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Be-Attitudes #4 - Meekness And Majesty Series
Contributed by James Galbraith on Jan 31, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: Fourth in a series, encouraging us to follow Christ’s example of majestic meekness.
Be-Attitudes 2007 #4 – “Meekness and Majesty”
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.
