Read the Book: Fall Bible Planনমুনা

The Greatest

Matthew 18:1-6

Rarely do people aspire to be just okay or mediocre. It's hard to imagine an athletic team parading around a playing field chanting, “We’re number 2/1 ... We’re number 2!” All of us, at some point in our lives, aspire to be great at something. Why? So that others may view us as a great person. This is highlighted by the fact that self-help and personal enrichment books fly off the shelves or land in our mailboxes day after day.

The disciples’ desire to be great peaks in Chapter 18 of Matthew when they ask Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” I can understand the question because I’d ask the same thing if I had experienced up close the teachings of Jesus and those head-scratching miracles. It’s almost like their question anticipates the response, “Well, of course, you all are the greatest because look at all we’ve done!”

But Jesus doesn’t answer that way—not at all. He simply gathers up a child and says that whoever humbles themselves like that child will be the greatest in the kingdom.

Ouch. It’s not the cuteness of a child that is the point here. Let’s examine the world in which children lived: They had no rights or status, they were totally dependent on their parents, and they worked under the authority of the family name.

My friends, this is totally counter-cultural to our modern definitions of success and greatness. We want to be great without being a follower first. But our pursuit of greatness should never replace our pursuit of the Greatest.

Lord Jesus, help me to become less so that You may become more in my life. I love You. Amen.

Family connection: Matthew wants his readers to know that Jesus is King. Ask your family this week what it means to be a king. Discuss how Jesus was a different sort of king. He wore a crown of thorns, did not have a palace to call home, and spent time with outcasts. Jesus calls us to follow Him—the one true King.