Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Zechariah 9:9,10
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  March 25, 2018

What does humility look like to you? Is it the player in the postgame interview who deflects the compliments? Is it the shy student in the back of the class? Is it that family member who can’t stand photos and never wants to the center of attention? Maybe, they at least sound plausible, right? But what about a man who claims to be a king? What about a man who lets people put their coats down on the ground just so he can walk over them? What about a man who says that even rocks would shout his praises if people didn’t? This man does not sound very humble, but this is exactly what Jesus did. Which makes you wonder about the nature of humility, doesn’t it? We usually equate humility with certain personality types—the shy, quiet, passive, and reserved folks. But that’s not what humility is really about, at least not biblically. In the Bible, humility is something associated with glory and exaltation. In fact, today I want to show you that humility leads to victory. And nothing demonstrates that more clearly than Zechariah’s prophecy and that first Palm Sunday, 2000 years ago.

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem among shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of David, people knew he was fulfilling the prophecy. Before them was an exact picture of Zechariah’s words recorded centuries earlier: Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey. Jesus, by purposefully fulfilling this prophecy, called himself the Messiah, the king of Jerusalem. And the people knew it, that’s why they called him the son of King David. That’s also why the Pharisees tried to stop him. On the one hand, they saw Jesus as a threat to their authority, and on the other hand, they feared a Roman backlash to all this seditious hailing of a new king (Jn 11:48). But when they said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, ‘If they keep silent, the very stones will cry out.” (Lk 19:39, 40). There is no going back now; Jesus is not stopping. His hour has come. The Pharisees’ authority is spent and if the Romans come, they come.

What must it have been like to be one of his twelve disciples on that day? Was their adrenaline spiking as they walked through the cheering crowds? Were their hearts beating out of their chests when Jesus shut down the Pharisees? Were their hands sweaty like soldiers just before a battle wondering what would happen? “How would Jesus do it?” They must have wondered. “Would he whip up the enthusiastic crowds and storm the Roman praetorium—a people’s revolution? Or would he call down fire from heaven and scare them into submission? Would they be called on to fight against the battalions? How many of his followers be lost in the struggle?” The tension of the moment must have been tremendous!

However, the only thing more tremendous than the tension in this moment would be the let down over the week to come. As Jesus humbly allows himself to be arrested and flogged. As the one whom so many thought would set them free from the Romans would be killed by the Romans, like so many others before him. Just one more tragedy of the occupation, one more “wannabe” claiming to be something he wasn’t. Even his disciples didn’t understand. They went into hiding, holding their breath behind locked doors and watching Roman shadows as they passed. They didn’t understand that Jesus would triumph in his humble death. In fact, they didn’t understand the relationship between victory and humility at all.

And this is a connection which is still missed today. In Philippians 4:3-4 the apostle Paul gives us a definition of humility. He 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 the others.” Humility is thinking about ourselves less and more of others and their needs. And most times we don’t see that in correlation with victory. When we start arguing at home, being humble enough to admit our mistake sometimes leads to a self-righteous “I told you so”. That doesn’t seem like winning! We see the person in the lane beside us wants to merge in front of us, but if we had the humility to think of them first, we would be slowing down and losing time. “That doesn’t sound anything like victory!” Our parents tell us not to do something that we know very well they have done, but listening to them in humility sounds like leaving behind a good argument and pointing out their hypocrisy. That sounds like losing!” Responding to that passive-aggressive email or post with kindness and patience seems like such a waste of our quick wit and the stinging remark we thought of. We often think that humility is something you’re supposed to do after you win, not in order to win. That’s something you use in the post-game interview, not during the match itself!

Paul says, “do nothing out of vain conceit or selfish ambition.” But selfish ambition seems to make our world go around. We need it to win! No, this is pride, and it is a losing characteristic, no matter how far ahead it may seem on paper. It’s what caused the disciples to quarrel over who would have the seat of honor, after Jesus defeated the Romans, right after he told them he must die. It’s what caused so many in Israel to shout “Hosanna to the Son of David” and then after he didn’t fulfill their selfish ambition for an earthly king, they shouted “Crucify him” less than a week later. Pride is the devil’s best-selling product because it is fueled by selfish ambition and vain conceit. He tells us that personal power and glory are the keys to victory because he knows that ultimately they lead away from God. He tells us to be humble only when it looks good, but to keep pride burning in our hearts because that is how we will actually win. And pride, though it may seem to win sometimes on earth, will not have the victory.

Why won’t pride win? Well, because its opponent is too strong. “God opposes the proud. (James 4:5) “Pride comes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall.” (Pr 16:18) Those who exalt themselves will be humbled. The Lord brings the haughty low. God is against the proud and he condemns them. My friends, those who are proud of heart will lose, either in this life or the next.

But humility equals victory! The relationship between humility and victory is the same relationship a car’s horsepower has to its capacity for speed. It is a causal relationship. Humility leads to victory. And the clearest demonstration of that is what Paul goes on to talk about in chapter two of Philippians and what happened on Palm Sunday 2000 years ago. Jesus came to Jerusalem, “humble and riding on a donkey”.

You see where the disciples went wrong wasn’t in seeing Jesus as a king. To be sure the disciples’ understanding of Jesus’ kingship at this point was flawed. But in essence, they were correct. Jesus was and still is the king of Israel and the whole world. You see they correctly identified Zechariah’s prophecy, but they didn’t understand the main thrust of it. “See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious” they got that, but how a King who is victorious can also be “humble and riding on a donkey”? Not so much. Zechariah’s prophecy continues, “I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. This is a king who comes “humble and riding on a donkey” not on a warhorse. There wasn’t going to be any physical battle! Jesus would triumph through his humility.

As the apostle Paul said of him “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5–8). He didn’t let his divine status stop him from serving us. He came, “humble and riding of a donkey” and continued on to the cross. It was his humility—his selfless ambition and care for others—that enabled our Lord to be our Savior. It was his humility that led to victory.

This informs us in our own lives, doesn’t it? Your king came “humble and riding on a donkey”. We tend to think of humility in the same realm of self-doubt or self-deprecation as though, in the words of C. S. Lewis, humility involves being a person “who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody.” But thinking poorly of yourself doesn’t mean you’re humble. Humility doesn’t mean being weak or producing a humble demeanor. Humility is a powerful thing!  Jesus was matchless in power and authority, yet consummately humble. We so often think of humility as passive, but it is actually only made possible through great confidence and boldness. You need to be confident in your own standing as God’s child before you can reach out to others selflessly. You must be bold enough to put others before yourself when the world tells you you’re going to fall behind. It’s pride that needs to grab for confidence and self-worth, it’s humility that already possesses it. Pride tries to push others down until it stands at the top. Humility supports others and when they get to the top celebrates with them. Pride is what God condemns without remorse; humility is what God exalts without measure. In fact, as Christians, we have the greatest capacity for humility because we find our confidence in Christ. Selfish ambition? We already have heaven! Let’s use everything we have to serve others and win victories for Christ through our humility. Pride leads to loss; humility equals victory! My friends, be confident and bold, after all our competence comes from Christ and we have eternal life through his name. Rethink what it means to be humble and serve others in victory.

Amen.