James glosses Isaiah's statement that all flesh is grass near the beginning of his epistle:
9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
The gospel takes those who are counted by society as unimportant, and opens their eyes to the importance they possess in the eyes of their Father. It takes those whom society counts as important and opens their eyes to the falseness (and indeed the briefness) of that measure, giving them another, truer measure to guide their actions and judge their relationships by.
At the moments we are tempted to exalt ourselves, we all, like the victorious Roman general in his triumph, could use someone whispering in our ear, "you are only human."
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