Who’s the Greatest?

While Jesus is teaching his disciples that his path involves a spiral of rejection and persecution, they miss that part of the lesson entirely. Instead they immediately discuss amongst themselves which of them is the greatest.

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “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.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them, and taking it in his arms he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.

Mark 9:30-37

People have asked this question as far back as Cain and Abel right up to our current news headlines. We still don’t understand what Jesus was teaching. The Christian life isn’t about dominating everyone who disagrees with us. We’re not called to crusade against other religions. Our lives shouldn’t be focused on creating a political regime that forces everyone to live by our tenets.

My Witnesses

We’re not even called to defend our faith, at least not in the way we go about it. We’re called to be a witness to our faith. A witness describes what they’ve experienced. It’s not the job of the witness to force the conclusion. No manipulation or retaliation. It’s not about controlling outcomes or hating those who disagree.

Jesus shifts the focus from “being great” to being “the least’. Be everyone’s servant. Take the place of the person who has no social impact on anyone. We may not be able to do this in a literal way because we might already have a place of power in society. More realistically, Jesus brings it around to saying that whoever welcomes a child, that act is the same as welcoming Jesus, and by extension welcoming God.

Welcoming and serving the people in society who have the least amount of social status. This is how we should measure our success.

Photo credit: Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash