What Did Jesus Teach About Humility and Mercy?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

Leadership and Servanthood

This is the fourth part of my series on what Yeshua (Jesus) directed his Jewish disciples to teach the newly minted Gentile Messianic disciples to obey. It's also the third of a series of Yeshua's teachings in the Book of Matthew on Leadership and Servanthood. To summarize Part III What Did Jesus Teach About Being Servants:

In a nutshell, we learn that Yeshua teaches his disciples, all of us, to obey him by doing acts of kindness and righteousness for his sake and for the sake of others, but not to glorify ourselves. A student is never greater than his master and it is enough for us to be his students and to imitate him. When we are faithful and serve even the least or the weakest of Yeshua's servants for his sake, we are serving him.

That is what we can say about what Yeshua taught the Jewish disciples to teach the Gentiles disciples about being servants. Remember though, he also told the Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples "to obey everything I have commanded you". In order to understand what everything means, we need to press on. Even after several blog posts, there's still much to cover.

It seems like in Matthew 18, Yeshua had a great deal to say on topics such as humility, the value of the individual, consideration for people who sin, and rendering mercy. While you may not think these areas have much in common, I believe that they are qualities possessed by anyone who is a servant in the Kingdom and who leads by example. Let's have a look:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. -Matthew 18:1-6

Humility and greatness become two sides of the same coin in this parable of the Master. Exodus 12:3 describes the man who lead a nation of 3 million people through the wilderness for 40 years and who spoke face to face with God as, Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. From his example alone, we can see that humility and leadership have a great deal to do with one another. That's quite a switch from our perception of the world's leaders today, who seem anything but humble and where humility is seen as weakness.

Yeshua is very protective of his humble "little ones" and for the person who causes one of them to sin "it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea". That's how important they are to him.

To be considered great in the Kingdom, we must do what is against human nature...not to exalt ourselves but rather, to be humble...even if we lead a congregation, or a city, or a nation. That's quite a challenge, especially since most of us like to be called by titles and to be treated with deferentially.

"Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. -Matthew 18:7-9

Relax, this isn't an invitation to commit self-mutilation. Remember parables are metaphorical stories. The way I read these few sentences, is that we are to take stock of what exists in our lives that results in our sinning and then to remove those qualities or situations from us. This is an excellent message as we are right in-between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. There is no better time to take a good hard look at who we are and to make some serious changes than right now. Imagine what an example we could set for those around us if we could lead in this type of behavior, humbling ourselves before God and before our fellow human beings.

"See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. -Matthew 18:10-14

Certainly this says that there is no one who is insignificant in the Kingdom of Heaven, not even the smallest child and not even the weakest lamb, but it says something else as well. I mentioned on my congregation's blog in a post called Healing that according to Orthodox Rabbi Shumuley Boteach, when Moses left the flock he was tending to follow one lost sheep, immediately before encountering the burning bush (Exodus 3), he wasn't just going after the one lost lamb for the sake of the lamb, but also for the sake of the flock. Rabbi Boteach states:

Ostensibly, the story seems to indicate that Moses’ care for each individual found favor in God’s eyes. But this is a misunderstanding. Only a fool would have risked an entire flock for the sake of a single sheep. Rather, Moses did not return for just any sheep, but for the smallest and weakest. It was not because he believed that the straggler, if properly fed and cared for, could grow to be the pride of the flock, big and strong like its counterparts, that he collected it. Even this small sheep was an indispensable member of the flock. Moses recognized that without this straggler the entire flock was flawed and deficient.

Each person has an inestimable value to God because each of us has been created in His image but more than that, we also have an inestimable value in the Kingdom of Heaven, in our congregations, in our communities, and in the world because God created only one of each of us to perform a special job for Him. Without even one of us, our congregations, our families, and even the Kingdom, would be incomplete and lacking. We are not just wanted, we're needed, each and every one of us.

"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
"I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." -Matthew 18:15-20

How we treat even the smallest child is important to Yeshua, and so is how we treat someone who has sinned against us. You'd think that if we ever had an excuse to "lower the boom" on someone, it would be someone who "did us wrong". Yet, the Messiah is very specific about how we are to spare the feelings of even someone who sinned against us, first by going to him privately and giving him a chance to repent before the matter becomes generally known. If the matter can be settled at this point, it's done and no one need know of this person's error.

Even if the person refuses to repent, take just a few other witnesses with you during the next confrontation. There's still a chance he'll see the mistake he's made and repent. Finally, even if you have to bring it before the entire congregation, there's still a chance the person will humble himself and return to the fold. Only after this, if the person continues to refuse, is he asked to leave and perhaps, even after this, if he would be willing to repent, there would be healing and reconciliation.

Matthew 18:21-35 is a parable that illustrates this final lesson. Peter asks Yeshua if there's a limit to how many times a person should be forgiven before we can write them off (Up to seven times?), but Yeshua says there is no limit, or at least not one that can be counted, since seventy-seven times is less likely a literal number and more a bit of Rabbinic shorthand to mean "as many times as it takes". Imagine if God only forgave us 77 times or even 77 times 7 (a mere 539 times). Would any of us survive?

