The Shoulders of Giants

Nature, and Nature’s laws lay hid in night.

God said, “Let Newton be!” And all was light.

—Alexander Pope

While Alexander Pope’s adulation of Sir Isaac Newton is a bit much, Newton was a giant among men by most accounts. The sheer breadth of his contribution to human knowledge and understanding is difficult to grasp. From inventing calculus to formulating the laws of planetary motion and the notion of gravity, it is tough to overstate Sir Isaac Newton’s contribution to the advancement of human understanding of the cosmos. He didn’t just break new ground, he pioneered whole frontiers of new understanding, which cascaded into more frontiers of more understanding for generations.

Regarding his great accomplishments, he famously pointed out in a letter to his rival Robert Hooke, “If I see further than others, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants.”

Don't be fooled; Newton was brilliant, but he was no paragon of humility or self-effacing virtue. He was intensely competitive and proud to the point of pettiness. He sparred repeatedly with Hooke and others in silly ego-driven rivalries, withheld important discoveries simply to call attention to his own superiority over the Royal Society, and was infamously intolerant to correction of any kind. He even composed and published anonymous letters eviscerating his rivals and lauding his own genius. Newton’s work and intellect were truly impressive, and he certainly did see further than others, but it seems likely that his “giants” comment was crafted more to highlight his own farsightedness than to defer honor to anyone else.

A self-deprecating nod to the giants underfoot is a small price to pay for the notoriety of seeing further than others. The one who sees furthest can afford to share some credit, especially with the giants of past generations who generally have few ambitions, offer little competitive threat, and take no notice of those posturing on their shoulders. Seeing further than others, topping even the giants of past generations, is something many men would kill and die for. Without doubt, much has been won (and lost) in the service of just such ambition. Is then the path of progress the path of unbridled Newtonian competition? Nice guys finish last, and the devil take the hindmost?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I would argue that there is another way.

MIT mathematician Hal Abelson is credited with having reversed the giants-andshoulders quote thus: “If I have not seen as far as others, it is because there were giants standing on my shoulders.”

The professor was speaking satirically, but I found myself intrigued when I first encountered this quote, and not only because of a corny, irreverent, American sense of humor. Aside from the satire, I see a profound beauty in Abelson’s quip that I’m guessing he never intended. Who are these heroes who go around with giants on their shoulders?

I know people who never set out to shake the world nor even their own community, but they do show up. They show up to pressure-wash church buildings and mow church lawns. They show up at school board meetings and prayer meetings and council meetings—Endless meetings. In late May they can be found setting up bouncy houses and organizing softball teams. In early September they can be found with a coffee can collection of wrenches, kneeling beside the desks that they adjusted last year, making them a little higher this year. Next year, they’ll make them a bit higher yet again. Giants grow fast.

I know people who show up early and stay late. They catch what they can over the speaker in the kitchen ceiling, wash up while others visit, and hundreds of people eat well. I know people who prepare hot lunches for school children, not only out of duty but also with genuine interest. Investing in personal touches that drain time and add effort and expense and health or fun or panache to something as commonplace as lunch. Feeding giants is worthy work.

I know of comfortable bedrooms and tasteful living rooms and clean kitchens sacrificed. Offered up for visitors who breeze in and breeze out, perhaps never to be seen again, leaving a swirl of toys and laundry and dishes settling in their wake. I know of introverts who host not because they love company and parties but because someone needed a place, and their guests will lack nothing. Hosting giants can be exhausting.

I know people who see not only through the panhandler but also through those who see through the panhandler. People who’ve outgrown their justifiable cynicism and find a way to extend human warmth to the little boy or girl inside the wrecked grown-up standing on a corner and lying about gas money—or the one sitting in the pew, lying about more than gas money. Panhandlers come in all shapes. I know of people who have given love with no expectation of a personal return on their investment, or of recognition for their kindness. People who have been filled with light enough to weep for those filled with darkness, as Hugo says. People who love the giants that could have been, and could yet be, rather than hating the dwarves that are.

Doing small things well, often, and long is how these special people live. I suppose it is an expression that seems almost worn through with use and abuse, but here is a calling which will not be thrown off the scent by mere hashtags and memes. It means business and will not be put off so easily as that. And yet, despite the simple accessibility of the concept and its near bumper sticker status in much of Christendom, it remains a bit of a social unicorn: a thing more often admired in pictures than observed in the wild. Hashtags or not, it is too uncommon a thing and so much the worse for humanity.

The disciples of Jesus once argued about who would be the greatest in His Kingdom. Jesus told them that He Himself didn’t come to be served but to serve. He told them not to seek power over others but power under others, and it was this “power under” strategy that would turn the world upside-down. In that upside-down world, it is better to give than to receive, it is better to suffer than to abuse, it is better to stoop and be walked on than to walk on others.

Humans do not naturally aspire to do small things out of sight for a long time. For each person doing small things well and for love of one’s neighbor, there are dozens of small people doing cheap things grudgingly and for lack of anything else to do. This latter population is often restless and resentful because of the great things they vaguely feel they could have done instead of the cheap things they actually did. They firmly believe that they would have done them too, if only they had been given a fair shake. If only the giants hadn’t stepped on them.

The difference between the former and the latter is that Kingdom culture is rooted and grounded on the sacrificial shoulders of one and slowly crumbles under the grinding heels of the other.

The great crowds speak of great names and great giants which come and go with the seasons but let the followers of the crucified Christ never idolize those who scramble over, clamber up, and surpass the height of former giants to become merely the greatest in the kingdom. May we instead honor the cruciform shoulders on which the Kingdom itself finds its firm footing.

Emulate those people in your community who, out of a simple, humble love for their neighbors, have embraced and unleashed the subtle, relentless power of living below, and don’t talk a lot about it. This is how heaven hears and comes and forgives our sin and heals our land. This is how the Kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven and the whole groaning creation is redeemed, restored, and renewed. This is how the tattered threads of community and creation are unexpectedly rewoven into something whole and new, and the throne is restored to the true King.