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G.O.A.T
John Madden passed away last week on December 28, 2021.
He was the coach of the Oakland Raiders in 19070’s.
He never had a loosing season and he won the 1976 Super Bowl over the Minnesota Vikings.
He went on to have a distinguished career as a sports broadcaster and was known for his personality and quotes.
He has a quote that sums up well what our society sees as greatness.
John Madden says,
"The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion.
No one remembers anything else." - John Madden
Great people achieve great things, like championships.
Greatness is defined in our culture by success.
The more success you have the greater the greatness admired.
Last week I gave you a slew of examples of people who are admired for their greatness in sports, politics, science and literature.
People such as Tom Brady, Nelson Mandela, Ernest Hemingway, and Nikola Tesla.
This is the lens by which Americans, even Westerners in general, look at greatness in the world.
Is it wrong to desire to be great?”
No one gets up in the morning with the goal to be mediocre.
I don’t know a parent who says to their child in the morning when they go to school, “make it mediocre today, Richard.”
It seems to be wired in human nature to want greatness.
Greatness brings with it glory, and we love glory.
We love seeing it and being in the presence of it.
Think about why we are so obsessed with sports.
Sports bring a degree of glory.
Think about it:
The Miracle on Ice.
February 22, 1980, a hodgepodge of college hockey players beat the Soviet Union 4-3 in the semi final game.
It was unthinkable for the U.S to win that game.
The win was so glorious that it united a broken country.
A few years earlier on November 19, 1978, there was the Miracle at he Meadowlands.
The New York Giants were ready to seal the game in the fourth quarter.
All Joe Pisarcik had to do was take the snap and fall on the ground.
(The kneel down was not instituted until 1987.)
Instead the call was a handoff to Larry Csonka.
Pisarcik fumbled the snap and Herm Edwards of the Philadelphia Eagles picked up the snap and ran 26 yards for the winning touchdown as time ran out.
Unthinkable and glorious.
Many years later in an interview with ESPN in 2020, Herm Edwards said this of the play,
“It's almost surreal in the fact that you're part of a play that, at that point in time ... you don't know the magnitude of it," Edwards said.
"I mean, this thing happened in 1978 and people still talk about it."
Greatness brings glory and glory is remembered and admired.
It makes sense then why the disciples were eager to be great.
Greatness is the context of Mark 10:35-45.
James and John want to be great and so they ask Jesus to sit at his right and left in his Kingdom.
Jesus does not rebuke their desire to be great.
It is not a sin to want greatness or experience glory.
Heaven will be filled with greatness and glory for all eternity.
What Jesus does instead is reorient their hearts toward what it means to be great in the eyes of God.
What does it mean to be great in the kingdom of God?
What does it look like to be great in the kingdom of God?
Jesus says it is nothing like the Gentiles.
In other words, being great in the kingdom of God is not based on success or achievements or underdogs prevailing.
Being great is not about lording your power and position over people.
Being great in God’s eyes is about the first choosing to be last, the highest choosing to be lowest, the master choosing to be the servant.
Jesus turns greatness on its head.
Being great is not about being first or the best.
Its about making others first or the best.
Jesus doubles down on his teaching on greatness with an example from his own life and ministry.
He says,
The word “for” indicates the reason for the rule.
Jesus did not exempt himself from his teaching.
he was not a “do as I say, not as I do” kind of teacher.
Jesus is the greatest example of greatness for us, and his example is being a servant.
Jesus is more than example in our text.
he is not just saying follow my example.
He boldly tells you, “I did not come to be served, but to serve you.”
How does Jesus serve you?
Paul gives a great summary in the second chapter of Philippians of how Jesus serves you.
Paul encourages the Philippians to have the mind ofJesus toward each other.
he then explains what that looks like.
Jesus serves you by emptying himself, taking the form of a servant, putting on human flesh, humbled himself to die on a cross, so that you and I can have abundant life now and for all eternity.
Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection revolved around glorifying the Father by serving you and I and loving you with ransom love.
I say ransom because the that is the world Jesus uses in Mark 10:45.
Jesus gave his life as a ransom.
Ransom refers to His atonement, the blood he shed for your sin. it is the substitutionary sacrifice he made on your behalf, taking your sin and giving you his righteousness so that you can be justified before the Father.
he redeemed you from the bondage of sin and death.
You were bought with the price of his blood.
The old is gone and the new has come.
Jesus’s service is not a one and done deal. he continues to serve you. he empowers you to live in the kingdom of God while you are still on earth.
He empowers you to serve others the way he serves you.
You can do nothing for the kingdom of God apart from his power.
Think about what James and John were asking Jesus?
Can we sit at your left and right hand in your glory?
The glory they refer to is Jesus bitter cup and baptism.
The cup is God’s with poured out Jesus.
His baptism is his suffering for sinners.
To sit at his left and right hand is to suffer for the kingdom of God.
They have no idea what they are asking.
Furthermore, at that moment, they do not have the power to suffer for God’s kingdom, to empty themselves out for the sake of others.
Jesus makes it cleat to everyone of us.
You cannot be great in the kingdom of God apart from Jesus.
You cannot serve your church, community, and home apart from Jesus.
You cannot drink his cup or immerse yourself in his baptism apart from Jesus.
Jesus is the vine.
You are the branch.
If you bear fruit it is because he empowers you to bear fruit.
Apart from Him you can do nothing.
Jesus must serve you every minute of your life if you are to bear fruit for His kingdom.
Jesus does not want you top serve him.
He wants to serve you so that you can serve others.
The Christian faith is about trusting Jesus with everything.
You abide in Him, and he works in you and through you and for you for all of your earthly life and eternal life.
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