Some of you may remember Muhammad Ali in his boxing prime. One his most memorable quotes is, “I am the greatest!” Sometimes Ali used hyperbole to hype his next fight, but it is not unusual among athletes and other celebrities to find a few that cross the line from confidence to arrogance. Something within each of us tends to always compare ourselves to others. That is one driving element of competition. In order to feel good about ourselves, we want to outscore everyone else. On a field, a court, a track, or in the gym, we have raw numbers to keep the score. But in life we also keep score. in doing so, we tend to highlight all the deficiencies of others while devaluing their gifts and achievements. We do so to raise our own “grade.” It’s like grading on the curve and we want to push ahead of everyone else by pushing them down…at least in our own minds, so that we can feel good about us.
The Pharisees had a grading system called the Law. They believed God graded them on how well they kept it in even the smallest matters. Jesus confronted them about their legalism one time we he declared, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel” (Mt. 23:23-24).
In this text, Jesus cuts to the heart of the problem. These men believed their righteousness was based on externals..what they did, what they gave, how admired they were, or who they hung out with. What they missed was that God looked at the heart, not the appearance. Too often our cultural heroes gain that status through performance or based on physical beauty, but in terms of caring for anyone but themselves, they often fail miserably. In the case of the Pharisees, they didn’t give much thought to justice, mercy and faithfulness. They only thought about looking good in their actions. In various places, Jesus warned about being like the Pharisees who fasted to be seen by others, who prayed in public to impress, and who made a show out of their giving. Image was everything. There is something in our fallen nature that wants to do the same. Yet God is clearly not impressed by image, but suggests that it may be the ultimate self-deception.
The apostles fell into the same trap at times. Mark records a moment when James and John asked Jesus to let them sit next to him when he came into his glory. The others were indignant that James and John had asked such a thing…because they thought they should have those seats of honor. Jesus responded, “Whoever wants to become great among you, must be your servant and whoever wants to be first, must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk. 10:43-45).
In the kingdom, whoever would be the greatest would never think of himself that way. We may actually be surprised by those the Father designates to sit next to Jesus when he come in his kingdom. They may be people who had absolutely no fame on earth but were famous in heaven because of their servant’s heart. If I’m honest, every time I think I might be developing that heart, I find myself resenting someone who has taken me off my agenda for a while to do something for them. I, like the Pharisees, may be doing the “servant” thing on the outside, but my heart is far from it and it is the heart that God examines.
Believe it or not, in the kingdom many spiritual leaders still struggle with pride; still jockey for position at major conferences; still keep tab of how many books they have sold, and still highlight the faults of others while excusing their own. We, like the apostles, have not yet arrived at a true servant’s heart. I think the key to turning that around, may be counterintuitive. We often think that I can be a true servant if I only convince myself that I have no importance at all. However, Jesus was the true servant and yet was well aware that he was the Son of God and Savior of the world. It is when we know who we are in Christ and how much the Father loves and values us that we can let go of trying to convince ourselves of our worth by always moving up in the pecking order around us. It is when we are convinced of our value that we no longer have to prove it to ourselves or others.
Perhaps, our constant prayer should be that the Holy Spirit reveal to us how much we are loved, how much we are valued, yer how much of that is not something we have earned, but is simply something that has been given to us by a gracious Father. If I continually compare and keep score with others, I am not yet convinced that I am loved apart from my performance. In the religious world, that is called legalism. Perhaps, our prayer should not initially be to make me a servant, but that the Lord give us perfect security in his love so we can finally be comfortable and satisfied wearing the skin of a servant.
Blessings in Him