Who Is the Greatest?

Isaiah 53:7-12; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 10:35-45

I believe that it was back in the early '60's that a man by the name of Caseous Clay, after his defeat of Sonny Liston for the heavyweight boxing championship of the world, had the gall and audacity to break with tradition and loudly proclaim that he was the greatest. Up until that time victorious athletes usually waited for other persons to call them great, rather than make such a claim on their own. But Caseous Clay, the man who became known as Mohammed Ali, was a different sort of person. Today, however, his drive for greatness leaves him seriously brain damaged and barely able to walk or talk. So, indeed, there is often a price to pay for greatness, whether you make it on your own, or get some help in some way.

I imagine that after Caseous Clay proclaimed himself to be the greatest many a preacher probably had something to say about it, especially those who preached on the text of today's gospel lesson. For Jesus told his disciples: Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Servanthood, you see, is something that most Americans are unfamiliar with. Few of us would consider ourselves servants of anybody. We don't mind being called employees, but none of us would probably like to be called servants of whoever it is that we may work for, in spite of the fact that some of us sitting here today are civil servants. Perhaps that is because we generally think of a servant as being a person who works a lot more hours than other persons, for a lot less money.

And, in the time of Christ, this was generally true. A servant was a person who's loyalty was first and foremost to his or her master. If you got paid, it was merely something to cover your expenses. Thus, as a servant, you were never able to save money to buy anything.

So, in Jesus' day, the persons who had the lowest jobs on the list of jobs were those who worked as servants. And household servants were probably the ones who had it the worst. For they were the ones who had to do the washing, the cooking, the cleaning, the sanitary chores, the shopping, and all of the little things that were taken for granted, as long as they were done, but noticed very quickly, and punished for, if they were left undone. If a person had a job like that, they were considered to be the least of the people in society.

And, yet, astonishing, this is what Jesus told his disciples that they had to be for one another if they were to be great in the Kingdom of God. And this was in line with many of the other great teachings of Jesus, teachings which tended to turn the world upside-down, teachings like love your enemy, when the natural tendency is to hate your enemy; or to walk two miles even if you only have to go one mile; or, even if you only have to give your coat to someone, Jesus said to give your shirt, as well. As far as Jesus was concerned, these are the kind of things that you have to do if you are going to be great in the eyes of God.

It is interesting that in the early church those who did the work of servants for the early church were called diákonois. These were the persons who had the job of making sure the meeting place was clean, that there was food for the worship service, that there would be lights and heat. But, more than this, these diákonois were also the persons who often assisted the church leaders in their calling upon the sick and shut-ins and attended to the needs of the poor, the widows and orphans. With time, the most humble of these diákonois, or deacons, as we call them today, became great within the life of the church. One of them, St. Stephen, became the first Christian martyr. And another of them, Tabitha, mentioned by the apostle Paul, was dearly loved and revered by the persons she served.

But, what sort of deacons are we? How do we measure up to the kind of servanthood that Christ calls us to do? I am always astounded by those of you in this congregation who do things for the life of this church without being asked, without even seeking and often refusing recognition for doing it, often at a sacrifice, often going to greater lengths of service than would be expected. Certainly, this is the kind of servant that Jesus was talking about when he told his disciples to be servants of one another.

Or, we can cite the example of those who put their time serving the needs of the Family Development Center, one of the ministries of this church for parents and their children. We have persons who give every Wednesday afternoon to rocking babies, folding clothing, helping with food and other educational activities, and all sorts of things that none of us may be aware of unless we actually spent some time down there, ourselves. And we continue to need ser vants, deacons, if you will, who will gladly go the extra mile for that very important ministry of this church, the Family Development Center, which meets here every Wednesday afternoon. If you want to serve, just show up. If you wouldn't mind aspiring to greatness, be willing to serve, be willing to be the least of all.

There is the story told of a boy who worked for a Scottish cobbler who was a Christian. The man posted Bible verses all over the shop so that everywhere one looked, he or she would see the Word of God. No package went out to a customer without a tract or a word of testimony, and many persons would come back thanking the cobbler for offering what resulted in their giving their hearts to Jesus.

One of the boy's jobs in the cobbler shop was to pound leather for shoe soles. A piece of cowhide was cut to size, soaked in water, and pounded until it was hard and dry. After endless poundings, the boy would get very tired.

One day, while visiting another cobbler shop, the boy noticed that the cobbler in that shop was not pounding the water out, but was nailing the soles on while still wet. When asked why he did it this way, the cobbler replied, "So the shoes will come back sooner for re-soling."

Going back to his own shot, the boy asked the Christian cobbler about this, and he told the boy, "I do not cobble for the money I get from the customers. I do it for the glory of God. In heaven, I expect every shoe that I make to be returned to me in a big pile, and I don't want the Lord to say, "Dan, that was a poor job. You did not do your best."

Perhaps this is a good lesson for us to think about. God calls us all to be servants and even gives us many opportunities by which to serve. Maybe it would do us well to look at it much like that cobbler did. When we get to heaven, the things which we did for Jesus, as they are laid at our feet -- how big will the pile be? And what will the Lord say to us about it, "That was a poor job? You did not do your best?" Or, "Well done, good and faithful servant?"

In the Louvre, in Paris there is a famous painting by Murillo. It is entitled "The Miracle of San Diego." A door opens, and two noblemen and a priest enter a kitchen. They are amazed to find that all the kitchen-maids are angels. One is handling a water-pot, another a large piece of meat, a third a basket of vegetables, a fourth is tending the fire. The message of the picture is that no labor is beneath our dignity, or unworthy of our efforts, unless we make it so. After all, Jesus Christ Himself toiled in a workshop and died upon the cross for us. Amen.