“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” - Matthew 20:25-28 (NIV)

Jesus on His way to Jerusalem, where He would be welcomed as a king and crucified like a criminal. For the third time, Jesus predicted His death to the disciples. The mother of two of the disciples, asked a favor of Jesus. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in the Kingdom” (Matthew 20:23). As you can imagine, that ticked off the other disciples in a big way and Jesus told her, “You don’t know what you are asking… Can you drink the cup (speaking of the Cross) I am going to drink?” (Matthew 20:22).

Most of us love recognition of some sort. We have seen people curry favor with supervisors or hang around the powerful. People love to put their names on buildings for posterity. Even in the church, there are those who crave power and control, which leads to all kinds of relational difficulty.

Jesus then explains what greatness means in His kingdom in the passage above. Unlike the world, where rulers and those in power loved to rule over those not in power, He made a profound statement: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must by your slave.” You see, in God’s kingdom, the way up is to go down. Servants and slaves were at the bottom of the social ladder. They were “invisible” people to those above them. So Jesus is turning the definition of greatness on its head. 

And then He brings it home when He reminds them that “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” In His birth, He came as a nobody to parents who were nobodies and grew up in Nazareth which was a sad town, leading the Pharisees to say, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” In fact, in little more than a week, He would die a common criminal. 

Jesus is saying, the way up is to humble yourself. The way to greatness is service to one another. The model is Jesus Himself who even served prostitutes and tax collectors and ministered to those with leprosy or who were known adulteresses. He is on His way to Jerusalem where He knows that He would die and be raised three days later.

Service to other believers and unbelievers is a sign that we follow Jesus. If He, the creator, would serve the created, how much more should we serve one another? Find a way this week to serve your fellow believers in some tangible way, and the same for non-Christ followers that you know. This is one of the ways we please Jesus.

Father, thank You that You came to serve us through Your life and death and resurrection. You humbled Yourself in ways that we can never fully understand as the King of the Universe chose to come as an unknown person to point us to Christ. I pray that You would show me how I can serve others this week in Your name. I want to be great, not in the eyes of the world, but in Your eyes. Amen.