Cross-Shaped Greatness: Mark 9:30-37 - Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
30[Jesus and the disciples went on] and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it;31for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” 32But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
33Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” 36Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” (NRSV)
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| Play or Pray by chaostocosmos.co.uk. CC BY 2.0 |
“Why do you white
people always say the word ‘GREAT’?
The person asking this was an ex-gang member and former drug
dealer from Los Angeles named Luis. He
had just led a group of farmers on a tour of his workplace, The Homeboy
Bakery. This was part of a larger
organization called Homeboy Industries, which provides meaningful employment
for former gang members and at-risk youth, while at the same time striving to
improve quality of life in the community.
To the farmers, everything about the bakery is great: the kitchens;
the employees; the food...
Then one day, Luis opens the door to his tiny the tiny
apartment he rented with money he’s honestly earned. His four-year-old daughter Tiffany walks
through the door with him, and she says, “this is GREAT.”
After Luis tells this story to Father Gregory Boyle, the
leader of Homeboy Industries, Father Boyle smiles and says, “you are GREAT.”[1]
Father Boyle was likely the first person to ever tell Luis
that he’s great.
In today’s Gospel we find Jesus disciples arguing with one
another about which of them was the greatest.
The greatness they were after wasn’t that of a former gang member and
single father working hard to turn his life around...
They wanted to be the greatest disciple of the Messiah who
was going to rise up, drive the Roman occupiers out of the Holy Land, reclaim
the temple from the corrupt religious authorities, and establish the most
powerful Kingdom on earth. The greatest of
them would be his right-hand man, soaking in all of the power, riches, and glory
that come with it. Everyone the whole
world over would see him, know his name, and wish they could be him.
That’s what greatness is: you’re seen and heard by
everyone. You have power and influence
over others. You have the riches to enjoy
the best of what the world has to offer.
You’re vulnerable to nothing. Your
enemies can’t touch you. There’s nothing
to worry about. The world is basically
yours.
Luis certainly isn’t “great” like this. Sure, he’s got a great story to tell, but he’s
still a former gang member who was once the biggest drug dealer in town…
And Jesus himself does
not fit within this understanding of greatness.
He wasn’t rich or successful. The
devil offered him all the kingdoms of the world and he said no.
Jesus made friends in low places. He experienced physical, emotional,
and spiritual pain. Not everyone liked
him. Plenty of people hated him. He taught us to forgive our enemies and did
that very thing on the cross. He emptied
himself of all the power and glory that was his as God’s son, and died the
death of a criminal.
The cross is the genuine measure of greatness. “Whoever wants to be first must be last of
all and servant of all,” Jesus said.
You certainly won’t hear that line in commercials for luxury
goods, or spoken by a politician campaigning for your vote…
The pursuit of greatness (as the world defines it) is
deadly. It’s toxic to communities; it’s
toxic to the earth; it ruins the people who pursue it and the people they tramp
over to get it.
Life turns into a competition with few winners and many
losers. Winners are the strong, the
swift, the brave, the intelligent, the hardest-working, who do no wrong… Losers are the weak, the slow, the vulnerable… They’re sinners! They’re the wrong color; they speak the wrong
language; they come from the wrong places…
They’re undeserving of compassion or charity—because of what they’ve
done or even because of who they are… Their
place in this world is somewhere far away, where they aren’t seen or heard.
For as long as Jesus’ disciples were focused on their own
greatness, they were not really disciples.
Nothing that Jesus said or did, including dying on the cross, was going
to make any sense to them. But Jesus
shows them and us what true greatness is: it’s selfless love. It’s forgiveness. It’s mercy and compassion that acts on behalf
of those who can’t help themselves. It’s
seeing God’s image in other -human beings you might otherwise deem as lesser
than yourself.
What made the Homeboy Bakery so great was that society’s
enemies were welcomed there as children of God and given the love and support to
do good for themselves and for others with the gifts and talents God had given
them. Luis was great because he was a
child of God. God’s grace, expressed
through the graciousness of others, lifted him up to do great things for
himself, his daughter, and for others.
The challenge for all you is to embrace this radical
understanding of greatness that is revealed in the cross. A child of God is great because God created
them that way. To be great is to help others
realize their own greatness—and God’s greatness as one who loves and accepts
people unconditionally; who forgives sins; who makes the dead alive and always
gives people another chance.
A great person has nothing to boast about; no trophies
through which to exhibit their greatness to the wider world. Their boast is in what our great God has done
to save them and redeem them; their words and deeds reflect back not on their
greatness but on God’s and God’s alone. A
great church boasts not of its magnificent buildings or elaborate programs; the
charisma of its pastor or the production values of its worship. A great church is one where those who are
least can be welcomed as Christ would himself; where all people are seen and
heard; where gifts and talents are shared with enthusiasm; where all the status
and monuments we erect to ourselves disappear before the one who gave it all
for us all.
Bibliography
Boyle, Greg. Tattoos on the Heart. New York:
Free Press, 2011.
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