This sermon was preached on Sunday 22nd September 2024 at St Peter and St Paul, Langham.
Bible Reading: Mark 9:30-37
Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, who is the greatest? Or look at a different context. Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic in tennis. Or Messi or Ronaldo in football. Who is the GOAT? – greatest of all time. It’s a question that we like to debate with our friends, particularly when we are sat over a cup of coffee or maybe a pint. These debates relate more to my interests. But you might debate the best architects, singers, actors, restaurants, or whatever takes your fancy. Perhaps you debate who is the greatest disciple, Peter, James, John, or another. I know that is a particularly niche debate, but it was a debate the twelve disciples were having in our bible reading today.
The disciples were arguing on the road with each other, like kids in the backseat of a road trip. Then, when they had all reached their destination, a house in Capernaum, Jesus asked what the disciples had been arguing about, making all that noise as they were walking. The disciples went quiet. None of them wanted to admit that they had debated which of them was the greatest. In some ways, it’s only natural that they were arguing about this. As we said at the start, people love to argue about these things, and if it’s about us, we love to come out on top, regardless of how competitive we are. Who is the best cook? Who is the funniest? Who drives the best? We can lap that stuff up.
But doing all of this also sounds ridiculous. Do you argue with your friends about who is the best? Kids, do you argue with your siblings about who is the best child? What do you think your parents will say about this if you try doing that? They are going to tell you off. They will say, why are you doing this? That isn’t nice, and it certainly isn’t going to help you get along with people.
If you think back to the story of Joseph and his brothers, when Joseph tells his brothers about his dream and how his brothers and family members will all bow down before him, none of them are particularly pleased. They all complain about Joseph, and his dad, Jacob, gives him a right telling off. Nobody responds well to someone boasting about being the greatest. And the same goes for the disciples. As they fight amongst one another about who is the greatest, they will only make each of them increasingly annoyed.
But the disciples aren’t just arguing about who is the greatest in terms of looks, or intelligence, or humour. They are debating about who is the best disciple. Well, how do you measure that? We know that to be a disciple is to follow Jesus and to live like Jesus. So, it would follow that to be a good disciple, one must be really good at following Jesus and living like him. However, there is no score chart measuring evangelism, charity work, and Christlikeness. Being the fastest 100m runner has a very clear way of measuring who is the greatest, but how would you know that you were the greatest disciple?
Well, thankfully, Jesus had an answer for his disciples. He sits them down and says to them, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all.’[1] That is, anyone who wants to be first, or the greatest, or considered number one must put everyone else ahead of themselves and serve them. When someone is the greatest at something, we give them praise and adoration, and we celebrate how good they are. And this is fair enough; they are greater than all others in their field and, therefore, are held up as better than all others. This is very normal in life. We bestow great respect on those we consider greats in our society, from politics to arts to science. Everything. Likewise, it would be logical to do the same with Jesus. He is the Son of God, the embodiment of the perfect human being, and I mean that literally. It would only be right to hold Jesus up as someone worthy of praise, glory and respect.
However, although Jesus is the most deserving of this kind of adoration, he does not allow himself to be treated this way. Jesus instead came to this earth to do the opposite. Not to be served, but to serve. Jesus came to make himself the least, to go and endure the death of a criminal so that he could put our lives ahead of his. Why? Because Jesus loves us. Therefore, to be like Jesus is to love others above yourself and put them first. When we humble ourselves and put others ahead of us, then we are being most like Jesus. This is what it would mean to be the greatest and best disciple. Loving others more than ourselves. Choosing humility over greatness.
For those of us who have been around church for a long time, we can become immune to how counter-cultural this can be. Ask yourself this: who would you roll out a red carpet for? Maybe a king or queen, perhaps a politician, maybe a celebrity. But generally, you would reserve a red carpet for someone important. Would you roll out the red carpet for the scruffy children in the park? Probably not. They’re kids. They haven’t done anything to make them important. But Jesus says that when we welcome little children, put them first and hold them as important, then we are being like Jesus.
To be a great follower of Jesus isn’t about becoming rich or powerful. It’s about being humble enough to consider little children the most important and wonderful people. This goes against everything the world tells us, and it was the same for the disciples. To them, being the greatest disciple would have been about how amazing they were as teachers, preachers, evangelists, and miracle workers. It was about who had the most status. It was all about being more than others. However, to be a follower of Jesus is to be counter-cultural to the world. Jesus was all about making himself less, lowering himself to put others first and hold them up as of greater worth. Jesus did this even though he was the Son of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. When we follow Jesus’ example and humble ourselves, then we are being great disciples.
I don’t know about you, but I find this a challenge. It’s so easy to make being a disciple and a Christian all about how I can be the “best” Christian. We all do it. We talk about wanting to be a better Christian, and for us, this often means more prayer, more Bible knowledge, more serving, more giving, etc. We can give ourselves a pat on the back, saying, look at me being more ‘Christian’ than those other Christians, if we can even call them that. But this is wrong.
As Christians, as disciples and followers of Jesus, in order for us to grow in our Christlikeness and how well we follow Jesus, our focus needs to be on less, not more. It’s about less of us, and more of Jesus. It’s about less pride in being a ‘good Christian’ and more desire to boast in Christ at work in our lives. It’s about humbling ourselves to treat those overlooked in society, the little children who we literally look over. When we take these little children and others into our arms (metaphorically speaking for the most part), then we see them and value them with the same love that Jesus does.
I hope that all of us here want to be good at following Jesus. But remember, Jesus’ own example leads us to choose less over more, to choose to serve, not to be served, and to lay down our status and pride to put others first. Are we doing that? Do we humble ourselves to welcome the least of society like Jesus welcomed the children? Or do we tell the children to sit down and be quiet so we can get on with doing our good and proper church service? I love seeing the kids serve today in our service, because it visibly shows and reminds us that church isn’t for those who are the greatest and most respected, but it’s for the least of these and in the unexpected. Jesus is found with the least of society. So, if we are to become better disciples, we too must humble ourselves and join Jesus with the least, treating them as great.
Jesus said, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.’[2] Are you choosing to be first or last? It’s okay if we find it hard and need to challenge ourselves about it. That’s what church and community faith are all about. But if we are to be good at following Jesus, we must share in his love and humility. This is the greatest act of Christlikeness.
Amen.
[1] Mark 9:35 [NIV].
[2] Mark 9:35 [NIV].
Shakeel Nurmahi 