The Principle of Greatness

And there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest. Luke 22:24.

One of the benefits of reading the Bible over and over again is seeing things that you've never seen before. Usually one of the things that you pick up on is context. And usually in seeing them you see more of yourself in the pages of the word.

In Mark Chapter 9, Jesus tells the disciples that the Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. It tells us that they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask him. You then find them arguing over which of them was the greatest. You would think that an argument over greatness would be preceded by some personal achievement and not by Jesus' prophecy of his death.

In Luke, Chapter 22 Jesus tells them that his hour had come in the Passover lamb would be sacrificed. Further one of them was going to betray him. In verse 23 they discussed among themselves who might do such a thing. The very next verse we find that there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest.  Put yourself in this situation in the upper room. “No way I would kill the Lord. It is not me! The people think I'm the greatest and so they should. Look at all the stuff I've accomplished.”  It is not hard to fathom moving from defense of myself to promoting myself because it's all about myself.  Me, myself, and I.

The timing of this is hard to miss. It is not once but twice that the disciples focused on themselves and not on the Lord. Even the discussion of his death and resurrection was couched in the discussion of their own personal ambitions. How so much like us! I want greatness and glory for myself, even when faced with the realization of the true meaning of Christ’s sacrifice. I'm so thankful that the disciples were just like me. How he uses weak and useless men to accomplish his purposes.