalting oneself and
placing one's own interests above the interests of others.
No comments:
Post a Comment