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant shows us this principle in action. If the servant shown mercy by his master had shown the same mercy to those who owed him a debt, he would have learned the lesson the Master was teaching and survived. Lack of mercy results in being turned over to jailers to be tortured. Not a desirable outcome.

Conclusion: This lesson seems very much like my previous blog post but perhaps that's not an accident. Maybe the lessons of leadership and servanthood are inexorably intertwined with humility, mercy, and valuing others. What did Yeshua tell his Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples to obey regarding humility and mercy as servants and leaders?

1. The greatest leader is the most humble servant.
2. Absolutely no one is insignificant or unworthy of your time or attention.
3. Even the very least person among you has an inestimably valuable role in the congregation, the family, the community, and the world.
4. Even if a person sins against you, give them every opportunity to realize their error, to repent, and to reconcile themselves to you.
5. Show the same sort of mercy to others as God has shown to you. The consequences for not doing so are too horrible to contemplate.

The last point reminds me of when Yeshua taught his Jewish disciples how to pray (and thus, this is something we Gentile disciples are to learn as well):

He said to them, "When you pray, say:
" 'Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
(emphasis added)
And lead us not into temptation.' "
-Luke 11:2-4

How we are forgiven seems dependent on how we forgive others. Perhaps this entire lesson can be encapsulated in the following few verses:

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." -Matthew 20:26-28

In a nutshell, for today's lesson, we learn that Yeshua taught his Jewish disciples and we Gentile disciples that in all our dealings with people, regardless of our relative position in our congregations, communities, and in life, we are to act humbly, to value everyone, to realize we are all important and unique to God, to be forgiving, and to grant as much mercy to others as God has granted to us.

A World Without Boundaries

In the thick of the month of Ellul, nearing Rosh Hashanah, penitence is or should be in the air. Also recently marked was the 75th yahrzeit of the great mystic, jurist, and theologian Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935). As it turns out, Kook's teachings on the meaning of repentance are among his most striking, stamped with his distinctive mix of piety and audacity. In his eyes, teshuvah, generally translated as "repentance" but literally and more powerfully "return," signifies not only a deepened and renewed commitment to religion and commandments but, paradoxically, nothing less than a new birth of freedom.

I discovered the article Repentance = Freedom? written by Yehudah Mirsky today and found it intriguing. The Hebrew word Teshuvah which is normally translated as repentance, is rendered better as return, but return to who or what? Yes, we commonly and rightly think of returning to God and returning to a right relationship with family, friends, and anyone we may have slighted, but in Mirsky's presentation of Rabbi Kook, we learn to see "return" as something else:

Repentance, in other words, is return to the very womb of creation—a "place without boundaries" in the words of the author of the 13th-century kabbalistic treatise Shaarei Orah. Its connection with freedom was spelled out in the 16th century by Judah Loewe, the Maharal of Prague, who wrote that "when people undertake teshuvah and return to their beginnings, the world too returns to its beginning, to restore and repair every ruined thing in the world."

I find myself somewhat drawn to the phrase "place without boundaries" if, for no other reason, than the fact that certain corners of Messianic Judaism seem obsessed with the concept of boundaries to the exclusion of all other considerations, including healing the wounds and gashes that separate us, and particularly the chasms that separate Jews and Gentiles in "the movement".

The month of Elul is supposed to be a time when we turn our hearts to God and to each other. As Rabbi Kook points out, it's a return to God by way of the Garden of Eden and before the fall. It's an attempt to return to a time before mankind became disobedient to God and lived in harmony with his environment and with other people (OK, there were really few other people back then, but it still applies).

I frequently find myself beating my head against the brick wall of the Messianic movement trying to convince its more conservative elements and particularly proponents of Bilateral Ecclesiology that seeking to have unity with each other under the Messiah doesn't have to mean Jewish identity gets eroded for the sake of Gentile inclusion.

Unity, like repentance, is a "place without boundaries", but that doesn't mean a place without individual identity and distinction. It means that we seek to overcome those things that keep us apart and isolated in our little enclaves. One Law is typically characterized by strict Messianic Judaism as being a collection of small, insular, communities who only listen to their own voice and reject the rest of the world of faith, but I suspect that only describes a small subset of the OL group. In fact. Messianic Judaism, in it's desire to protect its boundaries does largely the same thing, taking offense at the first sign of someone not showing proper respect to Jews and all things Jewish and "circling the wagons" whenever "the stranger" enters its realm.

Does Rabbi Kook look like he's saying that the Torah and teshuvah are only for the Jew?

Release from sin thus requires not only a practical commitment to Torah and commandments but also a relaxation of the sorrows, and the guilt, that create blockages in the soul. As he writes in an amazing passage: "One who grieves constantly for his sins and the sins of the world must constantly forgive and absolve himself and the whole world [emphasis added], and in so doing will draw forgiveness and a light of lovingkindness onto all being and bring joy to God and to His creatures."

