It's Okay to be Last
Who else in this world gives you permission to be last?
“I sing the body electric, I celebrate the new year to come,
I toast to my own reunion when I become one with the sun …
I’m gonna live forever, I’m gonna learn how to fly – High!
I feel it comin’ together, people will see me and cry –
Fame!”
Last year a new version of the 1980 movie Fame was released, tracking a group of talented students through a performing arts high school, all who have a dream. Fame.
For Jesus fame wasn’t the goal, and wasn’t even the means to the goal. Mark 9 informs us, “Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were.” For the disciples, however, fame and greatness were both goal and means. One theme of Mark’s gospel is that each time Jesus announces his pending suffering and death, the disciples respond improperly in some way. Peter rebuked him. Other followers left him. This time, after they arrive in Capernaum, Jesus asks his disciples, “’What were you arguing about on the road?’ But they kept silent because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.”
Peter, James, and John had been invited by Jesus to his transfiguration and to the private bedroom where Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead. Judas held control of the disciples’ treasury and Matthew had connections in high places. Andrew was one of the first to follow Jesus and Jesus had called Nathanael a true Israelite. So who was the greatest?
The disciples felt it necessary to figure that out. So much that they actually argued about it. But why? Why did it matter? And then they prove their own sinful pride when they have no answer for Jesus. Like the story about Muhammed Ali in his prime getting on an airplane and the flight attendant kindly asking him to buckle his seat belt. “Superman don’t need no seat belt,” Ali boasted, to which she replied, “Superman don’t need no airplane either.” How do you answer that?
“I am the greatest.” The disciples didn’t see themselves as servants of all so they became enslaved by their selfish pride.
“I am the greatest,” any of us claim when we consistently ignore the doctor’s warnings or we disobey mom or dad’s clear instructions.
“I am the greatest,” any of us claim when we succeed in competition followed by a letdown performance as a result of thinking we just automatically owned first place.
“I am the greatest,” any of us claim when thoughts of superiority over other ethnic groups, social classes, or even religious denominations prevent us from respecting those people as valuable individuals.
“I am the greatest,” any of us claim when we deny God’s right to be God over us and instead of us every day. The Bible says such sinful pride “does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil” (James 3:15). Sinful pride is deceptive, dangerous, and directly connected to the devil. Kill it before it kills you!
Jesus already killed sinful pride and it will stay dead unless summoned to life by our selfish desires. To prevent this, the Bible says, “Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.’”
Who else in this world gives you permission to be last? Your parents don’t tell you, “Please slack off your studying to drop that GPA.” The VP for sales doesn’t demand, “Take it easy, we need to slow down or we’ll outperform our competitors.” You don’t need to be first to get Jesus’ attention. You don’t need to be great to have his love. Jesus took the time to sit down in the dirt of his disciples, who had just disrespected him, to let them know this. Jesus serves us “that we should no longer be slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6). We are disciples of Jesus, free from sin’s curse and control, determined like Jesus to be last in order to serve God and others.
PRAYER: Thank you, Jesus, for being my first. My only. My true Savior who is the greatest because you became the least. Make me smaller than I can be without you. More humble and caring. More interested in others than myself. Not another savior, but certainly a faithful friend and loving family member. Even as I am your first. Amen.