Verse: Mark 1:4-7
4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins… 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”
Devotional Thoughts:
Obviously, John is quite the interesting character. And Mark goes to great lengths to help us understand the peculiarities of the prophet. Very rarely do we get details of a biblical character in the way Mark provides us about John. Do you know what Peter’s style was? What do we know about Paul’s sense of fashion? Those are details that are rarely mentioned, but Mark paints John with enough detail that you’d think he’s a celebrity posing on the red carpet, rather than a prophet living off a diet of locusts in the desert.
Mark makes it clear that John was an unusual man. He seems unusual by today’s standards, but he was also unusual by the standards of his day too. But we can learn from John’s approach to life and ministry.
One character trait that was obvious in John’s life was one of humility. He was humble in appearance, humble in diet, humble in home, and humble in message. His main message was that there was one coming who was much greater than he.
We need to understand that serving Jesus means practicing humility.
Points to Ponder:
Humility is tough. Everyone struggles with pride. C.S. Lewis claims, “If you think that you don’t struggle with pride, then you probably are more prideful than most.”
Think about it – you can be prideful about anything. Pride is, at its root, competitive. Consider people who tend to be arrogant and prideful. They may be rich, super smart, really attractive. But we’re never prideful because we’re these things. Pride comes because we’re richer than, smarter than, better looking than other people.
When I was in Yellowstone, I worked in the kitchen as a dishwasher. And my boss was a 20 year old guy with just a high school diploma. I remember thinking to myself, “I’ve got my bachelor’s and am working on my master’s degree. Why do I have to listen to this guy?” But then I’d remember that I’m no better than anyone else – I’m not above taking orders from someone just because I have more academic credentials. Here’s the crazy thing though – once I came to this realization, I’d then start patting myself on the back because of my own humility!
That’s tough. You can even be proud of how humble you are. Humility, though, is simply a shift in focus. A humble person isn’t focused on himself. John, speaking of Jesus, says in John 3:30, “He must become greater; I must become less.”
Humility focuses outward. It focuses on God and others. Pride looks inward; humility looks outward. So consider your everyday conversations – who is generally the topic of conversation, you or the other person? Do you tend to “one-up” other people’s stories with your own? Do you have a real interest in what’s going on in their lives?
I love C.S. Lewis’ description of what a humble person looks like. In his estimation, a humble person looks like this:
Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call “humble” nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, swarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seems a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.
