PrintToday's "Moment with Mark" (61)
21 January, 2013
"What were you discussing out on the road?" But they didn't answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. He sat down and called the twelve disciples over to him. Then he said, "Anyone who wants to be the first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else." (Mark 9:33-35 NLT)
How embarrassing !! The question must have created some red faces. For some time now, Jesus had been teaching them about His sacrificial death that awaited Him in Jerusalem. When He asked the disciples this penetrating question they knew that He already knew the answer. There was no hiding behind evasive answers. For the last however-many-months He had been teaching servanthood. Their interest however was in being great in the eyes of others.
When the Kingdom of God comes powerfully into a person's life, it turns everything up-side down. (Actually, it turns everything right side up. We were already upside down!). It is what I call "The Great Reversal". The Kingdom of darkness is the very opposite of the Kingdom of God in every way. Jesus gives us an example right here with His disciples. Their view of greatness was the opposite of His. They thought in terms of human praise, recognition, adulation, status, influence, authority etc. In other words, they anticipated power and control. Jesus taught (and practiced) greatness as coming out of weakness which is the exact opposite of that which the disciples had been taught all their lives.
Learning to be a servant in a world that is locked into a culture of greatness of a very different kind requires a life-long process spent close to the heart of Jesus, the Suffering Servant.
Those who are first according to this world's upside-down values are, in fact, last according to the values of the Kingdom of God. Conversely, those who are last by this world's standards, are, in fact, first in the Kingdom of God.
Let's be alert today as we watch for opportunities to be servants rather than expecting others to serve us.
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