Jesus’ top tips on how to be the greatest
Who do you think is the greatest person you know or know of?
I’m going to start with a question. Who do you think is the greatest person you know or know of? I asked one of my sons and one of our lodgers, Jenny, to put this question to their friends this week and here are some of the answers:
Eleanor Rathbone: politician (for her campaigning amongst other things)
Christian Dior: French fashion designer (because he sculpted shapes for women’s clothes never seen before)
Will Smith: the actor (for bringing up his children in a non-violent home without profanity or raised voice)
Jürgen Klopp: the football manager (for his management skills, success, and humility as a leader) He is very popular in Liverpool right now after leading Liverpool football club to win the Premier league
Cristiano Ronaldo: footballer
Steven Gerrard: footballer
Someone mentioned a friend because the friend cares more about what God thinks than others think.
A couple of people said their dads because of things like listening before speaking and integrity.
Someone else said their grandad because he was smart and was amazing at teaching life skills without you even realising it.
The reason I’m asking this question is because of an argument Jesus disciples had. They had just all walked to a place called Capernaum and had just gone into a house there. Let’s have a look at the beginning of today’s passage.
“Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?” But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.”
Jesus knew exactly what they were arguing about but he asked the question anyway and you get a distinct impression that the disciples were embarrassed.
So why were the disciples arguing about who would be the greatest? Well, over the past few weeks we’ve seen that the Jewish people had many prophecies predicting that a Messiah would come. Someone who would save his people. They were expecting a strong and powerful warrior type Messiah who could come and set up his kingdom and get rid of the Romans who were the ruling power in Israel at the time. They believed that Jesus was this Messiah so they were arguing about which of them was going to be the most important in this new set up. The one who would have the most power and prestige. To some extent, it was an exercise in comparison.
Jesus had already told them that it wasn’t going to happen like that and that he had to be killed but was going to rise to life again but as I said in my last talk they couldn’t get their heads around this. It was so different from what they were expecting. I teach English to people whose first language isn’t English, and sometimes the people who find it hardest to speak correctly are the ones who have been here for years but never learned the language properly and have picked up bad habits in how they speak. It’s harder for them to change from the bad language habits they’ve picked up than it is for someone to learn from scratch. So I do get how difficult it was for the disciples to understand what Jesus was about.
I don’t know where everyone is from who is watching this but it’s not very British to be in a group of people and to be arguing about who among you is the greatest. In politics, we see a lot of arguing about how the other parties are worse, or in boxing, there might be a lot of talk about who is the greatest but in general, in everyday life, we don’t openly argue about this. But I don’t think they’re that different to us. We’re much more subtle than that and do most of our comparison and working out who is the greatest in our mind. I think when we meet people we tend to weigh up internally who is greater depending on the characteristics that are important to us for gaining love, acceptance, power, and prestige. Who has the better job? Who is higher up in the career ladder? Who has more money? Who is more beautiful or has a better body? Who has more followers on social media? Who has more power or influence? Who is the most active in fighting for social justice? Who has done the most charity work? Who is the most morally righteous.
Who are we greater than, better than, more important than? We compare ourselves to other people and either come our worse off and feel bad about ourselves, or we feel we are greater than them and become prideful.
So what’s Jesus' response to this? In those days when a teacher wanted to communicate something important, they sat down. So Jesus sits down and says to them, ‘Come on guys, quit talking about trying to be great. It’s not very spiritual to want to be great, is it?’
Actually, he doesn’t say that. That’s kind of what I’d maybe expect him to say. The next few verses say this:
“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all. Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.””
“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles (non-Jews) lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””
So he basically affirms the desire to be great and tells them how to be great. I think God actually made us for greatness. One of my son’s friends that was asked the question ‘who is the greatest person’ said, ‘It depends how you define great’ and that’s true, isn’t it? All of the people mentioned at the beginning could be described as great depending on how you define the word. Jesus here is defining greatness in terms of a life poured out for others.
He also contrasts it with many of the leaders of the world who are in positions of greatness but who are not great. You can probably think of a few right now. We’ve all seen it in the news where people in positions of power abuse that power and make it about fulfilling their own evil desires, or using it to gain possessions, privileges or to leave a legacy that will make them look good in the history books. Sadly this has included the church. Deep down we know that just because someone is in a position of power that doesn’t make them great. Hilter would be a good example here. He had much power and much adoration but he wasn’t great as a person.
We can often have a mix of godly and ungodly motives when we serve people.
We’ve had some suggestions as to who the greatest people are but there is one who is greater than them all and everything. God is the greatest. My Muslim friends agree that God is the greatest but what they have trouble understanding is how the Christian God can be considered great because he came to earth and lived in a human body having to do all the not so pleasant or messy things human have to do like be born or go to the loo, and then he let himself be killed by the people he had made. How is that great? It looks messy and weak. I think a guy called Abdu Murray explains this really well.
I finally saw God’s greatness. The greatest possible being would express the greatest possible ethic, which is love, in the greatest possible way and that is self-sacrifice.
— Abdu Murray
God is so great that he didn’t just give Himself for those who were trying to follow Him but for his enemies too.
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus contrasts two systems of greatness. In the world’s system being great is about getting power over other people, wealth, being seen with the right people, and gaining the adoration of people to make you feel good about yourself and that you are significant and worth something. Sometimes it can mean doing good things for the wrong reasons.
In God’s system, it’s about being so secure in the love and acceptance of your father God that you don’t have to get the power, wealth and adoration of other people to feel good about yourself. You don’t need to try to bolster your self-esteem through these things. Instead, you are free to serve God out of love by serving other people.
So how does this work in real life? There are many ways but I want to share just three with you. The first is a true story as told in Pete Greig’s book How to Pray. It’s an example of how sometimes serving God through serving people can lead us into not having any position that the world would consider great.
The story of Dominique Voillaume - see this week's video
Felicity - serving in school (see video)
Josh - something small that is memorable (see video)
Sometimes it’s lots of little things done consistently over time that make all the difference in our relationships, our schools, our universities our jobs, and our society.
If you don’t know this servant God that I’m talking about and you’d like to know more about Him do get in touch or join us for Alpha which is starting this Wednesday.
If you’re already a Christ-follower but realise you’re serving to get God or other people to accept you, take time to meditate on passages from the bible which talk about God’s love for you. Let them soak into your soul so they go from head knowledge to heart knowledge.
Think about how your life would look in each area if you had an attitude of serving people out of a place of security and love. What would your relationships look like? Your study or your work? For some people, it will mean working in jobs that are not highly esteemed in society. For others, it may mean getting into top positions as that is where you are called to serve.