Who’s the greatest? At different times we’ve all asked that question. Perhaps it was in the playground as a child, perhaps it was on a sports field or court, perhaps it’s when vying with another for the romantic affections of a stunning person. We like to compare ourselves to others and we like to win. As I write this (on Sunday 20th) we can see all over the world the need of groups of people, governments, faith communities, nations to prove that their cause is right and just, that they deserve to win, to take a lead. It might be due to greed, a perceived call of god, or even fear of what will happen if another is allowed to lead (and there are a lot of other reasons people seek to raise themselves over another which I haven’t mentioned here). Of course the ultimate, sad irony of it all is that being the “greatest” in our culture is only fleeting, transitory. What is on top one moment, say a football team, a pop song or a political party, is in the gutter the next. We take great delight in bringing the “other” down, I think humans always have.
This is something which even the disciples of Jesus indulged in, so it seems it’s human nature. As they’re feeling pretty good about themselves, having ministered powerfully in the name of Jesus (exercising the authority we were talking about earlier this week) an argument amongst them ensues. They want to know which of them is the best. And look at the answer of Jesus!
“Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them,“Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.””
The child here symbolises one who is not worth much. Certainly, it is not the answer the disciples were expecting, just as it isn’t the answer our society expects in asking the same question. Will we walk alongside those who are the least, living on the same level as them, not out of charity or sympathy, fear even, but out of the knowledge that they are worth just as much as we are? Will we seek to make ourselves the least, like Paul did in Corinth, so that he might win some of the people of the city for Christ? All our puffed up notions of ourselves and our own importance can be blown apart in a single second. If it doesn’t happen in this life, I imagine it most certainly will as we stand before God to give account for what we have done with the gift of life which we have been given. It might not be cool, but wouldn’t it be great to be known in the places in which we lived as ones who were so humble, so little about ourselves, that we let nothing hinder the shining out of the love of God and its impact on those we meet? Our world might run on a different system, but I believe this is the economy of the age to come. It would do us no harm to start, or return to, trading in its currency today.