(This is rewrite of an earlier article. I had that on my mind and decided to share it again.)
“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He might exalt you in due time.” My Grandma Cooper used to say to me when I was very young, “Get off yo high horse.” (I want to take away some grammatical questions. First I know that “yo” is not a word, because my computer informs me that it is not. You couldn’t have told my Grandma Cooper that. Second I don’t know if “high horse” should be one or two words. There, that takes care of that.) When she told me that, it was because I had sassed her or had done something that was less than humble. (She pronounced sass as Saiss, which sounded a whole lot worse than sass. {O.k. computer I know that saiss is not a word, but you couldn’t have told my Grandma Cooper that.}) I think that my maternal grandma was on to something. A lot of our troubles in our world today are caused by people being on their “high horses.” We are so toucheous today. (I know that “toucheous” is not a word, but you can’t tell me that.) It seems that everyone has an “ax to grind,” and that many, many people take offense at the least little thing. We have become so self-important that we can’t take it when we think that we have been slighted in any way. A good symptom of this is when a teacher disciplines someone’s precious baby; parents will go for that teacher’s jugular real quick. My Grandma Cooper would have said that they were on a “high horse,” and she would have said something equivalent to “get over it.” When I was in school, when I was disciplined at school (spanked) I got the same thing when I got home. It didn’t seem fair then, but it makes sense now, seeing the behavior of some children now. God help me when mama found out, and when my grandma found out as well. This is just one example of our national “high horse” today. Which brings me to today’s scripture. We are not only on our “high horse” sociologically; we are on our “high horse” theologically as well. Peter admonished us to, “Humble (ourselves) under the mighty hand of God.” We hear things like “it’s my life and I can live it like I want.” Or “it’s my body and I can do with it what I want.” We don’t seem to take into consideration that God/Jesus might have something to say about that. The farther we get away from God, the sooner we straddle the “high horse.” We don’t just see that outside of the church, we see it in the church as well. As Christians we should learn what Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church: “…You are not your own, for you are bought with a price…” (1Corinthians 6:19b-20a) He is referring to Jesus, who “humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” If Jesus could humble Himself, knowing what we know about Him, surely it is not beneath us to “get off of our ‘high horses’” and humble ourselves under His mighty hand. Jesus further illustrated humility when in John 13, He washed His disciples feet. Jesus was teaching a lesson far beyond washing feet. He wanted us to see that if the creator of the universe, and the One who holds everything together, can stoop and wash feet, we can stoop and serve God, and, yes, our fellow human beings. We were not saved to rule, at least not yet; rather, we were saved to serve. In Mark 10:44-45, Jesus told His disciples, who were on their “high horses,” “And whosoever of you will be chiefest, shall be servant of all: 45. For the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” I can think of no greater catalyst to humble ourselves “under the mighty hand of God” than the example set by Jesus. Which leads me to say to you: “Get off yo high horse.” And don't you saiss me. :-) Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|