Study inMark’s Gospel

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The Greatest In The Kingdom

Chap 9v30-37Presentation 29

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IntroductionSome time ago I came across this letter. It was written by a nine year old to his brother of eight after his younger brother had beaten him in a race. It read,

Dear Jim,I am the greatest and you are the badest. I can beat everybody in a race and you can't beat anybody in a race. I'm the smartest and you are the dumbest. I'm the best sport's player and you are the badest sports player. And you are also a pig. I can beat anybody up. And that's the truth. And that's the end of the story, Yours truly, Richard

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IntroductionIn our children we see the undisguised pride of human nature. The longing for recognition, superiority and greatness are all there. Though we smile, when we read letters like these, such responses are no longer humorous when this heart-attitude continues to manifest itself in adults who profess to be followers of Jesus.

Indeed, this longing for recognition is positively dangerous for it threatens the fruitful advance of Christ's kingdom. It is for this reason Jesus addresses this issue in the passage before us.

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The Greatness Of JesusFrom this point on in the ministry of Jesus the focus is no longer on the miraculous. Jesus begins to withdraw himself from the public stage. Notice from v30 that he does not wish to be found by men. Why?

Jesus is intent upon preparing his disciples for the cross. Indeed, it was absolutely imperative that his disciples should understand the great purpose of his coming into the world. Jesus main task was not that of teacher, or preacher, or healer, or miracle worker but of Saviour. The cross was the great goal of his ministry.

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The Greatness Of JesusThe cross became the principal focus of Jesus teaching at this time cf. v31. The disciples found it hard to understand that there could be no forgiveness, no acceptance with God, no place in the kingdom without the cross. Their background and prejudice dampened any enthusiasm for the cross.

Seizing power, expelling the Romans, purging the religious establishment- these were ideas they could relate to! That would have made Jesus great in their eyes. But to throw his life away on the cross seemed stupid. They wanted a champion not a sacrifice.

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The Greatness Of JesusJesus spelled out the matter plainly but they did not understand v32. Why? Fear had a great part to play. When Jesus spoke passionately about the cross they recognised that his commitment to it was a silent summons for them to share in it.

The human mind has a tremendous capacity for not understanding what it does not want to see. It is possible to be presented with a clear statement of the truth, but because of the costly implications of what we hear, we either say, that we don't understand or, we persuade ourselves that we have heard a totally different message.

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The Greatness Of JesusMany preachers describe how they have met this response in the course of their preaching. The significance of Christ's death has been explained in great detail and then at the close of the service a hearer says, 'the preacher's right we will just need to try to do our best and God to forgive and accept us!' The preacher than quite naturally asks, “Did they hear the same sermon that I preached for their understanding bears no resemblance to what I have taught?” Fear and prejudice can distort the message. As indeed can Satan, who has a vested interest in keeping people in the dark about the cross.

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The Greatness Of JesusAnother strand of the disciples’ fear becomes more apparent in v32. They didn't understand the substance of Jesus teaching but they were too frightened to ask for clarification.

Let me illustrate this human response. A person may go to the doctors and have their illness diagnosed. They might think that the news is bad but they are not quite sure for the doctor has used some medical jargon. The patient’s failure to ask for clarification often indicates that they are frightened to learn the truth. It is more comfortable for them to live in denial. Well, in the same way these disciples did not want to have to face stern spiritual realities.

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The Greatest DiscipleJesus and his disciples were making their way to Capernaum but the disciples appear to have hung back behind Jesus v33. They were not walking at his side but having their own discussion some way behind him. Talk about the cross and of the cost of discipleship was making them drag their heals but it also caused their spiritual perspective to be warped. The disciples were arguing over which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom and have super-star status. They were operating with a quite different notion of what constituted true greatness to that of Jesus. They saw greatness in terms of prestige, power, prominence and public recognition.

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These are also the marks used by contemporary society to identify greatness. Think of the so called 'great people' who are feted on T.V. chat shows! They are unashamed in their self-promotion constantly implying 'I'm the greatest.' This is far removed from Jesus’ self-denial, their self-absorption is far removed from Jesus' self-sacrifice, their self-glorying is far removed form Jesus' self- effacement.Human pride has many disguises. How often have you heard someone say, “I'm not one for blowing my own trumpet but I just want you to know what I have done to help people over the years”. Now there is something terribly suspect about a man's religion when it craves public recognition. This concept of greatness should make us cringe.

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Dr. Brengle a leader of the Salvation Army was once introduced on a public platform as, 'the great Doctor Brengle'. He voiced his displeasure at this introduction and that night wrote in his diary,“I am so concerned that God uses me and that it is not of me that the work's done. The axe cannot boast of the trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. He made it, he sharpened it and he used it. The moment he throws it aside it becomes only old iron. O that I might never lose sight of this.”Brengle had no desire for public recognition. He did not want to be considered great by this world's standards. He recognised that anything worthwhile accomplished through him was accomplished by God.

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The disciples wanted public recognition. It is a measure of Jesus love and care for his proud, dull, argumentative disciples that he challenged their view of greatness by shaming them into silence. He asked them what they were discussing as they hung back on the road v34. Did they hope Jesus would not have noticed their bickering?

Jesus is more conscious of what we do and think than we imagine. We quickly discover that things that we get so worked up about when we argue among ourselves can seem so petty and unworthy in the presence of Christ?

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It is against this background that Jesus’ instruction must have must have caused their shock absorbers to collapse, 'If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and the servant of all’. v35.

The world's idea of greatness is to rule and to be served by a whole army of petty minions running about to do their bidding. But the princes and princesses of Christ’s kingdom are not found sitting at banqueting tables but in the kitchens and sculleries gladly waiting hand and foot on others.

Some Christians think themselves too important for menial tasks. They are below their dignity. But they have failed to understand true greatness.

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Jesus has dignified humility. He is the one who was soon to take a basin of water and stoop to wash his disciples feet. He would stoop even lower on the cross where, as the sin-bearer of his people, he would wash away their sins.

Jesus’ death has been described in this way: he became the world’s garbage collector, gladly bearing on his shoulders the full weight of the refuse of our sin! He came, ‘not to be served but to serve’. Have we been able to replace the ambition to have things constantly done for us by others by an ambition to serve others?

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Jesus’ IllustrationJesus, the master illustrator drove his point home in an extraordinary fashion. He took a little child and placed him in their midst. In order to understand why he did so, we must recognise that we are often only prepared to help those whom we think can help us in return. "If I do this for him then he might do that for me". Jesus said, 'Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me' v36. A child is weak and dependant, with no ability to advance a man's career or enhance his reputation. In order to become great we are to care for and serve the weakest and lowest in the flock. The kind of greatness that the disciples had argued over, caused them to be self-absorbed rather than service oriented.

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Jesus’ IllustrationMartin Luther King the civil rights leader said to a people who had been conditioned to believe they could never amount to anything:

“Everybody can be great. Because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know about Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second law of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love”.

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ConclusionDo we aspire to be great in the kingdom? To become great benders, great servers? The pride which seeks public recognition is the greatest barrier to greatness in the kingdom. We are called to follow a Master who stooped low:“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father….

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Conclusion…Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed- not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe”. Phil. 2v5-15