Who should be the greatest?

 This week's verses are on Luke 22:24-27:

A dispute also started among them over which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. So Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ Not so with you; instead the one who is greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is seated at the table, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is seated at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

 These verses take place at the last supper, before Jesus is crucified. It always strikes me as funny that these saints were getting in arguments about silly stuff like this. Who among us has ever actually gotten in a legit argument with someone, as an adult, about who was the greatest? "I am the greatest of all time!" "No, I am!" But unknowingly we do it all of the time.

Have you ever been envious or resentful of someone who is successful? "Why did he ask *her* to the dance and not me?" "Why did *she* get the promotion and not me?" "Why does everyone listen when *he* talks, but when I say the same things I am ignored?" There is an underlying assumption behind those thoughts that somehow you are the greatest, or at least the greater of the two people involved.

Have you ever been indignant about bad service at a restaurant? Would you have been as indignant if it had been someone else? Again, there's this underlying idea that you are more important, that things matter when they happen to you, at least slightly more than they matter when happening to strangers.

This is one of the reasons people seek out positions of power who often have no business being in them. There's an unspoken thought "I am greater than these other people, so I might as well be their leader." This is how the Pharisees became the "villains" in the gospels. Their pride made them feel as though they should be running the whole spiritual show for their people.

And this is what makes it so funny and surprising to see the disciples doing it too. Because we're better than the Pharisees, right? And yet even these people who had been around Jesus every single day were vulnerable to this devilish weakness. They wanted to be leaders! And not just leaders, but *the* leader! Who does that sound like to you? Could it be...Satan?

So Jesus turns things around. Yes, our leaders are often sociopaths who want nothing more to be on top like they "deserve." And we enviously measure each other's success based on whether or not we are managers or leaders. But is that what we're supposed to be? Did Jesus spend his time on earth trying to position himself to be nominated as the head of the local committee of synagogues? No, he came to serve people for a purpose.

We see the guy sitting at the table with people waiting on him as the greatest. But Jesus, when given the choice of roles to play, chose the role of one of the people waiting tables not one of the people being waited on. His greatness wasn't in telling people the gospel, but in living it out, doing what needed to be done at his own expense.

But still we want to be leaders. We want to have a team. We want to run a ministry. We want to pastor a church, a big church, a bigger church than anyone else has, with our name on the sign. But who is more useful? The guy who preaches a good message, or the guy who is a friend when he is needed? Who reminds you more of Jesus, the guy who has twelve people working for him, or the guy who gives up his weekend to help twelve people?

If you love Jesus, don't you want to be more like him? And yet even when people were trying to make him a king, he still focused on doing what he was there to do. Who does that? And if that's what the greatest being who ever lived chose to spend his limited time on earth doing, we probably have a lot to learn, just like the disciples, just like the Pharisees.

Luckily this is something we can practice until we get it! If you're at work, thinking how much more efficiently things would run if *you* were in charge, are you really helpless without a name plate and your own parking spot? Can't you have lunch with your boss (who is not as great as you) and tell them what you would do in their place and how you want to help them to succeed instead? Or can't you just simply make some of the changes on your own that you would have mandated someone in your position to make?

Or what if you wanted to be a pastor? Do you really need two years of seminary and a lengthy ordination process to demonstrate Jesus (and how great you are) to others? Can't you just talk about what you read in the Bible over lunch with your friends? Does it really have to be a (big!) room full of people? Can't you just practice caring for people's needs rather than being officially recognized as The Person Who Does That For Others? (Do you know who wanted that recognition and the big crowds in the Bible? The Pharisees.)

Or what if your roommate won't clean up their mess? They're not nearly as neat (and great) as you. Why not have a conversation, not about how much worse they are than you would like them to be (as established by the baseline you have set, being the greatest and all,) but instead helping them to learn how to do better? Why not even go and clean up their mess for them, the way Jesus cleaned up ours? Do you really need to establish who is a better person for the house to be in order?

Jesus is among us as one who serves. Chew on that idea a bit. Are we serving?

So when we read about the disciples disputing over who is the greatest, maybe that feels more familiar to us than it did before. Does that debate go on in our minds? "Yeah he's good at that but I am better." "Yeah, they ignored my proposal, but they wouldn't have if they knew how much better I am at it than who they chose." "Yeah, Jesus suffered and died on the cross, but that's just him, right? Surely I don't have to suffer. Ever. For any reason. Not me. No, that's for the little people. And Jesus."

We argue amongst ourselves, and even within ourselves, about who should be the greatest, but isn't God the greatest of all time? And if you want to see how the greatest being of all time would perform when given the opportunities you have in your life, you only have to look at the example of Jesus. There are no other qualified candidates.