Tag: Arrogance

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Proverbs catches a conundrum.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭29‬:‭23‬ ‭NLT‬‬

How can God be all powerful, all knowing and all present and NOT be arrogant? Is pride the opposite of humility? Pride certainly destroys lots of things: relationships, trust, faith and opportunities. Pride and humility cannot share the same space. One defeats and displaces the other. Pride also has an oder, it stinks. People smell it and it’s repulsive. Don’t mistake confidence for pride either, one is admirable, the other deplorable.

The wisdom writers tell us that humility brings honor. Honor? I think honor only comes from the honorable. To the proud, humility brings jealousy and confrontational complexity.

Robin and I watched the brand new Season 3 of The Chosen the other day. This season is far more intimately gritty. Dallas Jenkins and the writing team have decided to dig deeply into the characters and our unique human dilemmas. Questions are asked that we’ve all wanted to ask, but have never had the guts or the platform to facilitate them.

In episode 3, Jesus returns to his childhood hometown of Nazareth. I don’t know how Dallas pulled it off but Jesus, played by Jonathan Roumie, comes off naturally, if not even awkwardly humble! Jesus is portrayed as an introvert!

And he’s not just quiet, he’s shy! He quietly arrives at night. The next day is a big celebration, a Jewish holiday that honors the day God created the world. Families and friends are all out in a field like a massive community fair. Word had spread about Jesus’ miracles and fame. Thousands had come to hear him speak, the paralyzed cure, possessed were freed from demonic slavery. The news was everywhere! Yet the writers chose to portray Jesus as almost embarrassed by all the attention! Roumie playing Jesus, deflected praise, and avoided direct questions of who he was. While playing a childhood game, they had Jesus LOSE after clumsily dropping the ball several times! When meeting with Jesus’ childhood teacher and master Rabbi. They had Roumie genuinely honoring his own teacher and giving us the feeling that it was strange to have the roles reversing as now the student was becoming the master.

Jesus, who IS God and had stared down power, veiled threats, demons and doubters, was seemingly uneasy with this shift happening in his own hometown. Oh, it’s all true, but we’ve never seen it acted out like this.

There is a scene in the local Nazareth synagogue where Jesus opens the scroll to read out of Isaiah. Roumie rolls it up and gives it back to the attendant. He then sits down and scans the room, his eyes taking in everyone that has known him and his family since he was born. His eyes, his body language are amazing. He stares at his mother, Mary. He stares at his own Rabbi. And as he stares you feel the angst and anticipation of what is about to happen. Dallas, puts you in the synagogue, the room packed with emotion.

Jesus, at this moment seems to struggle. He does not want to tell this group, his childhood friends, his own mother, and his Rabbi what MUST be revealed. It is the most powerful moment of humility that I have ever seen! Jesus, being fully God and fully human, understands the pain and confusion this news will bring to his family, friends and all of Nazareth. But Jesus HAS to tell them! He has to reveal what God has spoken, what God has declared as His will. “Today,” Jesus says, “this scripture has been fulfilled today.” In the show, the crowd that’s gathered gets super aggravated and aggressive and they press Jesus. The Rabbi comes out and asks him, are you saying you are greater than the law of Moses? Ahhhhh, here it is. How will Jesus respond, what will he say? Dallas had Roumie say this, “I AM the law of Moses!” It gave me chills, it made me cry. It wrecked me! And, it must have wrecked them as well, because they took him out on the cliffs in Nazareth to stone him for blasphemy!

Jesus would leave and never come back to his hometown because he said he was God, but didn’t act like they thought God should act!

Prayer

Dad,
When I think about humility and remember the stories Jesus told and lived. When I think about Jesus’ mannerisms and attitudes, his gentleness and kindness, it is then that I begin to understand how Your ways are above and mostly unknown to me! How could any of us be so arrogant, so puffy proud? Am I above God? Do we think we are better than you, know better than you and can finagle our own way without you? That’s just insanely ridiculous! I am sorry for my own arrogance and independence.

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I love it when a wicked plan fails!

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“When he saw Queen Esther standing there in the inner court, he welcomed her and held out the gold scepter to her. So Esther approached and touched the end of the scepter. Then the king asked her, “What do you want, Queen Esther? What is your request? I will give it to you, even if it is half the kingdom!” Esther‬ ‭5:2-3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

If one was to say, “this story reads like the script from an Oscar worthy movie.” I would agree. Except, this story is not a fairy tale or even a classic ancient novel. This is a real story captured and written to provide insight to God’s faithfulness and His justice. Maybe all the greatest stories come from real life occurrences written long ago.

This scene is dripping with tension and anticipation. It’s a plan put together from Esther and her uncle Mordecai. But, will it work? Esther is very aware of the consequences in this recorded moment. If she was not summoned, she should never just APPEAR before the king! It wasn’t just a plan, it was her life. Before Esther goes through with it, she says, “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.” Esther‬ ‭4:16‬. Notice, it was “against the law,” and she was prepared to die. Whew. So, King Xerxes, seeing her in his inner court, welcomed her and held out the scepter! Wow. The King spoke those famous words, “what do you want, Queen Esther?” Up to half his kingdom if she were to ask. Esther could have just told the King her tragic story, and the future genocidal act of killing off her race, but she didn’t. The plot, the story thickens.

She wants to not only catch Haman off guard, but she wants his own pride and hubris behavior to be his greatest downfall. Esther invites the King to a great banquet and she makes sure that Haman is invited. I think the King knows there was something much deeper going on and asks Esther about it, but she sticks with the plan and tells him, just come to the banquet and you’ll find out. I don’t think Kings like surprises, but he agrees.

Haman, obviously believes it is all about him and that a great honor is coming his way. After leaving the first banquet, his arrogance, his hatred for Mordecai only grows. And his bravado only amplifies as he throws a party for himself, his family and friends all while telling them how rich and important he is. The night before the second banquet something extraordinary happens. The King had trouble sleeping. And, strangely, he asks for the royal book of records that tell of all that he and other Kings before him had accomplished. And, what do you know, King Xerxes finds this brief mention of a man that saved his life from an attempted assassination from his own trusted men. And, as he searches further, he finds no record of honoring that man for saving the king’s life. That man was Mordecai.

And as providence would have it, the King looks for the first high ranking official in his court that he can find. And who is waiting in the outer court? Yep, Haman. And why is Haman waiting to see the King? To ask the King to impale his own hated enemy – Mordecai. The King speaks first. And says, “What should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me?” Haman has no idea how off he really is. He has selfishly and wickedly thought only of himself and he wanted MORE. Haman thought to himself, “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?” Oh my goodness! Who could make this stuff up?

This story is a picture of what our own wickedness and bent perspective does to human beings. But it is also a picture of how God’s justice works. There were multiple times Mordecai could have turned, repented, changed his ways and humbled his heart to God to do what was right. But he would not turn. He would not yield. He would not change. You’ll have to read the rest of the story for yourself, but remember God knows how to take care of those who do right and knows how to being justice to those who continually do wrong.

Prayer

Dad,
I am always amazed at the ease that you direct our affairs to bring about our best (for those who love you) and justice to those who work wickedness to hurt others and bolster their own egos.