Humility at the Cross

Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a lesson in humility.

Long ago after my accident, when I was trying to rise above my paralysis, while I was trying to get my spiritual act together with Christ, I’d listen to the sermons of great preachers from the past. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Jim Boice, Dr. Gerstner, and a man named Major Ian Thomas of The Torchbearers. Back then my sister would push me in my wheelchair to the living room table, and then she’d slip a teaching tape into the cassette player. She put a writing pad near me, and then placed a mouth stick between my teeth – that way, I could push the cassette buttons if I wanted to stop, backup, hear something again. And then I’d write study notes on the notepad, using that same mouth stick. I so enjoyed listening to these great men; it was the way I got introduced to Dr. R.C. Sproul back in the 70s. Back then I collected all his tapes. But my point today is mainly to talk about one special lesson I learned from Major Ian Thomas. He’s long since gone home to heaven, but back then, he was such a powerful preacher. But Major Thomas was also pretty humble.

I recall on one of those tapes him telling the story of a woman who approached him after he preached an exhilarating sermon. She said, “Oh, Major Thomas, I learned so much from your message.” To which he replied, “Madam, I’m not surprised!” The woman confessed that at first she thought his comment was puffed up in pride. But then she remembered that his message was centered on the cross. Major Thomas realized that his hearers were moved not by him and his skillful oratory; no. Rather, he went on to explain to her, that she was moved by the power of God in the preaching of the cross. “I’m not surprised that you were blessed by my message,” he told her. “God does this when our focus is on the cross of Christ and all God wants to teach us is really at the feet of his Son.” Yeah, I’m convinced; Major Ian Thomas spoke that comment in utter humility, yet with complete confidence. 

Because confidence is not the same thing as pride. Pride hates the cross. Pride will have us following Jesus, oh, I don’t know, to a party, as it were, where he changes water into wine, to a sunlit beach where he preaches from a boat, to a breezy hillside where he feeds thousands. Pride loves it when Jesus makes us feel good. Makes us feel happy and content with ourselves. But it’s a different story at the cross. That’s where pride digs in its heels. It’s because going to the cross is so, I don’t know, it’s just an invitation to go alone; it’s so individual. It’s a place of death. It is as Colossians 3:5 says; it is where we put to death whatever belongs to our earthly nature. And who wants to do that? Who wants to ask her husband, “Honey, I want to be a better wife. Would you please help point out my faults?” And then to have to bite your tongue when he responds, “Well, sweetheart, you know, you really do come across like a know-it-all sometimes.” Our pride hates that, doesn’t it? Our pride hates all kinds of stuff. But that’s what the cross does. Our dark side abhors it; but our enlightened side sees it as home base. So, friend, what can you bring to the cross today? Itchiness to have things your own way? Laziness in relationships? Verbal barbs that wound others? Well, humble yourself at the cross, like Major Ian Thomas said, and you will find humility in your heart and utter confidence in your Savior. God bless you today, and thanks for listening to Joni and Friends!

© Joni and Friends