Becoming Great
- Aug 18
- 2 min read
Matthew 23:11, ESV
The greatest among you shall be your servant.
Mark 9:33-35, ESV
And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
Jesus’s response to the disciples here is kind of surprising if we really think about it—He didn't rebuke them for their desire to be great. Instead, He told them how to become great.
Why?
Because God created us for greatness.
That’s why every person has a desire to be significant and do great things. God created us to be significant, and God created us to become great.
Jesus didn’t respond with a rebuke, He responded with a “how”—that we become great by being a servant.
And that’s the thing which is so counter-cultural.
Culturally speaking, most of us believe we achieve our way to greatness.
But we don’t—not spiritually speaking, at least.
Spiritually speaking, we don’t achieve our way to greatness, we serve our way to greatness.
And we don’t achieve greatness, we become great.
If we take a moment to think of those whom we consider great in the kingdom of God, we’ll quickly realize that they have served their way there. These people are great because they have become great, not because they have achieved greatness.
So today, if you’re searching for greatness and significance, just keep serving—serving God and serving people.
Then, something extraordinarily supernatural will happen—the desire to be great actually ebbs away as the fulfillment from serving overshadows it. We find that we don’t even care about the “greatness,” because we realize the fulfillment we were looking for actually comes from the serving itself.
And this is the lesson Jesus was teaching.
We become great through serving people—and the serving actually becomes the greatness.
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