The Greatest



Who is the greatest?  Who is the greatest Christian in the world?  Which one of us in this room is the greatest disciple of Jesus Christ?

                As Lutherans we know the folly of such questions.  We know good and well that Jesus should slap us upside the head for asking things like that.  As Christians we are not to be haughty or prideful.  We are not to clamor or argue over who is the greatest.  

                Rather we are to be humble.  We are to think nothing of ourselves, never asserting our spiritual superiority, always letting others, especially Jesus take the spotlight.  We would never ask something as pretentious as, “Which one of us is the greatest?” 

                Rather, our question would be, “Which one of us is the humblest?”  Come on Jesus, tell us truthfully, aren’t I more humble than that guy over there?  Isn’t my humility far more impressive than hers?  Lord, I thank you that I am not arrogant or haughty, like so many of those other Christians out there. 
 
                Augh!  Even humility is not a safe place to hide from the sin of spiritual one-up-man-ship.  We may have repented of our desire to be the greatest, only to fall into the trap of desiring to be the least, in order to be the greatest.  We sin by taking pride in being humble.

                But we shouldn’t, take pride in our humility that is.  And the disciples were certainly fools for arguing about who was the greatest.  We are all fools as the followers of Jesus for wondering who is the greatest in knowledge, authority, power, or humility.  The answer, it would seem, should be staring us right in the face.  JESUS CHRIST is the greatest!  

                What had Jesus just finished saying before His disciples were arguing who the greatest was?  “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him.  And when He is killed, after three days He will rise.”  

Jesus just told His disciples that He will die and RISE!  Guys, disciples, I am going to conquer death!  I will be dead and then I will come back.  Who do you think is the greatest?!  

Jesus, God in the flesh, submits to death.  God died.  That makes Jesus far more humble than you or I could ever even fathom.  Jesus conquered death, rising on the third day.  That makes Him greater than the greatest.  In fact, compared to Jesus Christ in the number one spot, number two in greatness or humility might as well be all the way down with number 200 billion.  There simply is no comparison.

Jesus is not only God.  He is also Man, the True Man, the one whom all others aspire to be, the one all others fail to be.  Jesus Christ is the greatest man who ever lived and who ever will live.  And it is a complete waste of our time to try and compare ourselves with each other living in His shadow.

Rather, in faith, we receive the fullness of Christ's greatness and humility.  It is laid over our sin, our pride and arrogance, that we may share in the fullness of the treasures of heaven.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflections on the Fall of a Pastor

Image
Tullian Tchividjian, the well known pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, has resigned his position.  According to his own statement both he and his wife committed adultery.  This disqualifies him from the pastoral office.  He has willingly acknowledged his affair and peacefully stepped aside. It is a sad day when a pastor must resign his call for any reason, but especially for living an immoral life.  Tchividjian's case gives a great deal of pause for Lutherans in particular since he was highly influenced by Luther's writings and those of contemporary Lutheran scholars such as Robert Kolb.  Tullian, in recent years, has sought to clarify the proper distinction of Law and Gospel in his own preaching as well as to spread that teaching to a wider audience. As Lutherans we have a high view of God's Word in general and of the Gospel in particular.  When a Lutheran pastor falls into temptation does he really need to resign?  Can he not simply be ...
Read more

One Thing Ken Ham Didn't Say, but Should Have

Tonight came the debate between Ken Ham (creationist) and Bill Nye (evolutionist).  All things considered I thought it was a good debate, a debate from which the people who plan out presidential debates could learn a great many things. There was one point toward the end where the moderator, who also did a fine job of remaining neutral, asked the two men questions gathered from the audience.  One question in particular caught my attention.  It was directed at Ken Ham. He was asked if there were any evidence that could be given that would convince him that the Biblical account of creation was false.  I do not recall his exact answer, but effectively he said "no".  No evidence could shake him in his conviction that God created the world in 6 days. As a Christian, as a 6-day creationist, I was disappointed in this.  Mr Ham did not have the questions beforehand.  He did not have the advantage of hindsight (which I have now).  So I don't want to b...
Read more

Why the Resurrection is the Only Answer that Matters

There seem to be some people who are confused as to why the resurrection of Jesus can make or break the argument for a young earth.  On the surface this is not obvious. Why do Christians care how many days it took to create the earth?  I don't.  It could have taken God half a second.  I could have taken Him 40 trillion years.  Why do Christians (myself included) put stock in the fact that Genesis 1 states that it took 6 days? Because Jesus Christ says that the Law and the Prophets (Genesis included) point to Him.  He endorses the Old Testament on several occasions, including a quote of Genesis 2 when discussing marriage and divorce. Because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, a clear indication that the claims He made about Himself were true, including His endorsements of the Old Testament.  Jesus rose from the dead showing His followers that He really was the Son of God. If Jesus did not rise from the dead we are, as Paul says, to be pitied above...
Read more