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Greatness.

True greatness.

That’s what our Scripture text today is about.

Greatness.

True greatness.

Jesus and the disciples are about to arrive in Jerusalem. The Gospel of Mark gives us a series of stories about events and conversations taking place toward the end of Jesus’ life as they journey from Galilee to the Holy City. The stories are all tied together by the three little words “on the way”, and each one is a lesson in what it means to be a true disciple. Today we come to the final story “on the way”.

And it is about greatness.

James and John want something from Jesus. They want him to put them in charge of the universe! They want Jesus to save them the seats of authority and prominence – one on his right and the other on his left – when he comes into his glory and rules the world. It will be Jesus – and James and John – running the whole show!

Now when the other disciples catch wind of this plot, they are really ticked off! Just who do James and John think they are? In another place, we are told that a big argument breaks out among them about just who is better than who, the greatest disciple of all.

Now can you picture this? Jesus is coming to Jerusalem to lay down his life for the world. And all the while, the disciples are furiously arguing about who gets to sit where at the head table in the Kingdom of God!

And in the meantime, Jesus sneaks out of the brouhaha…and goes to the cross and dies.

And we are left to ponder the meaning of true greatness.

What’s your idea of what it means to be great?

What is it that makes a person great – a husband – a wife – a kid – a parent?

What is it that makes a family a great family?

What does a great nation look like?

And what constitutes a great church?

James and John – and I suppose the other ten pretenders to the throne who are arguing with them – think greatness is achieved through having authority over life and over others.

And I can understand that. I think the world would be a much better place if everyone would just let me run it! I think my marriage would be truly great if only my wife would live up to my image of the perfect wife – which includes the notion that a truly perfect wife has no thought as to what a perfect husband should be! I think my kids would be great if they would just let me make all their decisions for them. I think a great church is the church that looks, runs, sounds, and feels just like the image of church I hold in my mind – notwithstanding any of your silly and obviously uninformed ideas of what a great church should be!

Oh, we should not be too harsh on James and John because they are simply US in another time and place.

We humans think that greatness is about having strength, security, authority, power and respect.

But in the meantime, Jesus escapes the debate, and goes to the cross and dies.

And the Bible tells us that, in so doing, Jesus did more good for the world than anyone who has ever lived.

True greatness.

Will Willimon tells about his son who, when he was 11 or 12, had some difficulty in school. They took him to see a psychologist who put the boy through a battery of tests to find out what the problem was. Then the family was called in to hear the results.

“Your son is a wonderful kid,” the psychologist began. “Unfortunately, he has an exaggerated sense of empathy for other people. He gets distracted from his schoolwork by anyone else in the room who is having difficulty. He is kind, sympathetic, and really concerned about others.”

The Willimon family asked, “Well, what’s wrong with that? All those things are esteemed Christian virtues.”

“Congratulations!” said the psychologist. “You’ve done a good job of raising a Christian. Unfortunately, none of those traits lead to success in public school.”

True greatness of the kind Jesus calls us to is not the same greatness the world values. True greatness has nothing to do with achieving success, or being strong, or solving all your problems, or being in command of life. True greatness is not about position or status or fame.

True greatness is about going to the cross, trusting God for the future, laying down your life for the sake of others.

When Harold G. died, there was a big snowstorm the night before his funeral. His pastor was worried about being able to get the snowplow company to the church in time for the service. But when he arrived at the church that morning, the parking lot and the sidewalks had all been shoveled bare. Two feet of snow had been completely cleared away.

And there was Jesus, standing there – shivering in the cold – with shovel in hand.

Well, it wasn’t really Jesus. It was Ernie – a young man who looked a lot like Jesus, with long hair and a flowing beard. And not only did he look like Jesus, but sometimes Ernie thought he was Jesus. People were afraid to go into the church at night because often, even with all the doors locked, Ernie would suddenly appear out of nowhere. Some people said he lived in a room way up in the attic of the church. Rarely did Ernie say anything, except perhaps to quote from the prophet Jeremiah about how everybody was doomed. He especially loved slipping little pieces of paper under the doors of the ministers’ offices with scripture verses hand scrawled, speaking of the faithlessness of the shepherds who lead the sheep astray, and claiming God rejects them. This Jesus was not bubbling over with a whole lot of Good News.

But there he was in the frigid cold of that morning, obviously having worked all through the night shoveling out the church for Harold G’s funeral.

His pastor expressed great gratitude.

Jesus didn’t even look up.

“Mr. G. was my Sunday School teacher,” he said. “I gotta take care of Mrs. G. and the family.”

True greatness.

It’s what you see when you look at that little Anglican church sitting in the shadow of the great retailer Eaton’s in downtown Toronto. When the city changed and members moved to the suburbs, they thought about relocating the church. But they had a sense of commitment to the people who lived downtown, and so they stayed. That decision cost them. Most of their members – the ones with the money and the leadership skills – found it more convenient and safer to go to beautiful churches in the suburbs with their own kind of people. Smaller and smaller grew the membership. Poorer and poorer the church became. Then stepped in Eaton’s, the big downtown retail giant. They offered to buy the church so it could be turned into a parking lot. They would pay enough for the building to allow the church to build a beautiful place outside the city.

But the church said, “No.” They have a commitment to love and be the presence of Christ to the people who live downtown. Homeless people. Addicted people. Prostitutes. Mentally ill people. People on the run. Not the kind of people who are welcome in most churches.

When I attended a Sunday service there back in 1999, there were perhaps a dozen people in attendance. Many were pretty scruffy, looking beat up by life. Some seem to have just staggered in after spending the night on the sidewalk. But when the Gospel was read and the young priest invited comments, the people came alive with insight about the grace of God. And when the bread was broken and the cup was passed, we American visitors sensed the love of Jesus as never before.

True greatness.

It’s about making the cross the center of your life and trusting God so much that you become willing to give yourself for the sake of others every day. A great husband is a man who lays down his life to strengthen and lift and celebrate his wife. A great wife lays down her life to help her husband become all that God created him to be. A great family sacrifices everything to care for the least among them. A great nation is characterized not by the size of its army or the strength of its economy, but by its commitment to love one another and to care for the poor and downtrodden

And a great church?

Well, a truly great church is one where – when you look at it – you see the cross being lifted up and carried every day. It is not a greatness that comes from who, or how many, or even how much comes into the church every Sunday. It is, rather, about the compassion and mercy and humble service that flow out of the church every day.

So, are we a great church?

To the extent that others see Christ in us, yes.

But with disciples of Jesus in every time and place, we know we have a long ways to go.

Like them, we are always “on the way.”