Walk Humbly
Week #5
The Titanic offers us a good metaphor for understanding the concept of humility. Picture a passenger standing on the decks of Titanic. He appears to be small and insignificant against the back-drop of the massive ship. Then, as the Titanic begins her journey across the Atlantic, she herself becomes nothing more than a pinprick on the ocean’s surface. And if we then compare the Atlantic Ocean with the rest of our planet, and our planet with the rest of the galaxy, and our galaxy with the rest of the universe…I think you get the picture.
What are we in comparison to the greatness of God and the world He created us to live in? What is a human being compared to such limitlessness?
And yet, the amazing thing is this: each and every human being that has ever lived in this world is a uniquely created masterpiece—someone of highest value—fashioned by the hand of God.
And we are each made for a purpose. We are each intended to play an important role in the story God is writing over our world.
Read John 3:22-30:
After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”
Discussion Questions
Opening Question:
What stood out most to you?
Core Question #1:
According to this passage, what was John the Baptist’s purpose?
Core Question #2:
What mixture of emotions do you think John might be feeling at this point in his life and ministry?
What other ways could he have responded to this situation?
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Core Question #3:
What does John the Baptist’s statement seem to teach us about humility:
“He must become greater, I must become less.”
Core Question #4:
How does John the Baptist’s “He must become greater, I must become less” relate to C.S. Lewis’s definition of humility that we considered last week: “[H]umility is not thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less.”
Concluding Question:
How has your understanding of humility changed based on today’s discussion?