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Each week I try my best not to turn a sermon into a class lecture, but I also don’t apologize for digging into theological ideas in my preaching.

Eugene Peterson, when he became the professor of spiritual theology at Regent College in the 90s, said he didn’t like that title. He asked, “Isn’t all theology spiritual?”

Yet, there is a distinct way to think about theology that bridges the gap between informational and transformational learning, as I mentioned last week. Preaching will always be theological, but has the primary purpose of transformation. Spiritual theology gets at transformational learning, which is what I hope to do today.

The fact is, we are all theologians. How we think about God and our relationship with him is theology. We all have assumptions and operate out of those assumptions. 

One of those assumptions is whether or not the Bible is true. I don’t take it for granted that the Bible is accepted as true by everyone who hears me preach.

I’m mentioning this because it’s important to have a humble posture toward our own assumptions. If I go into my sermon preparation and come up here assuming that everyone agrees with me, I’ll be offended and defensive when someone doesn’t agree.

I hope that, in this and every message, our assumptions about God’s nature and human nature are shaped in some way to provide a more complete picture of what is true in both Scripture and history. 

With that said, let’s look at the meaning of the word humility, historically and biblically.

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, did studies and wrote on organizational and leadership effectiveness and found that humility is an overwhelming indicator and even requirement of long-term, effective leaders.

While I think it is a good thing that leaders be humble, we need to identify the difference between humility as a tactic for effective leadership, and humility as an identity as understood in Scripture.

There are many books and articles about how humility can make us more effective in our work and leadership. But these are often focused only on outcomes.

In Hebrew, Greek, and Latin humility simply means Low. 

In ancient times it had little to do with a person’s character. It was a way of describing social status. There were other uses of the term that evolved out of that idea, but that’s essentially the root.

Someone was humble really only as it related to the status of others. In today’s use of the word, and how it is often interpreted in the New Testament, we think of it as a way to describe someone’s character.

If someone was referred to as humble in those days, it wasn’t a compliment. 

But today, humility has come to be a virtue, I think mainly because of Christian theology and ethics. Here are some common statements or definitions of humility:

• Having a low opinion of yourself, especially when others have a higher opinion of you
• Having a low estimate of your own merit
• Having a modest opinion of your importance or rank
• Absence of self-assertion
• Having or showing a consciousness of your defects
• Not being proud, haughty, or arrogant

There are lots of ways to think about humility. It is a term that changes slightly in different contexts. Ultimately, humility is a certain type of freedom from self-concern.

Many of us might think about humility as the opposite of pride. But it’s actually outside of pride entirely. 

The opposite of pride is shame. Both pride and shame are reactions to how well we measure up to others or to some standard or ideal.

But, humility is opposed to engaging with life in terms of the self-concerned states of pride or shame. It is freedom from these sorts of measurements of success or failure. 

Humility results in emptying oneself by turning away from the self and toward others.

The trouble is, most of us don’t actually want to be humble if we really think about it. We find our value and meaning in measuring up, making much of ourselves. Or, on the other hand, we despise ourselves and do everything we can to avoid pride. We live with shame and feel it would be too prideful to be rid of it. 

But, because humility is seen as a virtue, we want others to think of us as humble. So, we make ourselves appear more humble than we actually are. We convince ourselves that we are humble and thus are actually proud. What it takes to be truly humble is far too costly for most people. 

My goal this morning is not to tell you how to be humble, but to show how humble we actually are.

Ultimately, being humble requires knowing God and knowing ourselves. 

It’s really all about acceptance of our status as fallen creatures in relationship with a holy God, who is the God of the lowly and humiliated, the God who hears the cry of the oppressed, the God who raises the poor from the dust, the God who exercises his sovereignty on high in solidarity with those of lowest status below.

Let’s look at a passage that describes this relationship between God and humans. It’s from Matthew chapter 11. I’m going to read verses 25-30, but I’ll be focusing on verses 28-30 in the message.

God’s humility toward us

Keep in mind, in this passage, Jesus is making a claim about himself that is quite explicit. He is saying that everything has been entrusted, or handed over, to Jesus by God the Father.

The way that the early followers of Jesus interpreted this and other similar statements that he made about himself, is that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, of the same nature and one with Yahweh, the God of Israel.

Colossians 1:15-20 says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God and that the fullness of God dwells in him. In other words, if we want to know God in human terms, we look at Jesus.

What does he look like? We can read the Gospels, and really the whole New Testament. As he said in Matt. 11:29, “I am gentle and humble in heart.”

Phil. 2:5-11 paints a clear and succinct picture of the nature and character of God in Jesus.

