God wants us to be great. Why would a devoted follower of Jesus want to be great? Shouldn’t our focus be to make the world see Jesus as great? Yet God does want us to be great and told His disciples exactly how to get there.
Our celebrities are lauded for their accomplishments and pursue the best in every aspect of life. Like the Pharisees of old, they push to be first, being announced and preferred wherever they go. Few expect to receive abuse and rejection. Yet Jesus taught His disciples about greatness while asking them to remember that He would be killed but raised to life on the third day.
In reading Mark’s account of Jesus’ conversation with His disciples concerning greatness and His coming death and resurrection, we learn that the disciples didn’t understand what He meant. I wonder if they were confused about the logistics or if their perception of greatness was so carnal that they couldn’t understand why this would be the Father’s plan. Instead of pushing Jesus to clarify, they turned their focus to arguing about who would be greatest in the kind of kingdom they expected. Possibly, a kingdom where Jesus used the power they had witnessed to overthrow the Romans and restore Israel to a glorious reign—like in the days of His ancestor David. When this happened, the disciples wanted to know which one of them would be the greatest. Jesus knew their thoughts and addressed the issue by explaining God’s plan for greatness.
I’ve always read this to mean, if any person fought to be first, they would be forced by God to be last. We may find multiple scriptures about the Lord humbling the proud. However, Jesus was answering their question directly. The greatest of you will be the person who positions himself as last. Jesus strengthen this truth with an illustration.
The disciples were vying for position in Jesus’ kingdom, but he used a child who they would understand to have the least presumption and capacity to direct himself, as the greatest. In fact, Jesus says they wouldn’t even be able to enter His kingdom without this level of humility. Mark’s account helps us to understand that Jesus wanted to shift the disciples perspective to God’s plan for kingdom greatness.
Glory in the Kingdom of God is about helping people to receive the Father. We do this by becoming like children in our humility and reception of Jesus. When we go to the world in this manner and are received, they may receive Jesus who restores their access to the Father. We know that this restoration is necessary for us all as descendants of Adam. Our access to the Father was altered by his disobedience to the Father in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Jesus says that when we receive Him, we receive a restored relationship with the Father. While the cares of this world tries to pull us from this focus, our pursuit of greatness must be powered by seeing the world receive right relationship with the Father through Jesus.