Guy Reams (00:00.462)
Today is day 173, humility. Since today is Easter, I thought I would dive into a little analysis. Today's most popular social media influencers are Cristiano Ronaldo, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and Selena Gomez. Now I looked at each one of them and I went and looked at all their social media platforms and I calculated how many followers they have each.
And interesting to note that if I added up all of their followers across all their platforms, they still would not get close to the number of people that say that they follow Jesus Christ. So happy Easter. Since today is Easter, I thought I'd spend some time thinking about some of the significant lessons that we might have learned from this great teacher that people called Jesus the Christ or the Messiah.
With all the religious similar act out there, all the signs and symbols and all the denominations, it's kind of hard to sift through it and realize that a couple thousand years ago, there was this 30 year old construction worker basically that started a traveling ministry going from Galilee to Jerusalem and back again, like three times. And as he traveled through the villages and towns, he taught and.
It's kind of hard to realize that it was that simple three year traveling ministry that would launch several thousand years of religious fervor that still has not stopped. Today, there are several billion followers of Christ and many more that have been influenced by his teaching.
Eventually, Jesus would be put to death by the Roman prefect of the Judean province. However, his death did not end his teachings because certainly there has been a power to his teachings that have lasted a long time. So, I've oftentimes thought during those three years, what was it that he really taught? He taught people.
Guy Reams (02:23.821)
He directed his lessons at the poor, the outcast, the sick, the downtrodden, the prostitute, the adulterer, the tax collector, the fisherman.
There have been many religious and political leaders throughout history, but undoubtedly Jesus's teachings have been more of the most influential. So what was it that was exactly so powerful to cause these teachings to spread as rapidly as they did? Now this is where I get into trouble. There are probably just as many opinions on what Jesus's teachings mean as there are Christians. However, what I believe the most attractive
core teaching of what he taught that has lasted the test of time comes down to one word, humility. Now, throughout Jesus' teachings, there has been this undercurrent of practicing restraint, of holding one's ego in check. He taught that people should pray in secret rather than openly. He taught that those that seek the praises of others will have the reward. However, those who do so
secretly God will reward them openly. He repeated a few times that those are first shall be last and those that are last shall be first. There are many poignant moments in the New Testament where he is ministering to the less fortunate. He's encouraging people to care for those that have less than them. He taught us to look for lost souls and celebrate when those lost souls come back. He taught us to be meek and lowly of heart.
He taught that we should give all credit to God and reserve nothing for ourselves. We should not think about what we should wear or think about our money, but we should care only about what we can do to help others. We should be in essence as little children. The core and the power of his teachings seem to me to be that of humility. Now we do not want to hear this topic. We do not want to know about humility. We
Guy Reams (04:34.062)
love the accolades, the praise, the likes. We do not want to give up our precious things or fast cars or mansions. We want to be seen as doing the right things, but in secret, we only want to do what we can.
So these teachings of being humble, of forgiving others to love one's neighbor as thyself are stuff that we tend to want to ignore. One particular passage I recall is when Jesus came to a small village and he gathered together all of his followers and he taught them a couple of parables. One of the parables he taught was of two men that were coming to the temple to pray.
He recounted that one of these men was a Pharisee who at the time was a spiritual leader and the other was a publican who at the time was a Roman sympathizer who was probably known as a tax collector. Both of these men came to the temple to pray. The Pharisee, the religious leader, held in his heart a prayer that said something like this, God, thank you that I am not like these other sinners. I thank you that
I've done everything right and I continue to do everything awesome. I'm grateful that I am a great payer of tithing to the church. I'm grateful that I fast all the time and I pray openly and I'm such a great religious leader. And I'm really grateful that I'm not like this man standing over there in the corner, this publican. I'm grateful that I'm not like him because he's probably an adulterer or something.
Jesus then taught that the publican standing in the back of the temple, ashamed, was there and he had a much different prayer in his heart. His prayer was very meek and very humble. God, please forgive me for what I have done wrong. Jesus taught that it would be the publican that would be ultimately exalted by God and not the Pharisee. That it would be the publican who had the humility and the...
Guy Reams (06:38.862)
recognition and understanding of his heirs that would ultimately be recognized by God. It would not be the braggadocious Pharisee. So come to think of it, you know, this is a really powerful concept. The idea that by being humble, you can ultimately have the greatest influence because God will magnify what it is that you are doing. Now, come to think of it, Jesus is not alone here.
There are other leaders of major religions that have taught these same concepts. Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, also taught that all should be equal before God. He taught that we should live simple lives, serving and helping others, acknowledging our mistakes and keeping our prayers full of humility. Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, also taught these same things, to not elevate the concept of ourself above others.
He taught that we should avoid extremes. We should respect our life, be constantly in the service of others, and to recognize when we're being ignorant. Any of the Hindu teachers that I've ever read also teach much of the same things, that we should acknowledge our own limitations, we should put our egos aside, we should live simple lives, and we should learn from everyone. I think they all taught equally that we should value the service of others.
This theme of humility is constant across all major religions. Perhaps God is trying to tell us something. We need to be humble and practice humility.