The Humility of Palm Sunday

When I was in college, my roommate and I had an argument.  It wasn’t the conventional roommate arguments of cleanliness or being courteous about sleeping schedules.  No, our argument was about who had the best singing voice. 

We were both so convinced that we were the better vocalist that we agreed to a ‘sing off’ where we were our own judges (I know. It’s ridiculous.)  So we each sang a verse of the same song, both convinced that there would be a ‘mic drop’ moment where the other would just admit to defeat. 

The irony of the song we chose completely went over our young heads.  The song was titled:  “Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord.”  Certainly we were not doing what we were singing.

Humility is difficult and pride is hard to see in ourselves.  Humility is often shunned in a world eager to get ahead, to prove yourself right, or put oneself first.  In today’s culture of social media and ’15 minutes of fame’, anyone is just one viral video away from being the next guest on the Today Show, whether for good or bad.  We didn’t need social media to become self-obsessed, but it has certainly become an accelerant for the flame of pride – and its evil twin brother, shame.

Humility only happens when we exalt God to his rightful place as the maker of the universe and the Lord of our lives. Our lives get out of order when pride gets us to try and place ourselves as the centre of the universe.

On Palm Sunday we see an example of Jesus holding tension between confidence and humility.  You remember the story.  Scripture says:

“The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” Matthew 21:6-11

The scene was wild.  This rogue rabbi from nowhere has all of Jerusalem in an uproar.  They are calling him “Blessed” and the “Son of David” and saying he is “coming in the name of the LORD.”  But many still didn’t have it right, calling him a prophet instead of realizing He was God in flesh. Others, like the Synagogue leaders and the Romans, felt threatened because the crowd thought he was the King coming to overthrow the government.

Matthew tells us this was in fulfillment of the prophet Zechariah 9:9 when he said:

“Say to the daughter of Zion,

‘Behold, your king is coming to you,

humble, and mounted on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

Jesus was the “humble King”.  This phrase of seeming contradiction stands out, not only among today’s governmental and cultural leaders, but in all of history.  Jesus displayed humility even when he was receiving praise from the whole city. 

How does someone who is exalted maintain a posture of humility?  We do this by knowing who HE really is and putting others needs before our own.  Similarly, we can also realize who WE are in God and then walk in confident humility.  CS Lewis says, “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.”  

The way to this confident humility is to always have the God’s greatness and love as our confidence, and others needs as our guide.

First, we have God’s greatness and love for us as our confidence.  We don’t think of ourselves as lowly, but God as great.  Author Philips Brooks is attributed as saying: “The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is.” This is why worship plays a crucial role in our maturing towards humility.  When we worship a great God, we can still stand at our true height humbly in comparison. 

Second, we have others needs as our guide. Humility considers others interests before our own.  Since we aren’t thinking of ourselves as often, our priorities become the needs of others.  Scripture says, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:4-5; more on this verse on Sunday).  The Christ who died for the world, putting a relationship with us as his greatest desire.

May God grant us the grace to both think of ourselves rightly and put other’s needs  first. Then, not only will we avoid embarrassing roommate “sing offs” in our dorm rooms, but we will reflect true confident humility, as Christ did.

Blessings and peace,

Rev. Todd