Pastor Slaughter
September 19, 2021
Pentecost 13
Text: Mark 9:30-37
Theme: What makes a person the Greatest?
What makes a person great? What makes a person the greatest? I want you to take 30 seconds and come up with 5 things that make a person great. What did you come up with? Did you write something about a person’s talents, how smart they are, how athletic they are. Did you describe someone’s qualities like being kind or compassionate? Maybe you put something along the lines of how other people view them or what other people say about them.
I did what any millennial would do and I went online and googled, “What makes a person great?” The first thing that popped up was from a Website MotivateUS.com and it says, “A great person is willing to help anyone that needs it. A great person is respectful of other people’s feelings and needs, but holds his or her position highly and never retreats from negative situations, but only stays in them to make peace.” Ok, that sounds nice but is that What Makes a Person the Greatest? The disciples struggled with this very question in our lesson today.
Jesus and his disciples were passing through Galilee on their way to Capernaum. He needed some alone time with his disciples so that he could focus on teaching them. Now this was the second time that Jesus predicted his suffering, death, and resurrection. But the disciples were still confused. Mark describes how the disciples felt, They were afraid. They were afraid by what Jesus had said. Afraid to ask him what he meant. And who could blame them?
Have you ever had someone close to you tell you that they had a life-threatening disease? Out of fear of what could happen we can try to deny it. We may be afraid to ask the question because we don’t really want to hear the answer. The disciples were afraid to ask Jesus what he meant.
I think Mark purposefully transitions from talking about the greatest act of service that Christ was going to do, to the disciples’ argument about who is the greatest. Now I don’t know how much time transpired between the two conversations but the very fact that Mark places them side by side shows a unique comparison.
I can see the disciples talking along the way among themselves just out of earshot of Jesus. I can almost hear what may have started out as a simple conversion turning into an argument. “Hey Peter, what makes you James and John so special that you got to up on the mountain with Jesus?” Yeah, why did he only take you three as he raised Jarius’ daughter? I can almost hear the conversation take a turn for the worst with a simple joke from Peter, “It’s because we are the greatest!”
Oh the argument that must have ensued! Mathew could have boasted about the wealth he gave up as a tax collector. Peter could have pointed to the how he walked on water, how he was bold to confess Jesus as the Christ the Son of God. John could have exclaimed that he was the disciple that Jesus loved. Judas could have pointed to his responsibility to handle the money. And the list could have gone on. Each disciple pointing to something that they had done, or something that Jesus had said about them. Which of them was the greatest disciple?
Which of you is the greatest? Going back to those 5 things you wrote down, the qualities or thing that make a person a great, how many of those do you meet? Do you define greatness like maybe how Matthew did by looking at all that you sacrificed, all that you gave up for the sake of Christ? For the High school student do you find your greatness like Peter by something that you do, like how good at sports you are or how smart you are. Or maybe you might be like John and find your greatness in what others say about you, how popular you are, how well liked you are. But maybe you find your Greatness in the responsibility God has given you like Judas, the job that you have, the income you make, how well behaved your kids are. Which of you is the greatest?
It’s interesting that Jesus waited till they came to Capernaum to address his disciples. It is almost as if Jesus was giving them an opportunity to come to their own conclusion. Recognizing they were coming to the wrong conclusions Jesus said to them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” That sinking pit in their stomach, the guilt they felt was revealed by their silence to Jesus’ question.
So Jesus gathers the disciples together and sits down with them and says, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” Jesus takes all of their arguments and turns them upside down. The disciples argument of who was greater revealed a sin that was inside of their hearts in our hearts, pride.
What does pride do to us? It places ourselves above others. It looks at our talents, our abilities for what makes us great. It defines success by what we have accomplished or done. It places ourselves above others, It places ourselves as first. What Jesus is saying to his disciples if you want to be great, then you must get rid of the pride in your heart that pride makes you want to be the greatest in the first place.
So how do we get rid of the sin of pride out of our lives and truly be a servant of all? Look at the contrast that Mark places before our lesson begins! How do you put pride aside? Look at how Jesus served you! How our very God humbled himself to become the God-Man. How Jesus literally became the servant of all by dying for us on a cross, by forgiving us our sins and after three days rising from the grave!
He did all of this to forgive us when pride takes over. When pride begins to take root in our heart, we need to turn take the focus of ourselves, and turn to the cross. There we see what true service is, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
To demonstrate what true service is, Jesus takes a child in his arms and says, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.” No service is too lowly, not even meeting the needs of a child. Service means sacrifice your time, your talents, yourself for the sake of others. Not in order to be first or the greatest but because you love Jesus, and what he has done for you.
Any act of service done out of love for Christ, even welcoming a child is like you welcoming Jesus himself, and when you welcome Jesus you are welcoming the Father as well. Jesus said, “And whoever welcome one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me, welcomes not just me but also him who sent me.”
Doesn’t this change how you look at serving others? Our world, sinful nature, and the devil himself tries to get us to focus on who is the greatest, how we are better than others. But Jesus turns our world upside-down and says we should not focus on ourselves but on serving others and when we serve others, we serve Jesus and we serve God. Doesn’t that then lead us to reach out a helping hand to someone in need? Like when we are walking down the hallway at school and see someone who looks alone and we introduce ourselves and invite them to lunch. Like when we see a single mother struggling to watch her children and put the groceries in their car. Like when you sacrifice your time to patiently sit and listen to someone who desperately needed to talk, even though it was not on your busy schedule.
My family in Christ, what makes someone the greatest? Those five things you came up with could be all very good qualities to have. But they do not make someone the greatest. Maybe instead of asking the question, “What makes someone the greatest?” We should be asking ourselves What gifts/qualities do I have to serve other people with my time, my treasure, and my talents. Why do we serve? Because he first served us. Amen.