It says that Jesus was, in his very nature, God. And because he was God, he used his power not to his own advantage, but took on the nature of a servant, he humbled himself,  subjecting himself to death. 

If you want to know what sort of God we have, what sort of power he has, and how he exercises his power, you must look both at Jesus as a resurrected king and conquerer and also as a humble and suffering servant on the cross. 

And, these are two sides of the same coin. Jesus is both the humble servant and the risen king. 

In an essay on the humility of God, David Fergusson wrote, “divine power is manifested in the foolishness of the cross, not… abandoned or lost in this event. [God’s humble nature]… cannot be [interpreted as the casting off of] divine identity in the incarnation. If Christ reigns from the tree, then he reigns.”

In God, we see humility as greatness, but not over against the greatness of others. It is greatness that increases as it lifts others up.

Remember how I defined humility earlier: it is opposed to engaging with life in terms of the self-concerned states of pride or shame. 

It is freedom from these sorts of measurements of success or failure. Humility results in emptying oneself by turning away from the self and toward others.

If you read the interaction between Jesus and his disciples in John 13, you see how this is demonstrated. Jesus got up from the passover meal that they were eating, wrapped a towel around his waist, taking the form of a servant, and washed his disciples feet. 

This was a demonstration that the power of Jesus and those who want to follow in his way, is not limited to high and lofty positions. It reaches the highest and the lowest points of society.

Then, after he washed their feet, he said, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (13:4-5)

I’ll come back to this at the end, but let’s look at our humility toward God.

Our humility toward God

In our passage in Matthew 11, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus is calling the weary and burdened. Who doesn’t feel weary and burdened? 

Everyone has burdens. Think about the cares you have in your life and how easy it is to get into a pattern of working and toiling to get things under control.

I have done this for years. Searching, reaching, yearning for a better life. I have lived with a lot of “if only’s”. 

Do you have any of those? If only? What are they? Relationships? Money? Work? Health? 

If all those things are in control and you have no complaints about any of them, what about your relationship with God? What burdens do you carry in that area?

Jesus says, come to me and I will give you rest. How does this happen? Apparently, it happens by taking upon yourself his yoke.

This has always been a troublesome statement for me. Perhaps it has been for you. Remember what I said about the opposite of pride? It is not humility. It is shame.

Perhaps this is the greatest burden we carry, the burden of measuring up. We are proud when we measure up, or exceed expectations. We are ashamed when we don’t.

But, the yoke of Jesus is humility. It is outside of pride and shame. When we take up the yoke of Jesus, we remove the yoke of pride and shame.  

I’m not sure about you, but for me this is mind-blowing. You see, humility is not an achievement. If we think of it as something we attain or accomplish, we have jumped back on the pride and shame spectrum.

If we embrace the identity and companionship of Jesus, we will experience rest because our weakness, our vulnerability, our service of others is, in the way of Jesus, the way greatness is experienced.

Consider Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12:9, 13:4. He said that in his weakness, God’s power is made perfect. And that we are weak in God, yet by his power we will live with him.

We must be careful to not think of this as a command to become weak. All of what I’ve been talking about is not about us changing our nature or status. It is about seeing our nature and status as humble. 

Humility toward God does not require us to become lower or weaker than we are. It requires us to stop trying to be what we are not. To accept the identity and nature that God has given us and redeemed through Jesus. 

Humility is looking at God and forgetting the pride and shame that sin produces.Conclusion

Our vision is to commit our hearts to God, our community, and each other.

This is in line with that passage in Phil. 2. It says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others… have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who… made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant… he humbled himself.”

With a vision to commit our hearts to God, we are embracing the invitation of Jesus to come to him and take upon ourselves his humble yoke. 

With a vision to commit our hearts to our community, we are embracing the nature of humility that Jesus had by becoming a servant and giving himself up in sacrifice for others.

With a vision to commit our hearts to each other, we are embracing the invitation to serve one another in humility because we have already been accepted and loved by our Heavenly Father.

As we close the service, we will sing a song in which we find these words:

Yet not I but through Christ in Me, verse 2:

The night is dark but I am not forsaken

For by my side, the Savior He will stay

I labor on in weakness and rejoicing

For in my need, His power is displayed

If you forget everything I’ve said in this message, at the very least, come back to this song throughout the week, which sums up the entire message.

I want to leave you with the words of Jesus at the end of John 14:

“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Scripture References
Matthew 11:28-30
Philippians 2:1-13
John 13:4-5, 14-15
2 Corinthians 12:9, 13:4

Other Resources
Divine Humility, Matthew Wilcoxen
Circles and the Cross, Loren Wilkinson
God Crucified, Richard Bauckham