Humble and Kind

“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Zechariah 9:9

I was thinking about Palm Sunday when Tim McGraw’s song Humble and Kind came to mind.
Which in turn brought to mind Jesus’ entrance to Jerusalem. The rock star welcome that He received betrayed what would soon happen. Yet Jesus wept over the city, over the people who cried “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” on that day but who would shout “Crucify Him” just days later.

Zechariah spoke the words of this passage long before Jesus arrived on the scene and yet on the day we celebrate as Palm Sunday it was fulfilled by Jesus – just one more proof that Jesus was indeed the Messiah the people had been waiting for, that the world desperately needed. Jesus – Creator of the universe, Lord of Lord, Everlasting King rode into Jerusalem not on a war horse or a great white steed as a conquering leader but on a donkey, a lowly, trusty, hardworking beast of burden.

As we look at the life Jesus lived, we see him humble and compassionate. He didn’t hang out with the people of influence, in fact in the moments where he seems uncompassionate He is dealing with the leaders of His day. Leaders who perhaps had forgotten what they had been called to. Leaders who were proud of their knowledge of the law and their self-righteous ability to “follow the rules”. Leaders too proud to understand that they needed the humility, the healing, the salvation that Jesus was offering.

Tim McGraw’s song reminds us of what is important – to go to church, to spend time with the people we love, to say ‘please and thank you’, to live out the ten commandments – don’t steal, cheat or lie. The song acknowledges that life won’t always be easy, but that is not an excuse for behaving badly. That there is power in the words “I love you” and forgiveness, to be compassionate and help others along the way.

Tim McGraw urges us to be humble and kind. Jesus the Christ, came into the world humbly, He lived humbly and treated those around Him with kindness, setting for us an example of how we should live.

What would our world look like if we remembered that life on this planet is not fair, that life will be hard for all of us and harder for some and in response instead of looking down on others, we put them before ourselves, lifted them up, treated them with kindness. What if we held the door for someone else? What if we let someone go ahead of us in a line? What if we took the time to look someone in the eye long enough to see the pain in their heart? What if we lived the kind of life our Savior and Lord lived – a life of humility and kindness?

A Prayer
Father – help us to be humble and kind every day. Remind us that we are just sinners saved by Your grace and that we still fall short. Show us how to see the pain around us and how to share Your compassion and love with our world. Forgive us for those times when we think we are better than we really are, for the times when we forget we need Your Son. Help us live so that others see Jesus is who and what they need to make it through. In the name of Jesus, who is humble and kind – Amen.