Are we humble? Do we display humility?
This idea of who receives God's favor is a consistent them in Scripture. God chooses the humble, the unlikely, and the lowly. God chose the elderly - Abraham and Sarah - to bring forth the chosen people. He chose Moses - a fugitive from the law - a man who stuttered and was tending sheep - to be the lawgiver and deliverer of Israel. He chose David - the shepherd boy - the youngest and scrawniest son of Jesse - to be Israel's greatest king. And . . . He chose Mary - a peasant girl in Nazareth - to bear the Messiah.
Can't you see Mary teaching Jesus about God's preference for the humble? It's an important theme in Jesus' ministry. We hear it in His words again and again, "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (Luke 14:11). "Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant" (Mark 10.:43). "The last will be first, and the first will be last" (Matthew 20:16).
When Jesus chose disciples, he didn't select the seminary-trained or those with doctorates in theology. No, he chose fisherman, tax collectors, and other unlikely candidates. He taught them humility by washing their feet at the Last Supper and then told them, "I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you" (John 13:15). Jesus told His disciples, "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45. This theme of humility is seen throughout the New Testament.
The entire Christmas story is, in part, a story about the reversal of values in God's kingdom. Mary, a peasant girl, was chosen to be the King. Jesus was born in a stable because there was no room in the inn. The first people God invites to see the Christ are the night-shift shepherds. The story is a call for us to humble ourselves before God.
Pride is a dangerous sin. It eats away at our soul. It convinces us that we are better than others, we deserve more, and we are above the law. It convinces political leaders and CEOs that they can do as they wish without repercussion. But these people are eventually humbled.
The author of First Peter wrote about pride, "'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' Humble yourselves, therefore under the might hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:5-6). God opposes the proud. They eventually fall.
What does this mean for people who are successful? If the rich are sent away hungry and the poor are lifted up, what does it mean for people who are not hungry or poor? It means that we ought to humble ourselves before God. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians:
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own best interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus . . . He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death. (Philippians 2:3-5, 8)
This is a call to humility.
It's easy for pride to sneak into our lives, especially when we're in places of privilege. For some of us that privilege is based on race; for some it's socioeconomic status; for some it's the fact that we live in the United States and not somewhere else. We begin to think the world revolves around us and to treat others as though they're beneath us. It can happen at the shopping mall when the cashier is a little flustered and can't quite get it right, and finally you get your turn and treat the cashier poorly. Why? Because you can - because you're the customer and that person is the employee or the waitperson at the restaurant or your spouse or your parent or your child or your neighbor.
The passage from First Peter reminds us that God opposes the proud. One of the things I've noticed is that you're going to be humbled - one way or another. YOU either humble yourself, or God will do it for you. When God does it for you, maybe you show up on the front page of the newspaper, or your family and everyone in the neighborhood knows about it, and you're humiliated and brought low. How much better it is to humble yourself before God - to say, "God - please help me remember who I am and that my life is a gift and that anything good ultimately comes from you. Help me to live like that and to treat people well."
Remember . . . God chose Mary, a young girl from an insignificant part of the Roman Empire - to give birth to Jesus - because . . . that's how God works. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.