(Text and Audio)
Title: Who is the Greatest?
Luke 9:46–48 (NASB95)
46 An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest.
47 But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side,
48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.”
Introduction story
My sister came to town many years ago. She was visiting one of the families in the church for dinner. During the evening, one of the individuals began to explain to my sister how only four of the families in the church was walking with the Lord. This person explained that no one else was spiritual.
My sister retold the incident to me. She laughed and said to me, I guess that your public work in the church isn’t evidence of anything. I chuckled, shook my head, and told her how the same person told me almost the same thing when I first arrived at the church.
I wonder what measure she was using to divide people into categories. I can only imagine what true motives were at work in her heart to instigate such thoughts.
The text today is one piece of four neatly arranged layers that teach us important truths for our discipleship mission.
- There is a spirit realm that permeates every layer of our world. The only weapons for us are faith and prayer. (Paul expands this in Ephesians 6)
- We have an immediate layer that includes the local church and our small groups.
- The next layer out is other churches, missions, and religious groups.
- Finally, the outer layer is the world of unbelievers.
In each layer
Luke 9:46 An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest.
They were disputing who had the highest status.
Did your children ever do that?
Did you ever do that?
Have you considered that it started with the image of God in you?
You are designed to discern, judge, measure, and evaluate the world around you.
That’s good and it’s normal.
The problem is we’re all broken, selfish, proud rebels. Our desires and cravings tempt us, and we use a godly attribute for evil.
Quote:
…greatness in Christ’s kingdom contradicts natural human aspirations and cultural standards.
James, John, and the other disciples were pursuing models of leadership, greatness, and even service that reflected the value system of their culture.
John Hutchison
Notice what Hutchison says.
Following Jesus is the antithesis of our natural human aspirations. (selfish desires) On top of the desires and cravings that motivate us, our culture seeks to conform us to its standards.
What did the value system look like in the 1st century?
The Romans were remarkably creative in devising ways to publicly proclaim and reinforce the social hierarchy. Clothing, occupations, seating at spectacles and banquets, and the legal system all served to remind the empire’s residents of their respective positions in the pecking order of society.… All such practices served the ultimate design of reinforcing the values of elite society.
Joseph Hellerman
When the dominant, Greco-Roman culture held a group like the Jews in contempt the effect was a constant pressure on individual Jews to give up their Jewishness and join in those behaviors that would be greeted as honorable by the members of the dominant culture.
David DeSilva
The culture is like a stamping machine.
Illustration: LUK clutch hammers
The Greco-Roman culture had stamped the Jewish world into its mold. It isn’t difficult to get people to become something when you use a mass of people to instigate and shape the individual. It’s no wonder the Apostle would write: Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
So how does it stamp us? How is the hammer shaping us?
Darrell Bock writes: …we often like to make distinctions, such as between the lovely and the unlovely, between gifted and the problem people, between important people and the rest of humanity.
We might choose the beautiful, the wealthy, the intelligent, the well-educated, the gifted, the social, the athletic, etc.
We might do a reverse bias. We might be against the intelligent or educated – that’s not uncommon in blue collar culture.
Such an evil is a poison to a local church, to a small group, to a disciple.
Heed the Lord’s words, Matthew 23:12 “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.
To combat the worldly culture and the selfish impulse of the disciples, Jesus stands a child next to himself.
Luke 9:47–48 (NASB95)
47 But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side,
48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.”
Children were insignificant. They had nothing to offer. They were vulnerable. They were weak.
Jesus tells his disciples to receive a child.
Not a rich man, not a religious ruler, but you receive a valueless child.
Jesus just turned the world upside down.
He just made the child great. He just made the weak, great!
While the disciples think they’re climbing up the hill of greatness, they discover they’re clawing down into the hole of valueless in God’s kingdom.
Darrell Bock writes: When the least is the greatest, all are great and the search for greatness becomes unnecessary.
Or to put this in another way, let me quote another great thinker:
If everyone’s super, then no one will be super.
Syndrome
The point is that we’re all made in the image of God. We all have the same worth and value.
So if you’re tempted to be like the disciples, or to be like the person my sister met, then beware. There’s no greatness in the hole you dig.
Consider the spirit of this story. In principle it reminds us of the attitudes and actions that believers are called to live every day.
These events took place in September of 2019.
When a freshman was being bullied for wearing the same clothes to school, day after day, a couple classmates stepped in to help.
Michael Todd has been bullied his entire life for wearing the same clothes over and over again.
“I really don’t have clothes at home. My mom can’t buy clothes for me because I’m growing too fast.”
Other students at MLK College Preparatory School didn’t understand, and straight up bullied Michael.
One day, during third period, Michael was taken out of class and met with a truly kind-hearted and blessed surprise.
Two of the football players at the Memphis-area high school, Kristopher Graham and Antwan Garrett, handed Michael a gift.
Inside the gift were bags full of shirts, shorts and shoes.
Michael told a Memphis news outlet that it was “the best day of my entire life basically.”
Of the gift giving moment, Kristopher said, “He wasn’t smiling or anything and I was like, ‘I think this is going to make you smile.’ I told him, ‘we’re in the same third period and I apologize for laughing at you and I want to give something to you to make it up.’”
After Kristopher realized what Michael was going through, and how others would laugh at him and bully him, he knew he had to do something, so the teen went through his own closet and grabbed a bunch of clothes before texting his friend Antwan to hit up his closet and do the same.
Kristpher also shared, “And then I cried at lunch when he said, ‘you two are the only ones to give me a gift.”
Michael told his kind-hearted new friends, “You guys are the best guys of my entire life.”
Look around. We’re all equals. We all have the same mission. Together, the grace of God will glorify his name.
Use these questions for your small group studies together.
- You can discern, judge, and evaluate. In what ways do you most struggle to emulate the character of Christ with those abilities?
- Have you ever received (developed a relationship with) the undesirable?
- How do the following passages inform our tendency to climb the ladder at the expense of others; show partiality; or turn our backs?
Matthew 23:12; Mark 10:13–16; John 13:14–17; 1 Corinthians 1:30–31; James 2:1–10
Any questions?