The New England Patriots are in the midst of a historic season in the NFL. As a team they appear invincible, defeating most opponents by more than 2 touchdowns (someone around here predicted this). As individuals Tom Brady, Randy Moss, and Mike Vrabel are having career years, and in some cases unprecedented seasons. As a fan of the Patriots I have heard the same question asked by reporters to members of the team, “How do you guys keep focused?” And over and over again the players cite head coach Bill Belichick as the source of their pride-crushing, focus-forging, work ethic.
The players have noted that Belichick treats the stars on the team with intense scrutiny and constructive criticism. Early each week after a game the coach exposes the various lapses that occurred in the previous game. This has come to be known as “Humble Pie”. In fact earlier this year Adelius Thomas had some T-shirts made up that said “Humble Pie” on the back and “I eat it” on the front. All of the players showed up to one of these meetings wearing this shirt. They also presented a shirt to Bill Belichick that said “Humble Pie” on the back and “I serve it” on the front. This successful and healthy locker room is a rarity in our contemporary sports world; personal accomplishments are minimized and instead criticized, and the players love it and win. It is as if this environment to intentionally deflate high self-esteem actually forges an increased commitment to winning, work ethic and professionalism.
In a similar vein it is interesting to consider the effect of biblical theology on a Christian. The Christian is humbled when told that the truth about their sin, God’s grace, the need to depend upon Christ’s righteousness, and be controlled by the Spirit in all things. Conversely, when we are allowed to think highly of ourselves we live in the flesh seeking to exalt ourselves.
Consider the book of Ephesians. Paul starts out in chapter 1 outlining the marvelous blessings that are ours in Christ; indeed we have all the spiritual blessings (1.3). But then in chapter 2 we are graciously pushed off of this doxological mountaintop to be plunged into the unfathomably deep resources of our own sinfully depraved hearts outside of Christ (2.1-3). If you actually consider it for more than a couple of seconds, to be called an offspring of the devil is actually pretty insulting to your pride. So after recouching the reality of the rich blessings in Christ, our depravity outside of Christ, and then God’s sovereign and gracious work in Christ (2.4-10) we have chapters 3-6 that dump a boatload of imperatives in our respective laps.
So what do you have? A reminder of how great the Christian life is, a reminder of how horribly wicked you are apart from Christ, a reminder of how sovereign and good God is, and then a game plan for Christian life and discipline.
Sadly too many Christian pastors and leaders short circuit this game plan with a message that does not emphasize depravity, sovereignty, divine grace and the need for holiness and obedience. And what do you have? A bunch of Christians running around showboating their religious works like an overpaid, self-righteous, egotistical NFL superstar who feels the need to celebrate at every turn to draw attention to themselves and their works.
My point is this: humble pie is a good thing. God serves it up in the gospel to his people that they may see the beauty and glory of Jesus after being sickened by their own wickedness. We need the gospel every hour of every day so that we might not begin our own personal self-promotion campaigns about our own misconceived greatness. The gospel is humble pie indeed for it puts Christ on display and us on our face.