Matthew 20:25-28
Jesus called them together and said, “You
know that the rulers of the Gentiles 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 your slave— just as the Son
of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many.”
Many of us can remember
Muhammed Ali, the heavyweight champion boxer, screaming “I am the greatest!” to
anyone who would listen. Although his antics were clearly intended to garner
publicity, Mr. Ali does serve as a kind of “poster
child” for how our culture defines greatness.
Most often we tend to
associate greatness with success, accomplishment, celebrity or wealth. And to a
degree, of course, that is true. People who work hard to achieve extraordinary
success in any field of endeavor, from business to science to sports, can certainly
be said to be “great.”
But, in this teaching in the
gospel of Matthew, Jesus reshapes our definition of greatness. He says,
“...whoever
wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be
first must be your slave— just as the
Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many.”
Some have referred to Jesus’ teaching here as “downward mobility.” In our
current sermon series we are calling it “Growing
Smaller.”
I like both of these expressions because
they communicate how Jesus is turning our understanding of greatness
upside-down. He’s saying
that spiritual greatness is not defined by how many people are serving you, but
by how many people you serve. He is teaching us that true greatness is not
found so much in accomplishment or wealth, but in serving others with
compassion and grace.
Sadly, today Muhammed Ali is
largely bound to a wheel chair, his body ravaged by Parkinson’s Disease. He is almost totally
dependent on others who serve his many physical needs. I have a hunch that if
you were able to ask him to define true greatness, he would probably point to
those who serve him during these twilight days of his life rather than to the
current heavyweight boxing champion.
It occurs to me that the beauty of
Jesus’ teaching here is
that whereas relatively few people can ever achieve what the world regards as “greatness” - we
can all learn the greatness of servanthood.
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