Jesus and Humility, Jesus Christ and Being Humble, Would Jesus Fly First Class--By Steven James

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<!-- TEXT BEGINS HERE Most churches I visit have reserved parking places for the pastors—of course they’re the most coveted spots right up close to the building. I wonder sometimes whose idea it was to reserve those spots, the pastor’s or the flock’s. I have my suspicions. I don’t think I’ve ever visited a church where the parking spots reserved for the staff were the ones no one else would want, way back at the far end of the parking lot. Church people typically park as close to the building as they can and then sit as far back from the preacher as they can. Lutherans and Baptists might not agree about the finer points of water baptism, but from what I’ve seen they’re on the same page when it comes to the Doctrine of the Close Parking Spot and Back Pew Theology. ***Yet Jesus says, “Don’t sit in the seat of honor. Don’t exalt yourself. Be humble.” It seems like such a simple concept—stop exalting yourself and putting yourself above others. And then Paul has to complicate matters even more by writing to the believers in Philippi, “Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself” (Philippians 2:3). So now we’re not just supposed to avoid selfishness; we’re actually supposed to think of others as better than ourselves. ***Verses like those make me think about the clothes I wear, the car I drive, the house I own. After all, most clothes, cars, and homes are designed to draw attention to the owner, to make a good impression. But humble people don’t draw attention to themselves; they don’t live to make a good impression on others. What does a humble person dress like? What kind of a car does a humble person drive? What would a modest home look like? ***This teaching of letting other people have the coveted spot has sweeping implications for merge lanes, last-minute Christmas shopping at Wal-Mart, and last-cookie-on-the-tray etiquette. ***It also brings up some obvious and rather troubling applications in various fields of life including sports and competition, business, marketing, public relations, and (of course) writing. What would it really look like to live a life in which you weren’t trying to exalt yourself but were working instead for the good of others? Promoting your competitor’s product (or book) above your own? Helping them succeed rather than trying to get ahead of them? ***What would it really look like to place others first? To serve, honor, and love them above yourself? I’m not sure. But I know it would look a lot different than America looks today. *** A Taste of Humble Pie? So one day I decided to start putting Jesus’ advice into practice by sitting in the places no one else would want. I parked in the back of the parking lot and it rained. I sat in the front row at church and the pastor made fun of me during the sermon. ***This humility thing wasn’t playing out quite like I’d had in mind. ***That week I was flying to Dallas, so I decided to purposely not ask to be seated in the exit row on the flight. If you fly often, you know that the exit row is the only place on the plane—besides first class—where those of us over six feet tall can actually sit without having to chew on our kneecaps. Frequent flyers call it “poor man’s first class.” Exit row seats are the most coveted ones around.*** So on my flight to Dallas I sat two rows back from the exit row. Upon arrival, as I unfolded my body and extricated myself from the seat, I realized my knees hadn’t felt that humble in years. ***Then before my flight home, I walked up to the Delta ticket counter in the Dallas airport to get my seat assignment. Once again I didn’t ask for an exit row. ***“Any seat will do,” I told the perky-looking ticket agent. ***She smiled at me as she tapped away at her keyboard and said, “Well, Mr. James, it looks like you have enough frequent flyer miles, so we’re bumping you up to first class.” ***“What?” ***

I opened my mouth to say, “Um, no thank you. I would like to let someone else sit in first class in the seat of honor today. You see, I’m practicing humility as I seek to more closely follow my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” But instead I said something else: “All right!” ***“You’re a lucky man.” *** “I guess so!” ***Since I was sitting in the privileged part of the plane, I got to board before all the little people did. Then a flight attendant with perfect teeth and willowy legs smiled at me and asked if she could get me something to drink. Why, yes. I’ll have a cappuccino, thank you. ***Soon the people in coach class began boarding. I turned around and watched as they wrestled their bags down the narrow aisle in the center of the plane and then tried to jam them into the overhead luggage compartments that had been specially designed by geeky, sadistic airplane engineers to appear large enough to hold any bag but were actually precisely one centimeter too small for carry-on luggage to fit, no matter how hard you pounded on it. Oh, it was great entertainment. ***My bags fit beautifully in the first-class bins, with room to spare. ***While I waited for my liquid refreshment, I leaned my seat back and stretched out my legs. I actually had enough room to cross my ankles. In fact, there was so much space between me and the seat in front of me that my grandmother could have parked her Buick in there and not run over my feet. ***The flight attendant returned with my coffee and a pair of headphones for the in-flight movie. “They’re complimentary in first class,” she told me. ***“How much would they cost if I was in coach class?” I asked. ***“Two dollars.” ***“All right!” I said. “This rocks!” ***Then she took my order for supper. I had to choose between porterhouse steak and grilled chicken drizzled with almond glaze. The people in the back of the plane had to choose between stale pretzels and miniature-sized, chewy granola bars that taste remarkably like wet sand. (This, of course, I knew from many hours of personal experience.) ***It was almost enough to make me forget about my resolution to start being more humble. But then about halfway through the flight I had to go to the bathroom, and on my way I noticed all those people who didn’t have enough money or frequent flyer miles to get the good seats, all packed into the back of the plane. *** Would Jesus Have Enjoyed His Seat?

I started thinking of what Jesus might have done in my situation. I pictured him going to the back of the plane and finding an elderly man with a walker and a respirator and switching places with him, or maybe finding a frazzled mom wrestling with her toddler and offering to baby-sit for the rest of the flight while she sat up in first class sipping bottomless glasses of white wine. Somehow I couldn’t picture Jesus or Mother Teresa or even Gandhi sitting in first class. ***But when I was done using the bathroom, I didn’t switch seats with anyone. I just returned to my seat and stretched out my legs and ordered another cappuccino. ***I discovered that day that I am definitely not Jesus. Or even Mother Teresa. ***It’s a simple thing, really, to let someone else have the seat of honor. ***But it’s a hard thing too. TEXT ENDS HERE -->