Serving IS Greatness

Mark 10:43 ESV - 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

In the Kingdom economy, greatness is found in serving.  Power is meaningless because we all serve God who is omnipotent.  To exercise power over another person is really a delusion and an act of treason against God.  Thinking of myself above another is to act as thought I am God.  This was and is the primary sin of humanity!

Jesus operates outside of the power paradigm of this world, therefore I don't have to cow tow to it either.  Serving and seeking the good of others is the essence of imitating Christ.  This is true freedom.  I can rarely control how much power I have, and I certainly can't maintain power indefinitely.  But I can sustain a serving mindset.

In Mark 10 Jesus is responding to a request from James and John.  They asked if they could have seats of power in Jesus' Kingdom.  He told them that this was not His to give.  The other disciples heard what was going on and became very upset.  Jesus used this moment to demonstrate the upside-down structure of His Kingdom.  Serving is the only way to be "upwardly mobile" in God's Kingdom.  The more you serve, the higher up you go, and yet, moving up doesn't mean less serving, it means more!

What I love about this incident is that Jesus did not respond to their request by demanding the get rid of selfish ambition, instead He told them to pursue serving others as their primary goal.  Jesus wants all of us to pursue a Kingdom Life.  He knows that ambition in and of itself is part of what makes us human.  So rather than commanding us to quell our ambition, He gives us a new target: serving.

Serving and humility are the foundation of God's Kingdom economy.  To be great in the Kingdom of God is to serve.  May we all become great in God's Kingdom!  May we all seek to serve and value others above ourselves (see Philippians 2:3).  Set your ambition on serving.