Of course, the article goes on to say:

Still, he insists, "there are levels, levels," and these are realizable in "the extent to which each personality can grasp, through good inclinations, acts, and longings, its choice and its heavenly freedom." And there is something that can lead the way—namely, the "national renaissance" of the Jewish people. This powerful phenomenon is, for Kook, "the foundation of the great edifice of teshuvah, the higher teshuvah of Israel and of the entire world that will follow in its train."

Rabbi Kook talks about the Jewish people leading by example with his words, "the "national renaissance" of the Jewish people." yet if Messianic Judaism wants the Gentile worshipers of the Jewish Messiah to follow where MJ leads, it will need to do a better job upholding the ideals of Judaism, Torah, and God, as opposed to the behavioral mechanics of Judaism and defending its "identity boarders" at all costs, which seems to be the primary activity of MJ these days.

As much as strict Messianic Judaism says it is modeled on Orthodox, Rabbinic (mainstream) Judaism, I find more enlightenment in the writings and insights of Rabbi Kook, certainly a non-Messianic Jew, than I do in a number of the conversations I've recently been viewing in the Messianic blogosphere.

No, I'm not the model to follow. I'm only a guy (or goy if you really want to be technical about it) but if Teshuvah is a return to Gan Eden, then it's the ultimate leveler of playing fields. In humbling ourselves, all of us, rending our hearts and not our clothing, we become as Adam and Eve were...naked before God and before each other. God's first creations were naked and unashamed (at least as long as they listened to God), and if we'd at least try to approach who they were, rather than hiding behind theologies, symbols, and titles, we would feel much more vulnerable, but we'd also be closer to God.

Forgiveness

We must remember as we approach Yom Kippur that in order to acheive atonement, we must ask all those who we have harmed for forgiveness. In order to truly repent, we must make a firm comittment to "be nice" to our neighbor - to be sensative to others' needs and situations, and act accordingly, in a way that will not necessitate a visit before the next Yom Kippur to ask for forgiveness. -from Torah.org.

There has been quite a conversation going on at the Kineti L'Tziyon blog post The Surprise Ending of the Frum Gentile Story. It's very difficult to keep an objective viewpoint when going over the report being given and particularly when reading the responses of a number of the post readers. One commenter has reminded everyone that with Yom Kippur not far away, we need to be thinking about our behavior and determining if we are acting to help or to harm others.

Even when you believe you're doing something right, it may be that in the process, you are behaving in a manner that not only damages your own reputation, but Hashem's. Even if you believe the other guy is in the wrong, trying to prove yourself right may not send the correct message...at least not the message that God would have us send, particularly at this time of year.

The "Messianic movement" is full of disagreements, debates, and occasionally even distrust. We all claim to worship the same God and the same Messiah, but look at how fragmented a single issue can make us appear. Read the comments on this blog and tell me we are all one flock with one shepherd.

I'm not trying to expand the problem and I'm not trying to take sides. Far from it, I'm trying to say that taking sides in this situation isn't going to do any good. First of all, there's no objective way to resolve the conflict and secondly, do most of us really need to be involved? Sure, if we had roles as peace makers, it would be one thing, but what if we're just commenting to, however unintentionally, fan the flames and pour more fuel on the fire?

As we approach the Day of Atonement, part of our responsibility to God and to other people is to try and make amends. As much as we are responsible, let us be at peace with others. Can we do this? Can we acknowledge that we are not always going to agree with every theological point, but still extend a friendly hand to the next person?

Let this be my hand being extended and to everyone I've offended including Judah, Derek, and others, I humble myself. Yom Kippur isn't a day when you try to be right. It's a day when you need to be right with God and reconciled with your fellow.

Let my soul be like dust to everyone.

Let My Soul Be Like Dust

To those who curse me, let my soul be silent; and let my soul be like dust to everyone.

Yom Kippur is a day we afflict our souls and recall our sins against God and against other people. Do not forget that being redeemed by the blood of the Messiah doesn't mean we can act with impunity or ignore the commands of God in order to pursue our own desires. The Bible tells us that when Israel acted in such a way, God would remind them, often painfully. Before God must remind you or me, let us rend our hearts and not our garments and cry out to Him for mercy. Let us return to Him that He might return to us.

There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your fury, no peace in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have inundated me; like a heavy load, they are burdensome beyond me. Putrid and rotted are my sores, because of my folly. I am bent and exceedingly bowed, all day long in bleakness I go about. For my loins are full of a loathsome affliction and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am faint and exceedingly crushed. I roar from the groaning of my heart. O Lord, before You in all my yearning, my sighing is not concealed from You. -Psalm 38:4-10

But let there be hope, lest we be swallowed by the abyss of dispair.

Make me hear joy and gladness, may the bones that You crushed exult. -Psalm 51:10