“Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.” (Mark 10:43-44)
What is the highest and most lofty thing you can aspire to as a person? Different people have different senses of what their ceiling is. For some, the sky’s the limit. For others, they don’t think they can reach quite so high. The truth is, whether your highest goal is something like becoming the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or to something less ambitious, we must always allow the words of Jesus to keep us grounded in reality. For him, the highest of aspirations wasn’t to be great, as in some worldly sense of greatness. Rather, real greatness is when the goodness of God – that which is pure, and holy, and selfless – permeates all we are and takes root deep in our hearts.
The disciples struggled to maintain that perspective. No sooner did Jesus reveal to them the purpose of his coming into the world (vv. 32-24) then did James and John conspire for a place of honor in his coming kingdom (vv. 35-40). The other ten weren’t much better. When they found out, they got “indignant” (v. 41), probably because James and John beat them to the punch. But Jesus, fully aware of the fallen ambitions of a damaged human heart, resets their perspective. He is already leading them (v. 32), setting the example, showing them that a selfless, servant-like heart is what is ultimately good. Real greatness is not in “lording,” but in serving. This is what Jesus wants to multiply, to see reproduced in those who follow him – his own self-giving heart of love. The way down is the only way up.
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