How to follow Jesus' path? With justice, kindness, humility
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There are 23,214 verses in the Old Testament and 7,959 in the New Testament. While it is presumptuous to think we could select just one text that is the greatest of them all, many of us do have several that have particular meaning. Many readers of this column would suggest one or more of the Psalms: Psalm 1, 8, 19, 23, 24, 27, 46, 51, 90, 91, 100, 103, 107 or 121.
In the New Testament there are chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Matthew, which records the Sermon on the Mount. Individual verses could be John 3:16, Romans 8:28, or Isaiah 40:31. They would definitely have supporters.
I was introduced to the text that was to become my favorite when I was a sophomore in college. It was in a Bible class taught by Dr. Ralph Brown. It was the Old Testament book of Micah. When we came to Micah 6:8 I knew I had found the Scripture verse that for me was the greatest and the one I wanted as the foundation for my life.
Micah 6:8 reads: "He has showed you what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." With those words Micah fashioned a timeless measuring stick against which people of any age can measure the genuineness of their religion.
Justice is key word
To do justice — justice is a key word for society in every age. Joseph Fletcher, in his book "Situation Ethics," suggests that the word justice replace love, for love is bandied about in so many different contexts that it loses its power.
Justice is love distributed. Justice is love in its working clothes. Justice is symbolized on courthouses and elsewhere by the figure of a blindfolded woman with scales in her hand. The implication being that the essence of justice is the weighing of the facts at hand with an impartiality that might be lost if one could see the parties involved.
Such a portrayal is hardly adequate. It seems to me that the probability of a fair hearing would be enhanced if the blindfold were removed. To weigh justly, one must see not only the persons involved but their backgrounds as well.
Great religion makes it clear that we are to be as concerned in doing justice for others as we are in demanding justice for ourselves. We do not want John Dewey's caustic remark to have any relevance to our own conduct. He said, "While saints are engaged in introspection, burly sinners run the world."
What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and love kindness. Kindness — what a big word it is! There is a little rhyme that would tell us that all this world needs is kindness:
I have no need of any creeds
They but confuse the mind
For all the creeds this old world needs
Is that of being kind.
If kindness is not the whole of life's needs it is an ingredient needed for wholeness.
There is a difference between justice and kindness. A person may be perfectly honest yet as hard as nails; a person can keep the commandments of Moses and miss the compassion of Christ.
Kindness is the greatest weapon with which to conquer. It has transforming power. When Eugene Debs was imprisoned in World War I as a conscientious objector, he became interested in a prisoner who was said to be incorrigible, devoid of a spark of goodness.
Since the man would not speak to anyone, Debs started a campaign of kindness by leaving an orange on the man's bed and going off without a word. In spite of many rebuffs, Debs penetrated the hard exterior of the man, and the two became fast friends. Years later, at the hour of Debs' death, the man, now a useful citizen, made the discerning comment: He was the only Jesus Christ I ever knew.
Wordsworth was right: "The best portion of a good person's life are the little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and of love."
"He has showed you what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God."
Jarves Moffatt, the great Bible scholar, translates the last phrase to read "to live in quiet fellowship with God." To walk with God means to possess an ever present consciousness of spiritual reality.
Though this is the last of the three requirements, it is really the first in importance, for it is the secret of the power that moves the first two ideals toward reality.
Humility is not simply an added grace that makes other virtues more presentable and likeable. It is the foundation for all other virtues.
Humility is teachableness. It is not self-deprecation. It is not grading ourselves too high or too low. It is not thinking too little of ourselves, but not thinking of ourselves at all. It is seeing ourselves in perspective. It is having a sane estimate of our own importance and capabilities.
There are some people who have confidence to spare. John Barrymore said, "One of my chief regrets during my years in the theater is that I couldn't sit in the audience and watch me."
When an attorney during a trial characterized Frank Lloyd Wright as America's greatest architect, Wright confessed to his wife that he couldn't deny it, for he was under oath.
Illustrating humility
Humility can be illustrated more easily than it can be defined. Humility is Pope John XXIII saying, "Anybody can be pope; the proof is that I have become one." Humility is Mother Teresa saying, "I am just a little pencil in God's hand."
Humility is the college football lineman writing home to his father on Saturday evening: "Dear Dad, we lost today, 6-0. The other team found a big hole in the center of our line and that big hole was me."
Let us live each day determined more than ever to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God. When that happens God smiles upon earth and humankind walks closer to the kingdom of heaven.