Someone asked me to post the sermons I’m sharing for this weekend up. I did not do a full script of those and I am working on them just for you. But here is another sermon I wrote. This is probably the best sermon I ever wrote. I also got an excellent remark from the President of Bible School. One of my proud moment in life. I hope you will be blessed by it. I have read it through many times and I still do not understand how I managed to write something like that.

In all this though, I hope you will see something about God you never saw before….with regards from Cambodia.

Leon

Humbleness, A Type of Pride

Mark 7:24-30

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^24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.^a He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. ^

^25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil^b spirit came and fell at his feet.

^26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

^27 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

^28 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

^29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

^30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Introduction

Humbleness, A type of pride. What does that mean? The title of my message will draw a certain amount of curiosity. Let me explain.

The term humbleness has been abused in many ways so much so that it often brings a negative connotation. When we see someone who is humble, many times we question if it is for real. But many of us secretly yearn for people that are humble. We like those kind of people.

In society today, humbleness is rarely cultivated. Schools emphasize on being the best or the top. Parents emphasize on good grades looking for ways to get their children to the best school. Things are purchased no longer for their usefulness alone but also their ecstatic purposes. They are built to impress. The more expensive the things you own, the more successful you are. That’s what the world projects.

Almost everything is made to be proud of. Hardly is anything made to look plain. This need to impress drives many to give away their lives and definitely put away the term humbleness in their quests for glory.

Cultural practices that cultivate humbleness especially in the Asian context are often replaced by more convenient methods of fulfilling the so called responsibility. Humbleness though was written all over Jesus life. The moment He came down to earth, He humbled Himself to a magnitude that we can never achieve. He tried to emphasize this humbleness many times to His disciples who couldn’t understand this. This was so obvious when they argued on who is the greatest even though it was close to the time Jesus would die.

In this passage I was taught of what humbleness really means. I would like to let us see how this woman was able to experience God’s grace and miracle because of her humbleness. Also let us see how that situation turned into a type of pride.

I. From Human Pride to Humbleness

It is hard for us to take the first step to be humble. In life as we saw just now, we tend to be caught up in a rat race to climb a ladder that really has nothing on top. God is always knocking on the doors of our hearts to come to Him. A lot of times He has to bring us through humbling situations before we learn to rely on Him again. The story of the syrophoenician woman brought out a lesson that Jesus really wanted us as disciples to always know; True humbleness like of a child. We have to come to a point where we exchange our human pride for humbleness.

What is it to be humble? Humbleness in the biblical world is a value that directs persons to stay within their inherited social status, specifically by not presuming on others and avoiding even the appearance of lording over another. Humble persons do not threaten or challenge another’s rights, nor do they claim more for themselves than has been duly allotted them in life. They even stay a step below or behind their rightful status (e.g., the ‘unworthy’ John the Baptist, Mark 1:7). Conversely, to attempt to better one’s self at the expense of others, to acquire more than others, to strive for honors others currently enjoy are all instances of proud and arrogant behavior.

We can learn from the example of the woman not only about her faith but on what it means to be humble. From the passage, I would like to suggest two ways on how we could humble ourselves.

1. Recognizing Our Identity

Here she was. A Greek influenced gentile (if possible, the Jews would put Greek in small letters). Everything was despicable to the Jews. Gentiles were considered impure simply because they were gentiles. Not only that, her daughter was possessed by an evil spirit, in Greek, unclean spirit.

She was probably pagan and not only that, she hails from a wealthy city that is godless and oppressed Israel. Wait a minute, let’s not forget that she was a woman, in those days that is also an issue. She will definitely not be welcomed into the midst of the Holy One by His disciples if they had a choice.

The Jews had always the sense of pride that they were Yahweh’s chosen people, and the rest of the world is quote unquote worthless. Somewhat like the Chinese language which associates every other race with the word ghost except their own. Their worldview was clouded with much pride of themselves not who God is. “We have Abraham as our forefather. Did you know that?” They would say.

Here she comes straight after she had heard news of Jesus with a posture that depicts a huge amount of humility. She fell at His feet. What a depiction Mark wrote. No one just kneels at someone’s feet let alone fall at someone’s feet just because they had nothing better to do. She was desperate; she was really really desperate to help her daughter.

