“And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you discussing on the way?’ But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, ‘If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.’” Mark 9:33-35
Introduction:
The famous Reformer, Martin Luther, once said, “Until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him.” So many people today are caught up in the “status quo.” They are too concerned with their position in life and making a name for themselves. At the root of this is pride. It is pride plain and simple. I’m not talking about those who want to work hard and take care of their needs and prepare for their futures. I’m referring to those who seek positions for stature and fueling their sense of self worth. You know the type, they seek power for nothing less than feeling powerful. This is the type of pride I’m speaking of. We can be proud without being prideful. Even the 12 disciples faced this temptation, but Jesus refused to let their “stinkin’ thinkin’” go unchecked. Let’s take a look at just a few insights this passage gives us.
Insights:
First, Jesus knows our thoughts. Jesus knew what was going on among the disciples, He knew what they were thinking. We read in the Bible that God sees and hears what is done in secret. This isn’t told to us to instill fear or dread. Scripture tells us this so we will fight our urge for recognition (and other things) in obedience to the ways of God. He wants us to walk righteously, and not because He’s legalistic, it’s for our own benefit. As we’ve all heard, “Pride cometh before a fall.”
Second, Jesus cares about our motives. Nothing we do should come from a place of selfish ambition. We should act in a way as to humble ourselves and to glorify God. Selfishness is also a sign of pride.
Third, Jesus decides our position by our attitude. The key to this is to have a servant’s heart. We all need to follow Christ’s example and be a servant of man (humanity). We all need to take the position in our hearts as “feet washers” (so to speak) as Jesus did. Not necessarily literally, but a humble heart is a heart God desires to use.
Confession:
We are all guilty of pride. All of us have wanted to look good in front of our peers, or even strangers. I’m certainly no exception. What immediately comes to mind is my martial arts and fighting background. I hold differing degrees of belt levels in various styles of martial arts.
In a couple of the dojos, or karate schools, I trained in I reached the point where I was the top student. I was proud of this accomplishment but I did not think I was prideful. That was until I had my first full on, full contact tournament. I entered the ring very confident in my abilities. Well, the referee gave the command to start fighting and before I knew what happened my opponent had made his way across the ring and immediately proceeded to smash me directly in the face causing blood to gush out of my nose and nearly breaking it. At that precise moment, well after the initial shock wore off, I realized I had not been proud of my accomplishments so far, I had been prideful.
That was a very humbling experience. I lost, no contest. He beat me good. However, once I changed my attitude to one of humility, to one of knowing there are many others out there far better than I, a strange thing began to happen. I intensified my training and learned from that experience. The pride of it all left me. With God’s help I was able to continue on in the arts and procured a record of 63-6-1. This is not a statement from a place of pride, I mention it to show what can be accomplished when one’s motives are in check.
Conclusion:
When we look at the teachings of Jesus we see that the vast majority of the time He appeared to teach the unexpected. It seems He enjoyed getting His point across by teaching the ironic or the unimaginable. His teachings seemed to be upside down from how mankind tends to think. This is true as He taught about our position in life also, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” If we don’t like this teaching, if it makes us uncomfortable, then we know very little of what greatness means in the eyes of God.*
*Portions of this article were adapted from Nelson’s Annual Preacher’s Sourcebook, 2003. “Just Great” by Drew Wilkerson
Featured Image: I got the right to be cocky… by AndYaDontStop; CC 2.0
