Greatness: Mark 10:41-45
The greatest among us should be those who life is devoted to helping other people draw closer to God by demonstrating servant-leadership. The greatest among us aren’t the big-name evangelists or the pastors of churches or the authors of incredible devotional series. Look at Jesus’ life. He is constantly inviting people into a relationship with God through His actions. Jesus helps people. The greatest among us reach into the lives of others, make a difference, and then invite those who’ve changed to do the same.
The rest of the disciples get upset when they hear about James’ and John’s request. Can we blame them? Two of their own people are trying to finagle an edge over everyone else. Behavior like this breeds animosity and jealousy.
In response, Jesus doesn’t rebuke their discontent. Neither does Jesus praise it. Jesus teaches against the whole dynamic. This conversation is still about being the greatest and the disciples continue to struggle grasping it.
Conceptually, the teaching is easy. Jesus’ followers aren’t supposed to live like the Gentiles. We shouldn’t organize our communities under the same rules. Our leaders shouldn’t live in luxury doling out orders to those who slave to make their luxury possible. Jesus’ expectation to live differently is not hard to understand. Understanding why such a reorganization makes for a better community isn’t hard to see, either.
Unfortunately, we are human. We inherently think of ourselves first. Our desires take priority in our minds. Even if we logically understand why society functions better under a servant-leader model, it is hard to live in such a way. As proof of this, go drive on a road and see how long it takes to be impatient with the traffic or irritated by the idiocy of the other drivers. Go into a grocery store at a peak operating time and see how long it takes before the thoughtlessness of the other customers starts to affect how you interact with the people around you. Servant nature is easy to understand conceptually; it is hard to implement consistently.
One of the coolest dynamics about Jesus in the Gospel stories is how He models the servant-leader. In almost every story, Jesus ends up serving someone who comes with a physical need or a spiritual question. Yet, in every story His authority is equally clear. While society – or as Jesus says, life according to the Gentiles – doesn’t treat servants as having any authority at all, Jesus’ example demonstrates why God’s way is so different.
Jesus teaches the great ones are the servants and modelled it by coming and dying for the sake of all. In the crucifixion, society would have declared Jesus had no authority. Yet from God’s perspective, Jesus’ death showed authority of sin. His resurrection demonstrated He had authority even over death. Following this example, the greatest among us should be those who life is devoted to helping others draw closer to God by demonstrating servant-leadership.
