Socks and Humility

DAILY BYTE

As a newly married person, I’ve learned a few things. I’ve learned that different people have different ways of…washing their socks, using a knife, making the bed (or not)… People have different ways of arguing and some of those ways of doing things and ways of simply being – I have had to admit – are better than the ways that I have done them in the past….

Whew! I can’t believe I’ve written that on paper for the whole world to see...

But I have. Because the thing I have learned most about marriage so far, and suspect I will continue learning, is the need for ... humility.

It seems that when you’re married to someone, you cannot escape their truth. They have a knowledge of who you are – the good and the bad – that means that in their presence you cannot think of yourself more highly than you actually are...

My spouse’s knowledge of me humbles me. And this is a scary thing. It’s a vulnerable thing. It means that someone else can see that the face we often put on for the rest of the world is not always who we truly are – that sometimes other people are better at things. Other people know the answers that we do not. Other people are kinder and more intelligent and more gracious and more disciplined with their faith than we are.

In the passage from Luke 14 for this week, we see that Jesus is in the company of some people who are watching him very closely to see who he is.

These people are held in very high regard in the community. They are knowledgeable and extremely dedicated to their religious beliefs and practices. We might say the Pharisees are like ‘churchy’ people.

But Jesus seems totally unintimidated by their watchful eyes. So much so that he purposefully goes over to eat with one of their leaders. He walks straight into the den of lions – it seems – because he has something important to say to them – and to us.

Jesus has something important to teach both people being humbled and people with the power to do the humbling in our human relationships and in our relationship with God.

So stay tuned this week, as we keep focusing our eyes on Jesus.

FOCUS READING

Luke 14:1 (NRSV)

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.