Did Jesus offer her help? The kind Jesus who sits children on His lap and Who is compassionate and loving. No, the rather shocking statement He made was not to just the woman but had a deep impact I believe to the disciples. “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

What is amazing was her response. If I were her, I’d get awfully offended. No matter how desperate I am. I think many would definitely react the same way I do also. But she recognized who she was. A dog! What a humbling experience this was for her and me.

Simpson’s Most Valuable Discovery

In the year 1847, a doctor from Edinburgh, Sir James Simpson, discovered that chloroform could be used as an anaesthetic to render people insensible to the pain of surgery. From his early experiments, Dr. Simpson made it possible for people to go through the most dangerous operations without fear of pain and suffering. Some people even claim that his was one of the most significant discoveries of modern medicine.

Some years later, while lecturing at the University of Edinburgh, Dr. Simpson was asked by one of his students, “What do you consider to be the most valuable discovery of your lifetime?” To the surprise of his students, who had expected him to refer to chloroform, Dr. Simpson replied, “My most valuable discovery was when I discovered myself a sinner and that Jesus Christ was my Saviour.”

—Glad Tidings

Is that true of our lives too? Do we recognize ourselves as a sinner? An outsider that is not worthy to come before the King of kings and Lord of lords?

2. Losing ‘Ourselves’

A common concept of pride or human pride is the belief that you are better or more important than other people. Another is your feelings of your own worth and respect for yourself. These definitions are taken from the Cambridge Dictionary.

I have a feeling that she had lost all her pride when she was at Jesus feet. She had no other wish than to see her daughter well again. In fact so strong was her wish that she asked Jesus to ‘drive’ the demon out. She wanted the suffering of her precious daughter to cease immediately.

She had no other hope. She with all her human abilities had reached its limits. She knew Jesus could make the difference. She was willing to give up everything with the hope of something good.

Yet the quite insensitive reply did not embitter her at all. She didn’t argue. She didn’t spite back with harsh words like many people do today. “Why don’t you want to help?” “Aren’t you supposed to be a living God?”

She did not care if others had preeminence over her. She didn’t care if she was referred to as a dog. She didn’t care if others were more important than her. She stooped to the lowest possible that anyone could go. Through all the riddles in Jesus statement, she saw a glimpse of hope, a small hope that an average person would not be able to see because their minds would be running with negative emotions of anger and hurts. She saw the crumbs. “But even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

If she had not lost her pride, humbled ‘herself’ to the fact that she really has no power to help her daughter, lost ‘herself, she would not have seen that hope. The hope that was written in between the lines! Jesus did not say he did not love the gentiles? He just said that it was not His focus or God’s program to save the gentiles first. God loves the world, and has a plan to save the whole world. The focus was on a smaller group for now.

She knows she cannot insist on God’s mercy and takes no offense in Jesus telling her so. But she knew that if she accepted her rank as a dog, it still meant getting fed with crumbs. Her act of brilliance was birth from an utmost humility. She was willing to accept God’s will in her life as second priority but knew that she wanted so much to save her child even with just a crumb. So she lost ‘herself’ and asks that she be given just a dog’s worth of love. Could someone who sees such humbleness resist the urge to help?

II. From Humbleness to Godly Pride

God is His marvelous ways has a plan for everything. He often turns situations like this into great opportunities to share a truth and make a difference. What uniquely turned the situation in this story was not only the humbleness to recognize and lose one’s self; it was also her realization of God. In her desperate moment she found God.

1. Recognizing who God is

George Washington Carver, the scientist who developed hundreds of useful products from the peanut: “When I was young, I said to God, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the universe.’ But God answered, ‘That knowledge is reserved for me alone.’ So I said, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.’ Then God said, ‘Well, George, that’s more nearly your size.’ And he told me.”

As we can see, George Washington Carver learnt a lesson about God that day. God is so much bigger than we are. So much more powerful! Many would think that he was a brilliant man, but he realized that all he could really achieve was just a size of a peanut compared to God. Just like the woman, we see that he was humble enough to recognize himself, and then swallowed his pride. He recognized the fact that God was right and brilliantly asks that he be given knowledge about just a peanut.

