And When He Sat Down

Most of the world's major religions place significant value on the virtue of Humility: 

According to the all knowing Wikipedia:

In Christianity, humility is defined as  "A quality by which a person considering his own defects has a humble opinion of himself and willingly submits himself to God and to others for God's sake."
In Hinduism, to get in touch with your true self (God), one has to kill the ego.
In Buddhism, humility is the equivalent to a concern of how to be liberated from the sufferings of life and the vexations of the human mind. The ultimate aim is to achieve a state of enlightenment through meditation and other spiritual practices.


So why is it so hard for me to be humble? Why do I strive to always put myself out there as more important than someone else? Why do I stand tall in hopes that someone else will appear smaller?

I am trying something new this year- memorizing scripture. I am really, really bad at memorizing. Sarah Bess and I are in a mother-daughter bible study, and she teases me at how I can never remember the chapter or verse numbers.

But I saw a post on facebook about memorizing the Sermon on the Mount. Not all at once, but actually taking the entire year to read, study, and meditate over this beautiful piece of scripture. It seems to me, if ever there was something for me to memorize, this would be it. So this Saturday, I began with week 1.

"Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him." Matthew 5:1 

I have read the Sermon on the Mount numerous times. In fact, my grandfather wrote a book full of sermons he based on the Beatitudes which I used for the title of this blog and the first post, "Blessed are Ye". But I have never paid attention to the beginning. The significance of this first line. Until Saturday, when I was blown away by it...when he sat down.

Jesus did not climb the mountain to stand tall over his disciples and 'tell it like it is'. He went there and sat Down. Then they came to him. I guess my mental picture has been him delivering the sermon this way:


But in reality it was more like:




Oh how grateful I am for Matthew 5:1. Reminding me of humility. Reminding me how to posture myself in the everyday. Not standing tall 'over' others. But sitting together. Sharing, living, loving.