Don't undermine yourself with false modesty.

FALSE MODESTY

Mt. 5:13-16

My guess is that if you were asked for the meaning of the word “hypocrite” your answer would be something like this … 'A hypocrite is someone who pretends to be a better person than he or she is really.'  That definition would be accurate, but not exhaustive, for the truth is that there is more than one way to be a hypocrite.

But what about false modesty, the opposite to that?  If we can pretend to be better than we are, is it not possible that we could pretend to be worse than we are?  Today's Gospel reading seems to suggest that this is the case.  In it Jesus paid His followers the highest kind of compliment. 

He called them “the light of the world” and followed that with this commentary, “Men do not light a lamp and put it under a bushel basket.  They set it on a stand where it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, your light must shine before men so that they may see the goodness in your deeds and give praise to your heavenly Father.”

The implication of His words, it seems to me, is inescapable.  Jesus knew some people who were really better men and women than they appeared to be.  They had inside themselves some genuine goodness that was not visible from the outside.  They were not displaying it.  Their lives were like burning lamps hidden under bushel baskets.  For some reason they were pretending to be worse than they really were.

We are all familiar with the things Jesus said about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.  He called them “white washed sepulchres” because they looked clean on the outside but inwardly were filled with corruption.  Yet you could make a case for saying that Jesus is talking about the other kind of hypocrite - those men and women who are better on the inside than they appear to be on the outside.  Let us examine that unusual thought for a moment and see if there is a lesson in it for you and me.

Consider first the possibility that each of us does possess some light.  It may not be visible to others; we may not even be aware of it ourselves, but somewhere inside each one of us is a burning lamp.  We all have within us some radiance, some ray of light, which a dark world desperately needs.

Perhaps that idea will become more believable if we consider how Jesus was using the word 'light' which, all through the Bible, is used as a symbol of truth, goodness and beauty.  Jesus was using it the same way.  We also use it that way.  Some years ago there was a popular song entitled, 'You light up my life,' sung by Debby Boone.  The refrain was:

'You light up my life; you give me hope to carry on.

You light up my night, and fill my day with song.'

Those are some of the things that light symbolises for us - hope instead of despair; fullness instead of emptiness, a song instead of sadness.  The young singer was saying that someone had done that for her.  And Jesus is saying that each of us can do that for someone else.  We all have within us some goodness, some truth, some beauty that could light up the life of a fellow human being.

Our responsibility is to let that light shine, to take the lamp out of its hiding place and put it on a stand where others can benefit from its radiance.  All of our lives are a strange mixture of both darkness and light.  The question is which one are we putting on public display?

There are many examples of men and women who have displayed their light before others.  Let me give you one.  There was once a woman who was married and who had two teenage daughters.  The thing that makes her story unusual is that she had no arms.  When she was born there were complications.  She was a breech baby.  To make matters worse, the doctor who delivered her was drunk.  Her arms were broken in several places.  The doctor in his drunk state decided to amputate her arms at the shoulder.  That did not stop her growing up to be a happy and useful person.  Using her feet as her hands, she did all her household chores, cared for the family, took classes at a junior school and enjoyed swimming and riding her three-wheel bicycle.

Imagine all the fear, bitterness and despair that she must have felt.  Those dark thoughts and feelings must have been there.  But she decided to put her light on public display; to share with the world her courage, her gladness, her hope.  Jesus was talking about something just as real as that when He said to His disciples, “You are the light of the world.”

So there is more than one way to be a hypocrite.  The most familiar way is to try to appear better than we really are.  But to have some light and to keep it hidden, which is false modesty, is the other kind of hypocrisy.

Lord Jesus, we all have within us some radiance and goodness.  Don't let us keep it hidden.  Let it shine, for the world desperately needs it.

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