Servant’s Greatness

Visiting another country often includes things like exchanging currency, learning the country’s etiquette system, and familiarizing oneself with the country’s language (even in English speaking countries he still needs to learn a few of the local colloquialism!). In the same way, entering the kingdom of heaven involves a great exchange of values, ideas and ways. It is a transfer from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. One of the values of heavenly citizens is a servant leadership.

The ancient near East had its own pecking order. Masters were above their slaves, and Rabbis above their disciples, and some of Jesus’ followers thought they could take to old order of things and fit them into God’s kingdom. Matthew tells us about a time when the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee asked, “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left” (Matt. 20:21).* The request to sit at the right and left of Christ in glory would be places of honor and authority in a royal court. They wanted to be viceroys in the kingdom come.

“You do not know what you are asking” (Matt. 20:22a), Jesus replied. Here He seeks to teach them greatness and honor in God’s kingdom comes in a far different way than they could imagine.

The way to greatness in the kingdom of heaven is paved by its King. The Lord taught His earthly ministry would end with death and resurrection. In fact, just prior to the awkward request, He told the disciples, “Behold we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priest and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up” (Matt. 20:18-19). This was Jesus’ cup. But when they were asked, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” the two said, “We are able” (Matt. 20:22). When the time came for Jesus to drink they fled.

In spite of the disciples’ fleeing when the Lord was arrested in Gethsemane, Jesus still saw that James and John would indeed share in the cup of suffering (Matt. 20:23a). James was put to death with a sword during Herod’s persecution of the church (Acts 12:2). John was also banished to Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 1:9). Nevertheless, Jesus taught it would be up to the Heavenly Father to determine who would be appointed to such places of greatness (Matt. 20:23b). It not by one’s might but by the providence of an all wise God that greatness is achieved.

Jesus’ response to James and John still left the rest of the disciples indignant. The Lord then explains to them something very important about how one becomes great in the kingdom of heaven. Greatness in the kingdom of heaven is not the way of the Gentile lords (Matt. 20:25). Men would become great by rallying together the support of others, and either by political intrigue or violent revolt he would remove the existing ruler from power and become the first king of a new dynasty. Those who sided with the new king would receive places of status in the new royal court. Yet, the emergence of God’s kingdom comes differently.

“It is not this way among you,” said Jesus, “whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Mad did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:26-28). Christ sets the way to greatness in God’s kingdom. It is marked by humility. Paul’s hymn declares Christ “existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:5-11).

The very same pattern of Christ’s humiliation and exaltation is applied to the Christian. James writes, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (Jas. 4:10). Both James and Peter taught God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble (cf. Jas. 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5), and their minds were illumined by meditation upon the Scriptures. David proclaimed, “For though the Lord is exalted, yet He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar” (Psa. 138:6). Likewise, Solomon declared “Though He scoffs at the scoffers, Yet He gives grace the afflicted” (Prov. 3:34). It is the humble in heart that ultimately attain greatness in God’s kingdom.

I believe Christianity triumphed over the world not because it wielded a sword to overthrow empires. It was not a revolutionary movement of Zealots. Instead, Christ’s followers won the world through their servant leadership. The Lord opened their eyes to see the dignity of all people, which became foundational in values such as the sanctity of life, charity, women’s equality, and the manumission of slaves. I am also convinced that even today there are a great many saints who live out Christ-like servant leadership that simply go unnoticed in this world. They may not possess the kind of charisma essential to celebrity status; rather, their charismatic power comes from the Spirit of God, which enables them to extend grace and charity to all they meet.

***

* As a side note… Matthew tells us that it was the mother of James and John that approached Jesus with the request to have her sons sit at His side, whereas Mark tells us that James and John approached Jesus with the request (Mark 10:37). What gives? There is no real problem. Keep in mind that Matthew and Mark provide two independent witnesses to the same event, and while there are nuances between the two, their continuities and discontinuities offer a better composite image of what happened. One can also point out that if there were a one-to-one correspondence between the two Gospels, then skeptics would simply cry “collusion!” (As if the two of them got together in some backroom to get their “stories” straight before going public.) There is then no conflict. Matthew identifies the one who spoke, whereas Mark focuses upon the parties benefitting from the request. The mother was actually speaking on behalf of her boys, and the two lads were in agreement with her. Perhaps the two put their mother up to the task, which would have been a strategic move as the mother would have had the social currency to make such a request. In this case, the mother spoke the request, but the two boys gave her the script, so it was as if they were making the request in person.