How To Become Great

Context: Shift on focus – teaching the disciples, avoiding crowds. Mark 9:30-32

Disciples arguing – who is greatest.

· Peter, James, and John had been taken up the mountain and the others left back.

· When they came down the other disciples were unable to cast out demon.

· Jesus keeps insisting he is going to die which would lead naturally to the question of leadership succession…

They are embarrassed and don’t respond. Why? Because like most people there is a substantial element of selfish ambition in their quest for greatness. But notice Jesus does not rebuke them for wanting to be great. Why not? Because they were created in the image of God and as image bearers they were designed for greatness. Wanting to be great is not the problem. Knowing what greatness is and knowing how to become great is the problem.

1. How the world sees it.

2. How Jesus sees it.

3. How to become great.

How the World Sees it.

· Getting familiar with terms.

o μέγας -ου, ὁ; (megas), adj., adv. great; loud.[1]

o Definition of great - of ability, quality, or eminence (fame, recognized superiority) considerably above the normal or average. To be great requires a comparison.

§ You cannot be above average unless someone is keeping score.

§ Everyone keeps score. Everyone.

· What are you measuring? Great at what? The twelve disciples are comparing stats as they follow Jesus, unaware that Jesus is very aware of their comparisons. It is a competition and the one who wins has the greater STATUS (did you catch that word in Tony’s video testimony?)

o I grew up wanting STATUS. “Are you going to be as tough as your old man?” I witnessed the respect and admiration my father received in my hometown for being a great athlete and I desired that same status, recognition, and prestige.

o How do you tend to measure your “greatness”? Bigger, faster, stronger, prettier, richer. More accolades, distinguished, accomplished, noticed, admired, more possessions, funniest, smartest.

· The problem – remember the principle of the zero-sum game from a sermon about a month or so ago? There are only so many apples to go around. If I am to be great (have all the apples), then someone else cannot be. If my greatness is determined by being the smartest than someone else who is smart becomes a threat. It’s about status. IN Disney’s Classic Snow White (1937) the Queen asks the enchanted mirror, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall who is the fairest of them all?” The enchanted mirror always replied, “you oh queen, are the fairest in the land.” But when Snow White came of age the queen became first runner up. She was not less beautiful than before but someone else was now fairer. So, it’s not about being great, it’s about being greater than everyone else.

o This understanding of greatness requires the one seeking it to acquire more (Tony’s Testimony - STATUS), become more, and build one’s self up, usually at the expense of taring others down, or minimally at the expense of not caring about building others up. The focus is by definition self. Get more stuff, money, fame, accomplishments, etc. You see people as a means to an end, the end being your own greatness.

§ How will this person add to my potential awesomeness?

§ How will associating with this person detract from me?

· Problem #2 – Most will never make it to the top, and those who do can’t stay there.

o Pastors often measure their worth by adoring parishioners…. What happens when they leave the church to attend the better church across town that has better music, better preaching, better programs, and is well, just better?

o Choose your scenario. What is your measurement for greatness. You have one, or you have many…. Why, because we all want to be great.

Jesus’ View of Greatness

· Greatness is NOT the problem. Jesus does not rebuke the disciples for wanting to be great. This is important. You are hardwired to be great, not meaning that you are hard wired to be better than anyone else at any given thing, but that you are created for a God given purpose. That’s what it means to be GREAT.

o Genesis 1:26-31 Creation of man. He declared it was VERY good.

o Luke 7:28 I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

o John 14:12–14 (ESV) 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

· Mark 9:35-37

o What greatness is not about. Not about status! He takes up a child (no status).

o Is about service. Not a zero-sum game. See this again in Mark 10:35-45 with the request of James and John. Use what I have given you to make others great.

§ But what if they surpass me? That’s only bad if life is a zero-sum game.

§ CS Lewis – The Great Divorce. ‘Aye. She is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.’ And who are all these young men and women on each side?’ ‘They are her sons and daughters.’ ‘She must have had a very large family, Sir.’ ‘Every young man or boy that met her became her son—even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter.’ ‘Isn’t that a bit hard on their own parents?’ ‘No. There are those that steal other people’s children. But her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more. Few men looked on her without becoming, in a certain fashion, her lovers. But it was the kind of love that made them not less true, but truer, to their own wives.’ Page 105-106 The Great Divorce. CS Lewis

How to become Great.

· A que from John the Baptist. John 3:25–30 (ESV)25 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. 26And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” 27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 29The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

· John had found his joy not in baptizing, but in pointing people to Jesus.

1. Come to Jesus

2. Find your identity in Jesus

3. Decrease and let him increase.

36–37 The use of a child as a teaching aid, both here and with a slightly different introduction in Mt. 18:1–5, has explicitly (in terms of its context) to do with status, not with any character traits supposedly typical of children. The child represents the lowest order in the social scale, the one who is under the authority and care of others and who has not yet achieved the right of self-determination. To ‘become like a child’ (Mt. 18:3) is to forgo status and to accept the lowest place, to be a ‘little one’ (Mt. 18:6, 10, 14; 10:42). Mark does not use the same terms as Matthew, but the latter’s fuller version rightly draws out the implications of Mark’s child analogy. In this pericope there is no call (as in Matthew) to become like a child (that will follow in 10:15), but rather the injunction to ‘receive’ the child, to reverse the conventional value-scale by according importance to the unimportant.[2]

Exorcism has been a prominent feature of the ministry both of Jesus and of his disciples, and from 3:14–15; 6:7, 13 it would seem that it is a special feature of the authority given to the Twelve. To find the practice carried out in the name of Jesus by someone unknown to them is therefore a severe blow to the disciples’ sense of identity, and undermines their special status[3]

[1]Brannan, R., ed. (2020). In Lexham Research Lexicon of the Greek New Testament. Lexham Press. [2]France, R. T. (2002). The Gospel of Mark: a commentary on the Greek text (p. 374). W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press. [3]France, R. T. (2002). The Gospel of Mark: a commentary on the Greek text (p. 376). W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press.