True Greatness - Mark 9:33-36 Series

Mark 9:30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." 36 He took a little child and had the child stand among them.

Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."

38 "Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." 39 "Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No-one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us.

Introduction

Do you think you could ever be one of the greats—a truly great man or woman? Let me ask you this: who is greater, Mozart, or Abraham Lincoln? Or how about between Alexander Graham Bell, who gave us the telephone, or Alexander Fleming, who gave us penicillin? Or Alexander the Great, who conquered the world by age 25 and who has the word “great” right in his name? Which of those men is greater? Well, it depends on how you define greatness, right? What is greatness? The disciples evidently thought they knew.

34 … they had argued about who was the greatest.

They had to be arguing based on something. Each one of those guys had some standard of greatness in their minds and they were giving reasons and evidences to prove that they were closer to that standard than all the others. In today’s passage, Jesus is going to show us what was wrong with their definition and teach us what our attitude about greatness should be.

Now, the context here is important. In the previous paragraph, Jesus had once again taught them about his coming suffering and they had once again not understood what he meant. They go blind and deaf whenever Jesus talks on that subject, and today Mark is going to show us the cause of that blindness and deafness. And that’s great for us because the spiritual disease in their hearts that caused it is probably the most common spiritual disease there is. And so we all need to see the cure Jesus gives them so we can take it as well, otherwise we’ll also go blind and deaf at crucial moments when God is speaking to us.

The Blinding Effect of Self-Exaltation

33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?"

We’ll see in a minute that Jesus already knew the answer because he knew their thoughts. But he asks them anyway to force them to see the problem. Sometimes before Jesus can teach us something he has to force us to take a look inside our own hearts to see things we didn’t know were there because there are lessons he wants to teach us that are impossible for us to receive until we’ve dealt with some problem in our hearts. That’s what’s going on here.

One of the hardest steps in discipleship is learning the truth about your own heart. What is the first half of Mark about? Who Jesus is. In the first half of Mark they learn who Jesus is; in the second half they learn who they are. The second half is about Jesus going to the cross and his followers following in his steps. But before we can follow in his steps we have to discover some things in our hearts that are preventing us from that. One of the main purposes of the second half of Mark is to show us the diseases in our hearts that prevent us from denying ourselves and following him.

Afraid to Answer

And it’s amazing how Jesus does that here. All he does is ask a simple question.

33 … "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34 But they kept quiet

In v.32 they were afraid to ask a question; now in v.34 they are afraid to answer one. Why won’t they answer?