The Greatest

"I am the greatest"- Muhammad Ali










This morning, I reflected upon some of the teachings of Jesus regarding who is great and what is the greatest path in life. Yea, I know. Heavy stuff. In a previous blog entry I touched on this subject, and there is so much more to say about it. I remembered the words of Jesus spoken in Matthew 18, concerning who is the greatest. To refresh your memory, this passage records:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

The response of Jesus probably shocked his disciples. The Bible records his answer:

Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

I remember, when growing up, watching and listening to one of the greatest boxers who ever lived- Muhammad Ali. One of his favorite declarations about himself was, “I am the greatest!” He certainly had one of the best professional boxing records in boxing history. He had to be one of the originators of what we call “trash talking”. It isn’t uncommon today to hear professional athletes use this verbal intimidation technique to confuse, distract, or disorient their opponent prior to engaging in competition. However, it could be argued that trash talking has been around for a long time and that Ali just gets credit for making it popular in the media.

Perhaps, the disciples were “trash talking” a little bit, before they came to Jesus. Imagine, if their discussion was about how one disciple had done something “greater” than the other. Or, perhaps, there was disagreement about who had more converts today. We can't say for sure. However, whatever they had been discussing, they felt that they needed to find out what Jesus thought about who the greatest was, or how they could become greater. I believe it is safe to say that the answer Jesus gave them was unexpected and humbled them greatly. As Jesus sat the little child before Him, the disciples were probably stunned when Jesus, in essence, told them its not what you are thinking, you must become humble, trusting, believing, responding, loving, obedient, and caring, like this child, to be great! I imagine when Jesus said that, you could probably hear grass grow. Nobody said a word. Their perspectives were turned upside down. This idea was counter-cultural. Become like a child? They must have thought, how can this be? Remember Nicodemus in John 3, when Jesus told him that he must be born again. What did he say to Jesus? How can this be?

There are many eternal implications to becoming like a child, just like there are eternal implications to being born again. I challenge you today as a follower of Christ, to meditate on what Christ would tell you individually about becoming child-like. Many of us are child-like in some ways but not others. Some must learn to trust God more in some areas than others. The challenge is for each of us individually to pray and seek God’s grace in the areas of our life that need more child-like attributes. Why? Because Jesus knew that unless we do this, we will not inherit His Kingdom. We might have some contentment for a while, but as a believer we will never live the Christian life to it’s fullest without following this commandment, to “be converted, and become as a child”. After all, you do want to be “the greatest”, don’t you?



Blessings!
George