TRUE GREATNESS
a sermon based on Mark 9:30-37
by Rev. Rick Thompson

Many consider him the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. Some consider him one of the five greatest athletes of the century. Now he is growing older, and his body is suffers the ravages of Parkinson’s Disease. But Muhammed Ali is still deeply and widely admired for his accomplishment.

In addition to being an incredibly talented boxer, Ali had a magnetic and charismatic personality. He was brash and cocky. Often, he predicted the round in which he would knock out an opponent—and, often, he was correct. No, Ali wasn’t shy at all about blowing his own horn. Again and again, he proclaimed, “I am the greatest! I am the greatest!”

That was a few decades ago. But the quest for greatness continues. There’s never a shortage of those willing to stand on the world’s stage and seek the title of “the greatest”.

Every two years, either in winter or summer, top-notch athletes gather from around the world, hoping they’ll be honored as “the greatest” in their event.

In the financial world, we’ve been watching giant corporations merge and swallow each other up for some years now. Each one of them wants to be the greatest, to rise to the top, to pulverize the competition, to earn more money than any other company in their field. They want to be “the greatest”.

We’re in the middle of a heated political campaign for various local, state, and national offices. Each candidate wants to win and, it seems, will do just about anything to accomplish that goal. We voters get cynical and lose interest, because it seems to us that winning the election rather than serving the country is the primary goal. Each candidate wants to be considered “the greatest”—and, in the eyes of the world, there’s nothing great about losing an election!

Greatness. It’s highly prized. And our notions of greatness all have to do with the strong overpowering the less strong, the winner getting the glory and the loser getting forgotten.

But then there’s Jesus.

Once again today—for the second of three times—we hear Jesus make his unusual claim to greatness: “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”

For Jesus, servanthood—for himself and for his followers—is the only legitimate pathway to greatness and glory. For Jesus, the one who is great is the one who accepts suffering for the benefit of others, not the one who escapes suffering at the expense of others. For Jesus, the true measure of greatness is in one’s willingness to be a servant.

Try that one on for size! In this world that celebrates getting even at least, getting ahead at best, and getting a bigger piece of the pie at any cost, try living by Jesus’ notion of greatness, and see how far it gets you!

It’s hard to comprehend, isn’t it? It’s so contrary to the way of the world. This teaching of Jesus about greatness just doesn’t fit our understanding of how the world works.

And it’s always been that way. Last week, we read the story of Peter’s confession that Jesus is, indeed, the long-awaited Messiah. But after that high moment, Jesus begins to talk about how necessary it is that he suffer and die. And then Peter has a problem, “Oh, no, Jesus—that can’t happen to you!” In a few weeks, we’ll be reading about another time when Jesus predicted his suffering to his disciples. That time, James and John respond by requesting privileged positions when Jesus establishes his rule. And, today, when Jesus predicts his suffering, the disciples respond by arguing with each other. And what is it they are talking about? Who’s the most humble and faithful among them? No, they argue about WHO IS THE GREATEST! WHICH OF US IS THE MOST POWERFUL AND IMPORTANT?

Didn’t they hear what Jesus had just said about greatness and servanthood?

When Jesus talks about suffering and dying, the disciples argue about their own status. When Jesus announces that he will suffer and die, the disciples argue and clamor for the positions of honor in the realm of Jesus.

The disciples just don’t get it. Mark continually reminds us of that. But it’s not simply so that we shake our fingers at the disciples and laugh at how silly and stupid they are.

Mark wants us to take a look in the mirror. Mark wants us to do some self-examination. Mark wants us to ask ourselves, “Are we any different from those disciples? Are we any less eager to seek honor and glory than they were? Are we any more enthusiastic about being servants than they were?

The great orchestra conductor and composer, the late Leonard Bernstein, was once asked, “What’s the most difficult instrument to play?”

“Second fiddle,” Bernstein responded. “I can get plenty of first violinists, but I have a hard time getting someone to play second fiddle. Yet if no one plays second, we have no harmony.”

We don’t want to play second fiddle, either. The sinfulness in each one of us makes us all want to be first. We’re just like the original twelve disciples. We clamor for positions of honor. We want to be noticed for the good we do. We want power and control. We want the church to operate according to our own ideas of what’s best, whether or not that’s what’s right in the eyes of God. We don’t want to be servants. We want to be the greatest! We want comfortable Christianity, Christianity without the cross!

It hasn’t changed much, has it. In twenty centuries, it hasn’t changed. There doesn’t seem to be much hope for the church, does there?

Except that Jesus and the disciples in this story are “on the way”. They are still “on the way” to Jerusalem. They haven’t seen it all yet. They don’t have the full picture. They haven’t watched Jesus suffer and die. And, until that happens, we can’t expect them to fully understand who Jesus is, what he’s all about, and what he expects of his followers.

But we have heard the whole story. We know of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We have seen, through Jesus, that, in God’s mind, servanthood, sacrifice, suffering, and even death, are the way that lead to life. Giving up one’s life, one’s claim to honor and glory, for the cause of God, is the way to receive life in all its fullness!

We are with Jesus, and with the disciples, on the way to discovering the depth and power of that truth.

That’s the hopeful word in this story: that the disciples, the church, are ON THE WAY with Jesus!

That’s a good place to be. Jesus shows us what greatness is. Jesus lives as a model of greatness. Jesus is the greatest! He demonstrates his greatness on a cross, by standing with those who are rejected and those who suffer. He demonstrates greatness by suffering and dying for the lost and the lowly and the forgotten, and then by rising to new and eternal life!

This is the one who teaches us about true greatness.

When he was on the way with his disciples, Jesus decided to give them an example. He took a little child from the crowd and placed it in the midst of the disciples. Then Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the one who sent me.”

Now children in that day had very little status. It was terrifying to be a child. Up to 30% of children died at the time of birth. Another 30% died by age 6, and 60% more were gone by age 16. When there was war or famine, it was the children who suffered first. And, in addition to that, the Roman world gave the father power of life and death over his children. If he wished, he could have his child put to death with no questions asked and no legal consequences.

In our world, children seem to have it much better. They often have a good deal of money, and lots of activities to entertain them. But, where there is poverty, it is still the children who suffer first and most: they receive inadequate health care, nutrition, and education. It is children who are victimized in large numbers by physical and sexual abuse. And it is children who are among the innocent victims of war and violence. In many ways, it is still a badge of dishonor to be a child.

And Jesus says that “true greatness” is demonstrated by advocacy for the children and the other forgotten ones in society. True greatness is expressed through servanthood. True greatness is lived out in our putting first those whom the world puts last. True greatness is measured by loving service to those whom the world shoves aside.

That’s what Jesus did, by reaching out to the forgotten, and by dying for sinners like you and me.

Are we on the path to true greatness?

Are we on the way with Jesus?