Pentecost 18             September 22, 2024
Mark 9:30-37            Pastor Wolfe

How to Be a Great Christian!
1) Recognize the Greatness of Christ
2) Recognize the Greatness of Service

What does it take to be great? Well that depends what you’re looking for, doesn’t it? For example, who’s the greatest NFL quarterback of all time? Brady? Manning? Rodgers? Um…Tarkenton, for the Vikings fans? People give different answers because they’re looking for different things. Who’s the greatest is a fun topic because there’s almost never one right answer. In our text today, we find the disciples arguing among themselves about who was the greatest among them. But instead of settling the debate for them, Jesus teaches them a more important truth. How to Be a Great Christian in general. As we close our series on following Jesus, we find two central truths. To be a great Christian is to Recognize the Greatness of Christ. Then, knowing our place, we Recognize the Greatness of Service.

We find Jesus in Mark 9 once again teaching his disciples. Jesus told them plainly, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” But they didn’t get it. In fact they wouldn’t get it until after Jesus’ resurrection. Even then, they wouldn’t understand until Jesus opened their eyes to it in faith.

You see, the disciples knew Jesus was great. They’d seen his miracles and heard his preaching. Jesus could do things no one else could. He spoke like no one else did. They expected that their great teacher would become even greater by taking up earthly power and authority. They had bigger plans for their “great” teacher than betrayal and death. They didn’t realize that Jesus wasn’t looking for greatness like that. Jesus’ greatness is found in great sacrifice.

Think about these words. He had told them, “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men.” Jesus knew what was coming for him in Jerusalem. Think of the irony. The greatest one of all, God’s Son, would allow himself to be taken captive by mere men. The disciple who betrayed Jesus wasn’t more clever than him. The soldiers who arrested Jesus weren’t stronger than him. The officials who judged him and condemned him were not wiser than him. Yet Jesus let it all happen. How great a Savior is this that we follow, to come down from heaven and be delivered even to death on a cross.

Jesus says it in such simple words here that it’s hard to believe the disciples didn’t catch on. “They will kill him,” Jesus said. The disciples might not have understood how great this sacrifice would be, but we do. Death is the result of sin. It wasn’t part of God’s original plan for mankind. It’s an intruder on God’s love for humanity. It slices apart body and soul in a way that was never supposed to happen. That’s why we hate it so much. Why we fear it so naturally. Death is our fault. Adam and Eve’s for bringing it into the world for a moment of pleasure. Our fault for continuing on their path of selfishness and sin. Our pride hates to admit it, but we deserve death, eternal death, for all the ways we ruin the world for God and for the people around us.

Jesus, though? He had never sinned. He alone, out of all the people in the world followed every command of God. He alone was perfect and obedient. Which makes his sacrifice into death all the greater. Don’t let familiarity with this truth make it any less remarkable. Jesus died for your sins. And mine. And not only ours, but for the sins of the whole world. The perfect Son of God, shedding his perfect blood, in perfect obedience to his Father. Now that’s love. That’s greatness.

And the only thing that matches the greatness of the sacrifice is the greatness of the victory. Think about it. Death seems to rule the world we live in. It is ever present, always waiting. But because of Jesus, tears of grief are mixed with feelings of peace. Jesus defeated death. He killed it. Jesus told the disciples here that he would die, but he also told them “after three days he will rise.”

You want evidence that the one we follow is the greatest? His resurrection on Easter morning proved the greatness of his victory. That empty tomb shouts to the world that Jesus defeated death, not the other way around. Jesus’ perfect sacrifice was accepted by our Father in heaven. And the grave that couldn’t hold him can’t hold his followers either. Believers have no more to fear from death than we do from resting our heads at night. All because of this great Savior who won this great victory that no one else could. That’s what greatness truly looks like.

The disciples showed they didn’t understand greatness at all as they argued along the road to Capernaum. “How ridiculous,” we might say as they argue about who was the greatest among them while they walked in the presence of the greatest one of all. But isn’t that what we do when we fall into our thoughts of pride and insist on our way and our needs? We all need to hear the lesson Jesus gave these men. Greatness among the followers of Christ isn’t found in all the things the disciples probably argued about. Being a “great” Christian means recognizing the greatness of serving.

Jesus tells them that the “greatest” Christian is the one who seems to be the least. Verse 35, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” Think of what takes for a person to be “great” in America. Power, fortune, fame, great intelligence or special skills. Things that other people notice and want to have or want to be. That’s what makes a person great in our country today.

But that’s not how it works in the Church. Not for the followers of the most high and most humble. Jesus tells us in order to be great in heaven, we have to be least here. We followers see this upside-down principle in our perfect leader, don’t we? Jesus sought out opportunities to serve and put others ahead of himself. He ate with outcasts. Washed feet. Gave up fame.

For followers of Christ, greatness shows itself in humility that follows his pattern. Who is the “greatest” Christian here at Salem? The most important member? Is it the pastor or the elders? The president of the congregation maybe? Is it the member who hasn’t missed a church service in years, or maybe the one who gives the biggest offering? Chances are that our definition of a “great” Christian is a little off.

Jesus points us in a different direction. He picked up a little child from the crowd and held him in his arms. He told them, “the one who serves this one – that’s the greatest.” That little child wouldn’t be able to give anything in return. The child couldn’t pay for the services the disciples would do. But the “greatest” of the disciples wouldn’t be concerned with any of that. They would just see a need to help and do it. Not out of pride but out of humility.

And that’s where this final lesson from Jesus hits us not just in our hearts but in our lives of Christian service. In how we follow Jesus. We serve and follow Jesus by serving and loving others. And because we’re imperfect followers we have room to grow in this too. Do you see the needs of others as clearly as you should? When you see those needs do you jump to serve or wait to be asked?

Salem is a big church, with a lot of Christians gifted to serve in a hundred different ways. But why do we struggle then to find teachers for Sunday school? Greeters for worship? Hosts for growth groups? Is it because we’ve forgotten a little bit about what makes Christians great? Jesus says it plainly here: the one who serves is the greatest of all.

Maybe you’ve served in the past and felt like your work didn’t matter. Like the job you did wasn’t noticed by anybody or appreciated. You never have to feel that way when you serve Christ. Even the smallest thing we do in faith is a great offering to the Lord. Our simple acts of faith are important! So let’s be great in service at Salem. Give that hour helping in Sunday school. That five minutes hanging posters for church. A moment praying for a neighbor. All those and more are noticed by God himself as he sits on his throne in heaven.

There is no act of faith that’s unimportant to God. People may or may not recognize the work you do. We might be called “great” Christians at our deaths or we might spend 70 years serving the Lord invisible to everybody. But in God’s eyes, every believer is a “Great” Christian because Jesus was great for us. And every act of Christian service is great because we do it for him. Whether you’re serving here at church or at home taking care of a family member, or even just faithfully carrying out your responsibilities at work, you are a great Christian. I pray that you join us in looking for ways to serve. That you live in service with your brothers and sisters here at Salem. May God bless us with faith to be great, and may he use us to do great things for him. Amen.