Text: Mark 10.35-45
This past weekend Pastor Jeff Manion spoke with us about Jesus’ definition of greatness, a definition that runs completely opposite from what we encounter in our culture every day. What we see on T.V. or read about on the web is that greatness is the achievement of power, wealth, popularity, or skill. While those achievements are not inherently bad, they aren’t how Jesus defines greatness.
Jesus’ disciples struggled with this too. Believing Jesus to be the coming King (which he is), they were already posturing themselves to procure positions of “greatness.” They wanted the best seat in the house and were making plans to obtain it.
To be honest, this way of seeing greatness is as old as humanity and one with which we still struggle today. We’re constantly looking at how we can separate ourselves from the rest of the pack. We want greatness and everything in our culture is telling us to leverage self-promotion and self-realization to get it. Jesus’ definition couldn’t be more contrary.
While we’re going to explore Jesus’ definition in the coming days, take a few moments at the beginning of this week to consider how we “naturally” define greatness. Write out a simple definition of greatness from the perspective of modern, secular culture. Attempt to see how you’ve adopted this definition of greatness in different areas of your life. As you identify places where you’ve adopted a “worldly” greatness, ask God to give you his heart that you might be great in his eyes and in his Kingdom.
