As I was reading a passage in the Gospel of Mark, I was
struck by His disciples’ pride, sense of entitlement, and their lack of
humility. Nor did they seem to detect this problem. They were like fish unaware
of their surrounding watery home. For the disciples, their home was pride.
Their blindness seems to have permeated everything they did
and thought. Since they were lowly fishermen, they should have excelled at
humility, right? Just to give you a few examples of their pride:
- Each wanted to be the greatest (Mark 9:33-37).
- They were convinced that they were entitled to salvation, since they left everything to follow Jesus (Mark 10:26-28).
- They were convinced that children weren’t (10:13-15).
Even after Jesus reprimanded their attitudes, it seems that
they just didn’t get it. The two sons of Zebedee privately approached Jesus to
request that they would reign alongside of Him. Of course, Jesus denied their
request.
When the other ten heard about their power-play, they were
indignant. Therefore, Jesus intervened:
- "You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:42-45)
Jesus informed them that He was to be their model. He came
to serve and to sacrifice Himself on the cross. He didn’t come to glorify
Himself; nor should they, but this is what they craved. I was struck by several
things:
·
Attitudes of self- and group-entitlement was the
air that they breathed, and they were continually looking for ways to glorify
themselves further.
·
They were blind to their addiction and how it
dominated them.
·
And we are the same way.
We are so desperate to glorify ourselves that we will even
kill to achieve it. On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman, a zealous fan of
the Beatle, John Lennon, first obtained his idol’s autograph and then gunned
him down. He explained
·
“I was an acute nobody. I had to usurp someone
else’s importance, someone else’s success. I was ‘Mr. Nobody’ until I killed
the biggest Somebody on earth.” At his 2006 parole hearing, he stated: “The
result would be that I would be famous, the result would be that my life would
change and I would receive a tremendous amount of attention, which I did
receive… I was looking for reasons to vent all that anger and confusion and low
self-esteem.” (George Weaver, The
Significant Life, 47)
Chapman’s life highlights the fact that we are programmed with
the need to feel that we are a “Somebody.” This drive is so compelling that we
spend our lives trying to prove ourselves by our attainments, friends, and the
even groups to which we belong.
How did Jesus deal
with the attitude of entitlement of His own people? He entered the
synagogue at His home town of Nazareth. After He spoke, they were amazed at His
“gracious words,” but that would quickly change as He spoke of God’s grace to
the Gentiles:
·
And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is
acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in
Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six
months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none
of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a [Gentile] woman who
was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet
Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian [Gentile].”
When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And
they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the
hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the
cliff. (Luke 4:24-29)
Jesus sought to humble them by showing them what would
happen when their pride was pricked just a little. After James and John had
requested that they’d reign alongside of Jesus and all of the others became
angry, Jesus humbled them in a different way. He taught them that if they
wanted to be the greatest, they would have to become the least, a servant to
all.
Just try living as a servant instead of the master. That’s
humbling. It’s like a hungry man who is required to give his morsels to
another. It’s also like someone craving love and attention who must applaud others
getting the things that he craves. However, this is what Jesus did for us. He
died for us while we were still His enemies (Romans 5:8-10).
Are you humbled by this teaching, which requires us to be
the least? I certainly am! Does it make you feel uncomfortable? I certainly
feel uncomfortable and humbled. However, there is a good reason to feel
humbled. Jesus repeatedly taught that we need to be humbled. He used the
example of a sinner crying out to God for His mercy:
·
I tell you, this man went down to his house
justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14; 14:11;
Matthew 23:12)
Most importantly, we have to rid ourselves of any trust in our
own virtue (Philippians 3:3-9) and rely
upon God’s mercy alone. Regarding ourselves as “the least” is humbling painful
and requires God’s help. It makes us feel like spiritual failures as we
confront our overwhelming life-controlling desires for recognition. Here are
some suggestions:
1.
Ask God to reveal to you the depths of your
problem.
2.
Be assured that when we confess our sins, He not
only forgives us but cleanses us, giving us a fresh start.
3.
Know that we require such humbling for God to
exalt us.
4.
Know that He will exalt you in due time (Psalm
23)
5.
Commit ourselves daily to being a loving
servant.
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