When it comes to his disciples, I often wonder whether Jesus felt like some of us parents feel: You know, when we ask our children to do something only for them to do the exact opposite thing . . . right after our imploring! Jesus’ disciples are sometimes just . . . impossible.
In Luke 9 the story of Jesus’ ministry decidedly takes a turn towards the cross as Jesus predicts his own death: “The Son of Man must … be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (9:22). Jesus invites his disciples to follow him in the way of the cross: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Then, not long after this, we find the disciples arguing among themselves “as to which of them would be the greatest” (9:46). Arguing! Arguing about greatness when Jesus just invited them to take up their crosses! Say what?! Impossible . . . Sigh . . . Yet, there it is. Disciples, in the presence of Jesus, arguing about greatness.
The disciples’ idea concerning greatness was the standard method of comparing themselves to others. You compare yourself to someone else and, as long as you are a bit better than them, you come out ahead. We are faced with comparisons in every walk of life, it seems. How we dress, interviewing for a job, taking an exam, publishing a blog post, how we parent our children, the way our body looks, where we live, and an endless list of things. Comparisons result in hierarchies and once you know the hierarchy you know how to treat someone based on their position. And so we continue with our struggles of trying to impress people around us, to show that we are better than what others are. And maybe in this process of trying to show that we are better, we only hurt people and break them down to get ahead. And it just doesn’t work.
So then Jesus, like a patient parent, “knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest’” (9:47-48). The least, the greatest. Jesus sets the disciples straight. The least—like a child—is the greatest. So stop arguing!
Jesus seems to take the person at the bottom of the hierarchy (the least) and reverses it so that they are now at the top (the greatest). I can just imagine the disciples now getting into a new argument about who is the “least” among them and starting the comparison game all over again! Is Jesus advocating a new kind of hierarchy? Where you try to be the “least” in order to be the “greatest?” I don’t think so; comparisons just don’t work. And there is a clue in the passage that Jesus is really doing something very different.
When the disciples were arguing about greatness, they were using the word “great” in the superlative form, i.e. “greatest” (Greek – meizōn). They were arguing about which of them would be the greatest. When Luke quotes Jesus saying “whoever is the least among you is the greatest” he didn’t use the superlative form “greatest” but simply the root word “great” (Greek – megas). Many of the Bible translations (NIV, NLT, NCV, CEB, GNT) incorrectly translates Jesus as saying “the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.”
Following the Greek (and correctly translated English translations in the NASB, RSV, NKJV and KJV), Jesus said, “the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.” Great. Not the greatest, not the greater. Simply great. Not compared to anyone else. Not compared to anything else. Simply great. The least is great.
During my college years I took an introductory course in Fine Arts. We had a pocket sized textbook with all the great paintings from famous artists such as Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Monet’s Waterlily Pond, Picasso’s Weeping Woman and Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo. At the end of the quarter, I vividly remember one of my classmates asking the professor which of all these great paintings we studies was the greatest. The professor’s response was shock and near anger! How, after an entire quarter of studying these great paintings, can one rank them in terms of greatness? “They are ALL GREAT,” the professor exclaimed! “You cannot compare them to each other! Each painting, in its own right, is great.”
With the gospel comparisons disappear. We are all equal. More than that, we’re all great. Greatness is not something that is reserved for a chosen few and certainly not something to be grasped for. The subversive power of the gospel is this: the least is great.
When we understand this, it will change the way we live.
Dewald, aka Devo, is Pastor for Worship & Media at La Sierra University Church. He is married Leilani and the father of four beautiful children: Lia, Amelie, Levi and Kiri. His family loves to sing, dance, play, read, hike, swim and play soccer.