But much more, we can see these people know that God is the only one who can answer them. What they were asking for was out of their human control. Beyond their human ability to achieve and the fact that they are a dog, a peanut! We can see this clearly manifested in the way she addressed Jesus as Lord. She was a gentile, a prideful woman probably before all these problems came into her life. She had no need for anyone to be Lord of her life. In fact nobody thought her to call Jesus Lord. She did it out of her own recognition that God is God alone and I am man. I think the lyrics of the chorus in Steven Curtis Chapman’s song put it perfectly:

God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God

It was John Riskin who said, “I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own power, or hesitation in speaking his opinion. But really great men have a … feeling that the greatness is not in them but through them; that they could not do or be anything else than God made them.” Andrew Murray said, “The humble man feels no jealousy or envy. He can praise God when others are preferred and blessed before him. He can bear to hear others praised while he is forgotten because … he has received the spirit of Jesus, who pleased not Himself, and who sought not His own honor. Therefore, in putting on the Lord Jesus Christ he has put on the heart of compassion, kindness, meekness, longsuffering, and humility.”

M. R. De Haan used to say, “Humility is something we should constantly pray for, yet never thank God that we have.”

In the passage we can see that Jesus didn’t say he couldn’t perform the miracle just that he won’t do it just yet. Our trust in every situation of life must be put on the one who can save us all. Jesus! We have to come to a point where we really mean what we say when we call Jesus, Lord. We need to recognize who God is. The woman recognized that. She was even proud to be God’s dog. Because being God’s dog and receiving just His crumbs is better than not receiving anything at all.

2. Unleashing faith for Godly Pride

Pride: a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction that you get because you or people connected with you have done or possess something good. This is actually the first definition in the line on the three definitions’ I gave on pride from the Cambrigde Dictionary.

Are we proud because of whom God is? Are we humbled by who we are? Are we filled with humility yet filled with pride in the fact we possess a good God, I would even say Great God who love’s us? Who has a plan for us?

The woman had nothing but faith that Jesus could heal her daughter. She had faith that this God was compassionate and loving enough to help her through her troubles. She had faith that she could press on despite a negative answer that this God is powerful and loving enough. A gentile, who knows not who this God is and who had no prior experience with God unlike the Jews.

This faith in God moved the barrier of problems in her life. A miracle happened. She could only be thankful to God in the end. She could only be proud of who God is in the end.

God wants the pleasure of the connection to his people and satisfaction in helping them. Yet He cannot do that until we are humble enough to recognize His power. And when we do so, we not only gain much satisfaction but also give the glory to God because we take none of it for ourselves. The woman must have been naturally surprised that her daughter was healed even though she had the faith. She came back hoping for the best. She had no way to know if it happened. After it happened, she will definitely give God the credit and the people that hear about it will definitely be attracted to find out more.

Even faith a size of a mustard seed can remove mountains. God needs not our effort to glorify Him. His creation naturally glorifies Him in many ways. But if we are willing and humble He will use us to reflect an even greater image of His glory. For when we humble ourselves to the fact of our finite being and sinful nature, we shine the light of God’s glory brighter than when we steal some for ourselves.

Conclusion

In concluding this message, I would like to read this story:

Many years ago, Christian professor Stuart Blackie of the University of Edinburgh was listening to his students as they presented oral readings. When one young man rose to begin his recitation, he held his book in the wrong hand. The professor thundered, “Take your book in your right hand, and be seated!” At this harsh rebuke, the student held up his right arm. He didn’t have a right hand! The other students shifted uneasily in their chairs.

For a moment the professor hesitated. Then he made his way to the student, put his arm around him, and with tears streaming from his eyes, said, “I never knew about it. Please, will you forgive me?” His humble apology made a lasting impact on that young man. This story was told some time later in a large gathering of believers. At the close of the meeting a man came forward, turned to the crowd, and raised his right arm. It ended at the wrist. He said, “I was that student. Professor Blackie led me to Christ. But he never could have done it if he had not made the wrong right.”

This is just a simple example of how God turns a situation in our lives into His pride. But if we had not been humble enough, those miracles would not happen. Through our lives let us pray that we will not only have the faith the woman had, but we will have the humbleness to recognize who we are and consequently we’ll lose ourselves to God. Recognizing who God is and putting our faith in Him we know that He’ll turn those situations of our lives into miracles for His Glory. Indeed humbleness is a type of pride because in being humble, God is made proud.