Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35).Jesus came as a servant. Philippians 2 tells us that. And since he came as a servant, he calls on us, his followers to be a servant.
It is easy to try to jockey for position in any organization. That is pretty much normal. People want to be president and vice-president and leaders of all kinds.
The problems come when the desire to help in the organization, the desire to serve, to make a difference, takes a back seat to the desire for prominence.
The need for the badge is often greater than the need for the service.
As a Christian, though, we serve a servant. We are servant servers, assistant servants, if you will. We are, in the long run, far below one who came as a servant.
The context of the passage above is funny.
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. 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.” He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, “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.” (9:33-37)It wasn’t very long before this that Jesus had been transfigured before Peter, James and John. They had seen him in his glory appearing with Moses and Elijah. They had heard the voice of God say that Jesus was the one they were to worship. They had seen his power and his glory.
Then they started arguing. It could be that the other apostles were jealous of Peter, James and John. They would like to have seen it and it could very well be that the three bragged about it or at least hinted that it put them in a stronger spiritual state.
That happens a lot among church leaders. One has some kind of experience and the rest wish they did. Or one is a natural leader and another wishes he could be. Or one is the pastor of a church and another wishes he could be in charge. One is more spiritual and another wishes he cold be recognized as the spiritual one.
After a while, the desire to be in charge is so great that the one who wishes he was in charge will tear up the group rather than accept the leadership of the other.
Jesus turns to the apostles and asks what they were arguing about. They are too embarrassed to say because they realize they were acting like fools. Jesus pulls a child in front of them. They had a lot of people following Jesus besides the apostles. He says that you have to be like a child to be in the kingdom as a leader.
On the last day of his life with the apostles, they are having dinner. Jesus gets up and goes around washing the apostles’ feet, doing what is normally a servant task. When he finishes he tells them that they call him Lord, yet he is the servant.
To follow him, we put aside all desire for prominence and glory in position and we serve.
Position in the kingdom is not determined by position in the church. He is King and Lord and Leader. Before we can do anything of any real importance, we must first recognize that we are servants of a Servant.
He is the One who makes us great.
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