Humble Heart of Jesus - Luke 13:22-30

These scripture readings today provide us with signposts along the road that point us to the narrow gate at the entrance of heaven. Jesus himself, how he lived and how he died, is the sign of how we are to live our lives.
 
As Jesus shows us in the Gospel, our salvation doesn’t primarily depend on external appearances, appearing to be playing the game the right way, but on a friendship with Christ, a friendship that is rooted in our hearts. It’s only through our friendship with Jesus that allows his humble heart to become manifest in our lives.
 
Making the decision to become a humble and honest person in the way we live is one of the best decisions we can make.  To succeed professionally, to be happier, to enjoy life, to have better relationships, at the heart of it all, is the humble heart of Jesus Christ, to be humble.
 
King Solomon was one of the greatest and wisest figures in the Old Testament. He was the son of David, the most famous king of Israel. King Solomon had the privilege of building the first temple. And when the temple was dedicated, it tells us 2 ^nd Chronicles says that God appeared to Solomon and says to him, “If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray, and seek my presence and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, and I will pardon their sins and I will revive their land.”
 
What a great promise! It’s a promise that is linked to the humble heart, and is available to each of us. One of my favorite quotes from Solomon in Proverbs says, “The reward of humility and fear of the Lord is riches, honor and life.” The humble heart is not afraid to say, “I’m sorry”, that’s not afraid to pray, that’s not afraid to say, “God I need you–I messed up.” Humility releases God’s blessing, God’s forgiveness, and God’s healing. The humble heart invites incredible favor from God, and others.
 
We often think of the flip side of humility as being pride. Though the scriptures speak to pride a lot, the Hebrew word for pride translates more like egotism or haughtiness. For me, this Gospel points more to reputation management as the antithesis of humility. It’s the felt need that I have to manage my reputation and the way people perceive me, because my true self (as I perceive it) is not really good enough. That is the opposite of humility. Reputation management leads to deception, deceiving others and ourselves. It leads to things like lack of trust, debt, and as Jesus points out in the Gospel, it leads to separation from God and others.
What do we know about humble people?  Let me list three things: Humble people are positive, humble people make better friends, and humble people are always growing. Taking them one at a time:
 
Humble people are positive: Humble people look at their lives and say, “I’m the luckiest guy or gal in the world.” Humble people look around and say, “Wow, I really have been blessed. I’ve got more than I deserve!” Negative people, who by signaling their victimhood, appear to be humble, are actually self-focused. They’re less apt to listen to others and feel that they are entitled. They say things like, “I deserve more than this.”
 
Humble people make better friends. They make better friends because they are not rooting for the other person to fail. Humble people aren’t competing with others. Realizing that everything is a gift, they are content with what they have. They want others to succeed as well. I’ve always felt that the best bosses I’ve had (maybe you have experienced the same) were ones that saw more in me than saw in myself.
 
Humble people like to serve and they celebrate others’ victories. Humble people make better friends because they’re not afraid to say they’re sorry. People that are not humble might say they’re sorry, but… Guaranteed, if there’s a “but” at the end of someone’s “sorry”, they’re not likely sorry.  Humble people just say, I am sorry, I am just so sorry.  PERIOD. That’s nice when you get a “sorry” and there’s no “but, it’s your fault” at the end of it. Humble people are open with their fallibility, have nothing to hide, and realize they’ve got a long way to go.
 
It’s easier to relax around humble people. Because they have no pretense, no false fronts, they make you feel at ease. Even when you first meet them, you feel like you’ve known them forever.
 
Many years ago, I was headed to a business meeting by car, but prior to the meeting, I needed to pick up a fellow sales rep at the airport to go on the call with me. I had never met this young lady before.  So I pick her up at the airport and we made our way to the client’s location. We pull into the parking lot, engage in some pre-meeting prep kind of banter. And just before we exit the car to head to go into the call, she turns to me (keep in mind I was driving a Saturn at the time so she was right next to me), she tilts back her head, and asks me if her nasal passages were clear. I had just met her moments earlier.  I’m happy to report that her nasal passages were in fact clear!
     
