Who is the Greatest?

Today my message is entitled “Who is the Greatest?”

I was rereading an article by Thom Rainer, CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources, titled “Nine Bible Texts That Ought to Challenge Leaders”.
The third text was Mark 9:35 and Thom said, “Contrary to the world’s idea of leadership, Christian leadership equals servanthood.”

This caused me to consider what is servant leadership and how does that idea fit for all of us. So, then came the question: “Who is the greatest?”

Jesus had to address this question several times and it is recorded in several of the Gospel books in the Bible. One of these is the above-mentioned text in Mark.

Mark 9: 33-37 NIV
33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house (Probably the one belonging to Peter and Andrew) he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?”

34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. (No doubt due to embarrassment and it had no place in Jesus’s value system – NIV Study Bible)

William Barclay, in his Daily Bible Study: The Gospel of Mark, gives us this view of verse 34: “There is something heart-breaking in the thought of Jesus going towards a Cross and His disciples arguing about who would be greatest. Yet in their heart of hearts they knew they were wrong… It was the silence of shame. They had no defense… If we took everything and set it in the sight of Jesus it would make all the difference in the world.”

35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

The Bible Knowledge Commentary helps us understand here: “Here ‘servant’ (diakonos-Greek) depicts one who attends to the needs of others freely, not one in a servile position.”

Barclay continues, “The divisions and disputes which tear the church asunder would for the most part never occur if the only desire of its office-bearers and its members was to serve it without caring what position they occupied.

36 He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them,
37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

Barclay sums this up for us: “In effect Jesus here says that we ought to seek out not those who can do things for us, but those for whom we can do things, for in this way we are seeking the society of Himself (Jesus).”

The Bible Knowledge Commentary adds, “To welcome the child was not to welcome Jesus only but also the heavenly Father who sent Jesus to earth. This gives dignity to the task of serving others.”

Next we go to the Gospel of Matthew to hear Jesus on this subject.
Matthew 18:1-5 NIV
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 He called a little child and had him stand among them.
3 And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, (Trusting and unpretentious-NIV Study Bible) you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary puts it this way, “Jesus told the disciples a change in their thinking was necessary. Greatness in the kingdom was not based on great works or words, but on childlike humility of spirit.”

R.T. France, in his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, says, “The portrait of the church which thus emerges is an attractive one. Status-consciousness and formally constituted authority have no place. The focus is on the relationship and mutual responsibility of all members of the community, each of whom matters, and yet all of whom must regard themselves only as ‘little ones.’…Children are socially as well as physically ‘little ones.’ ”

Now to the Gospel of Mark to hear from Jesus again but with a different focus of greatness.

Mark 10: 42-45 NIV
42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
(Jesus overturns the value structure of the world. The life of discipleship is to be characterized by humble and loving service. -NIV Study Bible)

44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
45 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.”
(A key verse in Mark’s Gospel. Jesus came to us as a servant who would suffer and die for our redemption, as Isaiah clearly predicted Isaiah 52:13-53:12.
Ransom-the price paid for release from bondage. Jesus gave His life to release us from the bondage to sin and death. -NIV Study Bible)

Barclay states: “This saying of Jesus is a simple and pictorial way of saying that it cost the life of Jesus to bring men back from their sin into the love of God. It means that the cost of our salvation was the Cross of Christ…We know only that something happened on the Cross which opened for us the way to God.”

Waldie Neufeld, President of PRBI, in the June 2018 issue of the school’s newsletter, said it this way: “Jesus’s right-side up perspective defined leadership as serving others, leading with the well-being of others in mind.”

The last text today is found in the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 22: 24-30 NIV
24 Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.
25 Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. (A title assumed by or voted for rulers in Egypt, Syria and Rome as a display of honor, but frequently not representing actual service rendered-NIV Study Bible)

26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. (Jesus urges and exemplifies servant leadership – a trait that was as uncommon then as it is now. NIV Study Bible)

27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
28 You are those who have stood by me in my trials. (Temptations-Luke 4:1-13, Hardships -Luke 9:58, and Rejection- John 1:11 – NIV Study Bible)

29 And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me,
30 so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

So, who is the greatest? Jesus says those who believe like little children and live to serve others are the greatest. Therefore, we need to have trust in God, simple trust. We need to look out for the needs of those around us and not try to put ourselves first. This is difficult since mankind strives to be the best in everything. Jesus turns the world upside down with this direction for life.

Let’s pray!