Observations Of Self While Preaching Through The Gospels

Of all the sins that beset mankind, hubris is the hardest to self detect. It is one of the logs that blots out our vision and does not allow us to effectively restore site to those blinded by specks in their own eyes because of the way it pokes and jabs at the one we are attempting to help.

Recently (over the past three months or so) I’ve been preaching through the Gospels.  Not in a systematic way, much less chronological.  Rather I am browsing around, sampling here, cogitating there, looking at the teachings of Yeshua, the Anointed One – the Holy Son of God Almighty.  He came down and lived amongst men, humbling Himself to the point of arriving as a squalling newborn in a smelly stable, laid down to sleep  in a feed trough by his young mother.  Indeed, as if that ignominy were not enough, his mother bore the shadow of scandal on her young shoulders and in the months preceding His birth many murmured about her growing belly and scoffed at her unlikely story of having been visited by an angel of the Almighty. The first to hear of His coming were a band of lowly shepherds who were watching over their flocks in the nearby hills.  They trooped into town to see the sight that had been announced to them and witnessed the veracity of the angelic messenger’s words.  But who would take the word of a bunch of ignorant men from the hills?

Indeed, He stepped from His place of glory to enter into our fallen world.  The Creator took the shape of the created.  The Master walked in the same places as the lowly.  He humbled Himself and showed us the path to return to fellowship with our Lord.  He showed us what humility looks like – and yet too often we respond with hubris, pride like to that of our arch enemy who seeks to boost up that which is false inside of us so that we depend on ourselves rather than upon the power of the One who came to free us.

Indeed, as I hold up the mirror of God’s word to my life – I like not that which I see.  Rather than seeing Christ reflected there I see the ugly shades of self shining forth.  It is an humbling experience to read through the Gospel accounts and ask, “How do I measure up to Him and His teachings?” Yes, He makes us new again – and yet the Apostle Paul wrote to us saying “Put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature.”  And he also told us about the importance of allowing God’s Spirit to help us put to death those earthly urgings which lead to destruction.

Daily must we search our hearts and minds and seek His will in our lives.  Daily must we rip out the encroaching weeds that would choke our spiritual life to nothingness.  The Christian life is not one of ease and comfort, it is a life of taking up daily our cross and living for Him in every part and aspect of our lives.  As I see the Master’s plan for a Godly life portrayed in His words preserved in the Gospel accounts, I see my own stark failings and the need for His cleansing blood and renewing Spirit.  And it is easier to put aside the pride that would lead me down the same path as the enemy of my soul took long ago.