"who Is The Greatest?"

“Who Is the Greatest?”

Mark 9:30-37

Ever play “King of the Mountain” when you were a little kid?

It doesn’t take any equipment.

All you need is, like a big pile of dirt or maybe a snow mound.

Then, several children will run up the mound and try and push the others off.

Whoever is able to push all the others off the “mountain” while standing at the top is the greatest, or the “King of the Mountain.”

I learned that game when I was, maybe 4 or 5 years old, how about you?

From an early age, most of us, whether it is done intentionally or not, are taught that greatness implies power, strength, fame, wealth and all the other things that allow us to make things go our way.

A person is often thought of as a great success if they have a lot of money, drive an expensive car, live in a big house and it goes on and on.

Recently, I was having a conversation with a very wealthy person.

She owns four multi-million-dollar homes, is a top executive at a Fortune 500 company—makes and spends lots of money.

The conversation we were having was about God and what God calls us to do with our lives; she was trying to figure out what God was calling her to do…

At one point in the conversation, I asked, “Do you feel God calling you to help poor people?”

She looked at me as if that was the craziest question she’d ever heard.

“No. Not at all,” was her answer.

I didn’t push her, but I wonder why?

That’s one of the things that Jesus repeats over and over and over again—we are to help the poor, the needy, the vulnerable—and she reads the Bible.

(pause)

What makes people great?

This is a question that has been on people’s minds, probably, since the beginning of time.

What constitutes greatness?

That question is at the heart of our Gospel Lesson for this morning.

Having just heard Jesus tell them that He will be betrayed, killed and resurrected on the third day, the disciples remain clueless as to what Jesus is talking about and, therefore, clueless about what Jesus is really about, and what true greatness is about.

And so, they are walking on a path.

And on that path, they start arguing with one another about which one of them is going to be the greatest in God’s Kingdom.

Perhaps they are boasting about which one of them has spent the most time with Jesus, or maybe which one has seen the greatest miracle or perhaps performed the greatest miracle.

We don’t really know.

What we do know is that Jesus is not impressed.

And so He tells them, “Anyone who wants to be first”—that is the greatest—“must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

This had to have confused them even more, because, it wasn’t what they had been taught—and if we admit it—it’s not what we have been taught either.

Again, the world’s standards of greatness are usually yoked with power over others, wealth, control, status, and influence.

But that’s not what Jesus says.

And to drive His point home, He scoops up a young child into His arms and tells them that whoever welcomes a child like this welcomes Him.

And suddenly it seems like Jesus has gone from saying something a little odd—to be first you have to be last—to saying something that sounds, well, kinda crazy.

In the First-Century World children were viewed as socially inferior and kind of invisible.

Oh, of course, their parents loved them, but they had no rights, no influence, no standing.

They were utterly dependent, utterly vulnerable, utterly powerless.

So how could caring for a child count as greatness?

It’s crazy.

Or is it?

Think about it for a minute: What if Jesus is right?

I mean, what if we imagined that greatness isn’t about power and wealth and fame and all the rest, but instead greatness is measured by how much we share with others, how much we take care of others, how much we love others, how much we serve others?

What kind of world would we live in?

Can you imagine if people were regularly trying to out-do each other in their deeds of kindness and service?

What if there were nationally broadcast competitions to see who is willing to be last so that others can go first?

Imagine Reality T-V Shows that follow people around as they try and help as many people as possible.

What kind of world would we live in?

I think it would be a pretty great world, what do you think?

A new study has found that drivers of flashy cars are less likely to stop and allow pedestrians to cross the road than drivers of, say, less flashy cars.