Be-Attitudes 2007 #4 – “Meekness and Majesty”
Matthew 5:5; John 13:1-17
By James Galbraith
First Baptist Church, Port Alberni.
January 28th, 2007
Text(s)
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
13 It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
2 The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
10 Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Introduction
In preparing this sermon, I was drawn to the lives of two very different people.
One was a woman who lived a very long life, and died amongst the poor that she has served with all her heart. She was known worldwide for her loving service to those who mattered so little to everyone else.
She walked the streets of Calcutta, one of the largest cities in India, and gathered up the dying, the abandoned, the forgotten, the abused.
She loved them because she saw Jesus in each and every one of them.
It didn’t matter that they were of a different faith,
that they were contagious,
that they were near death,
or that they were expensive to care for.
She saw herself, in her words, as ‘a pencil in the hand of God’.
God was writing the story, God was in control;
she simply let God use her to do his work.
Her name was Mother Teresa.
The other person I kept thinking about, in comparison to Mother Teresa, was someone who was born in luxury, lived in luxury, and whose life ended not naturally, but in a fiery crash.
She married into royalty, and everyday after she lived in the public eye.
Her fashion sense set trends, she lacked for nothing at all,
and she seemed to have the whole world at her disposal.
Her name was Princess Diana.
Now, you ask, how can I compare these two women, who lived such extremely opposite lives?
When they both died, within days of each other,
they were both remembered the same way.
Mother Teresa had lived a long life in service to God, and people remembered her humility and meekness.
Princess Diana lived a life of majesty and wealth, and yet when her life ended far too soon, she was not eulogized for wearing the right gown or owning the right mansion.
She was remembered for the times she put others first, like when she embraced patients in a hospital or campaigned against landmines.
People seemed to put aside the trappings of her earthy majesty in order to remember the times she had cared for others.
Majesty put her in the public light, but meekness is the legacy people want to remember her by.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Pride, Power, and Popularity. The three P’s of getting ahead. All three put their subject in the middle and everyone else in a supporting role.
I think we all know people who live for these things. It seems our society almost expects it from us. It is so hard to get ahead in this world without bringing attention to our own achievements. It is so maddening when someone else gets credit for work we’ve done.
Jesus says get into the supporting role, and out of the middle. Meekness is having a “servant heart”, which boils down to living with a willingness to put others first.
It is not becoming a doormat to be walked on, as far too many people interpret meekness.
Look to Jesus, who lived out meekness - who walked upon him?
This is the man who interrupted a funeral in order to resurrect the guest of honor.
This is the Messiah who stood up on the last and greatest day of the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the most sacred ceremonies in all of Israel, and shouted to the crowd,
37, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
This is the son of God who walked into his father’s house, the temple in Jerusalem, hastily gathered some cords together to make a whip, and chased the money-changers and animal sellers away, yelling at them:
“Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”
No, meekness is not being a door-mat to be trod upon,
but rather a door opener to be walked with.
It is not keeping your mouth shut in the presence of differing opinions,
it is helping others have their say before we have ours.
It is simply seeing ourselves as people who are ready to serve others.
If that is meekness, then what is inheriting the earth?
When Jesus said these words he was quoting almost verbatim from a psalm in the Old Testament,
Psalm 37:11 But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.
In this Psalm, which is one of the longer ones, King David is contrasting the wicked with those who try to live righteously.
He shares how those who use power for their own gain,
and live off of the pain and suffering of others,
will one day be punished for their wickedness,
while those who strive to live for God, even though they may suffer for a while, will one day prevail, and “inherit the land and enjoy great peace”
Jesus, by repeating this promise, is ensuring his listeners that if they strive to live in meekness, by putting others ahead of themselves, that they will see this promise come true in their lives.
Those who, in their own selfishness, seek to gain what little they can by any means possible, regardless of who they hurt and what sin they commit, will one day see it all disappear and will be left with nothing.
Those who, in striving to live for Christ , seek to help others gain what they need, regardless of what it may cost them and what personal sacrifice they make, will one day have more than they can ever imagine.
Jesus did more than tell people this, he lived it.
When I looked for a episode in his life which makes this point clear, I was drawn to the evening when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.
1 It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
This isn’t just any day, this is the day before all of Israel would be celebrating the Passover , the most holy of holy days in Israel.
It is also the last full day of his life on Earth. He knew the time of his suffering and sacrifice was upon him, and that before he saw the sun again that he would be in custody, awaiting sentencing to death.
With all the weight of his coming death upon him,
and knowing that there was a traitor amongst them,
Jesus takes the time to teach them a lesson they all need to learn.
He takes off his outer robes, which would be pretty much the same as me taking off my jacket. If I was going to shovel snow before church or replace a light bulb, I’d take off my jacket to make it easier to move around, and also to protect my nice clothes.
He then seeks out a basin and towel and begins to wash their feet.
You would think that he had bigger things on his mind, and yet here he is, taking those incredibly dirty feet and washing them with his own hands, and drying them with a towel wrapped around his waist.
It wouldn’t be an easy job – these were twelve men who had been walking in open sandals through the dirty and dusty streets of Jerusalem all day. The grime would be caked on thick and hard, and it would take some work to wash it off.
The disciples, not knowing what to think, let him wash their feet, until it comes to Simon Peter’s turn. He resists, not wanting to make Jesus serve him in such a menial way.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Peter’s reaction is so strong because he still hasn’t come to grips with who Jesus really is. He loves him, but he still sees Jesus as the conquering hero who will led the people and overthrow the captors of Israel.
He also sees himself as one of Jesus’ top aides, and hopes for all the glory that would come with this.
He recoils at the sight of Jesus stooping to such a lowly position, and wants nothing to do with it.
Jesus sees Peter’s heart, and wants him to understand that true glory, true majesty, comes in serving others, and not serving yourself.
He needs to break through Peter’s built up defenses, so he speaks strong-y to him, as a loving parent would to a child who is “just not getting it”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
Peter’s reaction is swift and decisive,
9 “Then, Lord,”, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
He still doesn’t understand why Jesus is doing this, but at least he grasps the importance of it, so he relents and allows Jesus to wash his feet.
Jesus knows that Peter still loves him, and that his heart is set on following him. That is why he says,
10 Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
Peter’s heart was clean, and were the rest of the disciples gathered around, save one, the traitor Judas.
Jesus wasn’t washing their feet in order to remove sin from their hearts. That washing comes though faith in Jesus’ work on the cross, not his work with a basin and towel.
When he’s done, he puts away the basin and towel, puts his outer robe back on, and rejoins them at the table. He then explains to them why he has washed their feet:
“Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
He is teaching them the majesty of meekness.
If he, their teacher and Lord, can serve them by washing their feet without hesitation, how can they not do likewise?
Following Christ means serving him, and a big part of that is having a heart for serving others. Jesus deliberately chose a task which everyone knew was a servant’s job, in order to show them that a servant is exactly what we are meant to be for each other.
And look at the words he uses to finish this teaching episode,
17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Sound familiar?
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
So how can we “be meek’ in our daily lives?
It‘s not easy! It goes against our grain to live in such a way that we put others first, but it can be done.
The best way to begin is to simply find ways of serving others.
We need to live out our meekness in our day to day activities.
It is an attitude, but it comes out in our actions.
We live meekly when we let the mom with a loaded cart and three whiny kids in front of us at Extra Foods.
We live meekly when we close the book we’re enjoying in order to talk to the person who sat down beside us and wants to talk.
We live meekly when we hand over the remote,
when we write a cheque to help the needy,
when we do anything that places someone else in front of ourselves.
That said, I came across this bit of advice to consider in living out this be-attitude of meekness in our own lives.
When you go to another to wash his feet, or when another comes to wash your feet, be concerned as to the temperature of the water!
Some come with boiling hot water. They are so angry, so upset, so distracted by something that has happened in the past—and so mad about it—that they come to the other person and say, “Here, stick your feet in here!” Nobody wants to have his feet washed with boiling water.
Some go to the other extreme and come with ice water. They are so righteous, so holier-than-thou, so above it all. They come with this frigid, freezing water and want to wash your feet. Nobody wants to have his feet washed with ice water.
Some find a third extreme and come without any water! They try to dry-clean your feet with “a piece of their mind,” just scrubbing away harshly. What they say may be true, but there is no water of love, nothing to wash the dirt gently away, but only a rigid insistence on scraping away every imperfection and the skin along with it!
There is another way—that is to come and wash one another’s feet in love, in the spirit of servanthood.
We need to watch out motives when we serve, or our actions will expose a heart that doesn’t quite understand what meekness is.
We need to be meek, not just act meekly. Because it is an attitude, and not just an action, it comes with time, it comes with practice, and it comes with help.
Help from Jesus. who promised us that our meekness would not go overlooked or unrewarded. He lived out lived our meekness himself, even though he, more than anyone else, deserves to be served.
And we do serve him, by serving others.
Allow me to close with this thought about meekness,
An imaginary preacher gives the following report of a visit to the New Jerusalem:
“In my wandering, I came upon the museum in the city of our dreams. I went in, and an attendant conducted me round.
There was some old armor there, much bruised with battle.
Many things were conspicuous by their absence.
I saw nothing of Alexander’s or of Napoleon’s.
There was no pope’s ring, nor even the ink bottle that Luther is said to have thrown at the devil.
I saw a widow’s mite and the feather of a little bird.
I saw some swaddling clothes, a hammer and three nails and a few thorns.
I saw a sponge that had once been dipped in vinegar and a small piece of silver.
Whilst I was turning over a simple drinking cup which had a very honorable place, I whispered to the attendant: “Have you got a towel and basin among your collection?’
‘No,’ he said, ‘not in here. You see, in Heaven they are in constant use.’ ”
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth
