Achieving greatness

Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!"

Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.

"What is it you want?" he asked.

She said, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom."

"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?"

"We can," they answered.

Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father."

When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
(Matthew 20:17-28)

I want you to try to think of the most impressive person you have ever met. I want you to pick out someone that you have admired, someone who inspired you, someone who changed your life for the better. Picture this man or woman’s face. Remember the kinds of things he or she said, the things that were important to him or her. Does this person hold a special place in your heart because he or she enjoyed ordering you around, or does this person hold a special place in your heart because he or she listened to you carefully? Did you have to work hard to get this person’s attention away from other things, or did this person always make time for you when you were in need? Do you have fond memories of this person because he or she was selfish, or do you have fond memories because he or she was giving?

I’m going to go out on a limb and bet that you were not picturing an arrogant, opinionated person who didn’t have time for you. I’m pretty sure that the person you pictured was a patient listener, someone who was generous with time and always willing to offer a helping hand. I am confident that the people who mean the most to you could be described by our Lord Jesus as people who are willing to serve others.

We treasure such people because acts of service demonstrate love. By serving us in our need, these people have shown us that they love us. Maybe they never said the words. I don’t know about your cultural background, but the Germans I am descended from don’t really like to say "I love you" very much. A German would rather show his love by offering his hand to help fix a fence; a German would prefer to show her love by the offer of her shoulder as a place to lay your head and cry. Germans know that actions speak louder than words. Germans know that acts of service are nothing less than love expressed.

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus tells us that acts of service--acts of love--are what result in personal greatness. This is a message that our world can’t really understand. Even Jesus’ disciples, who by this point had been learning from Him for three years, didn’t understand it. Our world understands greatness in a way completely opposite from Jesus’ definition. The world defines greatness in terms of power. In Washington DC, a person is great if he holds influence in public office. The Speaker of the House is great; the President is greater. In Hollywood, a person is great if she is popular and good-looking. Reese Witherspoon is great; Angelina Jolie is greater. On Wall Street, a person is great if he is rich. Donald Trump is great; Bill Gates is greater.

This kind of human greatness is selfishness taken to an extreme. A politician does not get into national office without the work of thousands of supporters. A music or sports star is not popular unless thousands of people buy tickets to watch a performance. A tycoon only gets wealthy if the thousands of people employed by him work hard at making his business a success. Human greatness is built on backs of mankind. What is selfish about those who stand on the tops of these pyramids of success is that they tend to see their success as entirely their own, and they give comparatively little of the decision-making, recognition, or profit back to the people whose shoulders they are standing on. People who are great in the eyes of the world have influence and control over many, many people, and they enjoy using that power to make their own lives pleasant.

God does not value selfishness. Selfishness is about ‘me first’ and everyone else second—including God. Selfishness violates God’s First Commandment "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). People who prize highly things like power, fame or wealth have made those things their gods. People who pursue worldly greatness do so at the peril of their eternal home, because God sends those who worship false gods to hell.

Greatness in the sight of God is completely different. Saint John tells us that "God is love" (1 John 4:8). John isn’t talking about a passive love. John isn’t talking about an emotion that lives in the heart but never reaches out to take action. John is talking about an active love, a love that caused God to give His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Because God loved us, He was moved to an act of service on our behalf: God sent His beloved Son to live in human form and suffer the punishment that our sins deserved. Every one of us is by nature selfish; every one of us angers God over and over again by making our wants and desires our top priority, instead of making God and His other children our top priority. The sin of selfishness is punishable by eternal death in hell. But Jesus’ loving service to us lifted the death sentence from our souls. Jesus was executed as a criminal for our crimes. Jesus’ willing crucifixion for us was the ultimate act of love. The torment and death of the divine Son of God was such a powerful act of service that there is no longer any punishment found in the kingdom of heaven for those who ask the Son for mercy. No one has ever loved so much. No one has ever given so much. And because of this, no one has ever been greater in the kingdom of heaven.

Perfect love inevitably results in perfect service. Jesus loved perfectly, and He served perfectly. Jesus loved His Father perfectly. The Father decided that the way to save mankind from the death of sin was to allow Jesus to take our punishment in our place, because Jesus is greater than all our sins combined. Jesus loved His Father, so He was willing to suffer and die at His Father’s command. Jesus also loved us perfectly. Because of His love for us, Jesus was unwilling to see any sinful person sent to hell without the opportunity for forgiveness and mercy. So Jesus willingly suffered His Father’s terrible anger at our sins so that He could offer forgiveness and eternal life to all who trust in His power and care. Jesus loved and served His Father perfectly; He loved and served us perfectly.

Earlier I suggested that humans who consider themselves great are actually standing on the top of human pyramids, standing on the shoulders of others who have made their success possible. With Jesus, it is just the opposite. Jesus is the greatest because He has loved and served more than anyone else ever can. Jesus is the greatest, but He is beneath the pyramid of mankind. Picture a pyramid upside down, its point resting on one man—that man is the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Jesus’ act of loving service was to shoulder the burden of the entire world; there is no human success that does not ultimately rest on His love and care alone.

Salome and her sons James and John did not understand the cost of greatness in the kingdom of God. The sons of Zebedee desired fame and power, but through their mother they were really asking for a life of humble service. They were unknowingly asking for a career of service that would be despised and rejected by those who didn’t understand the nature of true greatness. They didn’t understand that the cup Jesus would drink would be filled with the poison of sin, a cup that would bring about Jesus’ death. They, too, would sip from this cup—James would be martyred for his faith and John would face exile. But by the time that they eventually did sip out of Jesus’ cup of suffering, they did so knowing that humble, sometimes painful, Christian service leads to glory in heaven. Jesus was their living proof, as He was raised in glory out of death into everlasting rulership in heaven.

For Jesus, loving service came first, glory came later. So it was for the sons of Zebedee; so it is for us. Jesus has called us to believe in Him, to submit to His leadership, to abandon our selfishness. Jesus has called us to love one another, to serve one another. Jesus wants us to be servants to each other; in this way all men will know that we are His disciples, because our love for one another will be evident. And the evidence of the love that Jesus has placed in our hearts will draw others to our Savior as well.

Who wants to be great? We all do. But heavenly greatness is a greatness of the future; for now, our Lord asks us to serve Him by serving one another. So let us serve in joy every day, looking forward to the time when Jesus tells us: "Well done, good and faithful servant! …Come and share your master's happiness!" (Matthew 25:21). May our Lord Jesus give you such a willing heart and the love of service in His name.