The sneaky deception of pride

September 23, 2018

From the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes to today’s Gospel lesson, the Bible is very clear–to be truly great, you must be humble. This is one of the hardest calls to answer in our world that says we need to be self-sufficient, self-assured, and feel good about ourselves; a world obsessed with success and power.  Every day we see athletes seeking to set records, businessmen seeking higher positions, and laborers lusting after higher pay.  And don’t think anyone is immune to this pressure from our world driven by gain; as a preacher (especially a new preacher), I feel the pressure and need to constantly up my game.  I’ll confess that I want to be the best at what I do.  This drive isn’t necessarily a bad thing…there are many occasions in the Bible that encourage and instruct us to do our best.

But there is a danger in that pursuit. One writer says the higher up we find ourselves in terms of
power, influence, and wealth–the more vulnerable we are to pride, and the more prone we are to be blind to our spiritual needs and deficiencies. The quiet invasion of pride renders us useless to God and others, more than any other kind of sin. Pride manifests itself in subtle and lethal ways.

Gospel Lesson:

Mark 9:30-37

Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”