Humble people make better friends because they have no pretense, they put you at ease. When we’re around humble people we realize that we don’t have anything to prove to this person. We can just be ourselves.
 
The third and final thing that we can say about humble people: Humble people are always growing. Humble people never completely arrive. Humble people understand that they still have space to grow. Humble people are growing because they’re not afraid to ask dumb questions. Humble people realize that they don’t have anything to prove to anyone - so those around them can just be themselves. The more humble we are, the less preoccupied we are with reputation.
             
Sometimes in life, the mistake we make is, we often look at humble people as being doormats, as fearful people, as people who get walked all over. That is not a humble person- that is a fearful person. There’s a big difference. God has not given us a spirit of fear. He has given us a spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  Humble means that you have an open posture to the world. You live in the world with open hands. There are people who are humble and bold. There are people who are humble and successful. There are people who are humble and decisive.
     
Thinking about reputation management…
The technology of our day doesn’t help– Twitter, Facebook. These social media forms are actually “avatars” that we are creating so that others always see our best side - the ultimate in reputation management. It’s not a bad thing to always attempt to put our best foot forward, but when this carries over to our personal lives, when we are managing our reputation with our friends, our relationships are getting shallower. In our Facebook and Twitter world, we end up feeling like we always have to prove ourselves to the people we love. The truth is, if people love us, we have nothing to prove to them, other than to love them back.
 
Look, there is nothing worse than the slavery of always having to be perceived as being special or wonderful. Just be humble and trust it to the Lord. Jesus tells the story in Luke 14, “When you go to a party and there is a seat available in the seat of honor, and there’s a seat at the foot of the table, take the seat at the foot of the table. He says that if you take the seat of honor, the host may say to you, friend, that seat is reserved for someone else, go and sit at the foot of the table. But if you sit at the foot of the table, the host may say to you, friend come sit at the seat of honor, and you’ll be honored by others. We need to stop trying to show off our trophies to others. As the Gospel says, “Some are last that will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
 
Think about it, on Facebook, we actually think the people we see on there are real. But here’s the thing: you’ll never see couples fighting on Facebook. You never see people’s bank statements or their debt. You’ll never see their criminal record, school record, or their addictions. And when people do, nobody likes it, unfollow!  So when we see people on Facebook, we’re only seeing their best, and that’s ok. But it’s not real.
 
We have nothing to prove because we are loved by God. God just wants us to be ourselves, and that’s plenty. Do our best, forget the rest, and always keep growing with a humble heart. In the very end, we’re not going to care about what people think. When we come before the throne of God, you and I will only care about what God thinks about us.
 
When we get to heaven, when we get to the throne there’s going to be one question we’ll ask ourselves. Did I live a life that honored God and honored all that was good and hated all that was evil?  We’re not going to think about all the ways that public people saw us because we will know that God was with us the whole time. So, we need to trust in that.
 
Can I leave you with six questions?  If we ask these six questions often in the course of our everyday experiences, we will give ourselves a chance to move closer to the humble heart of Jesus, and we’ll find more success professionally, find more enjoyment in the things we do, and we will have better relationships.  Here they are:
 

1. How can I help?
2. What can I learn?
3. Where am I wrong?
4. Why am I doing this?
5. When do I stop?
6. Who am I hurting?

 
I know that I’ve got a couple in there that I need to ask and answer, more often.  How about you?
 
And so we pray, Father in heaven, you have called each of us by name. Perfect us in your love and continue to teach us in the ways of humility.  We need you. Forgive us of our sins, renew our hearts, fill us with your Holy Spirit, and help us to learn your Word so that each of us is worthy of entering through the narrow gate, to be with you forever, in Jesus’ name.
 
Amen!