The Way of Greatness
“But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.” Matthew 23:11
Jesus had just had a verbal encounter with His antagonists, the Pharisees, and then turned His attention to the crowds and His twelve disciples in order to speak to them. They were all still on the grounds of the temple. I am not certain whether the religious leaders were still present in the gathering, but even if they had left and returned to their assigned places of service in the temple they were most likely still within earshot of Jesus’ voice. He can cause one to hear Him no matter how far away he or she is.
Jesus spent his remaining time on the temple grounds in exposing the hypocrisy of and pronouncing woes upon the religious leaders for their self-righteous attitudes and deeds. A “woe” is a foretelling of a future event which would cause misery and likely destruction and devastation upon those on whom the “woe” was placed. The religious rulers had a tremendous responsibility to teach God’s truth to people, but they had corrupted the truth to the extent that people were believing error. There is an old saying that if a lie is repeated often enough, people will take it for the truth. Some of the folks had grown weary of the lies told to them and the heavy burdens placed upon them. That’s why Jesus was becoming so popular among the folks–His words were pure and refreshing to all those eager for relief from their guilt and sin.
Jesus began to expose these harsh rulers by giving examples of their hypocrisy. Jesus was not One to say, “Do as I say, not as I do”, but this could have been the motto of the scribes and Pharisees. They would demand that the common people take on heavy, grievous burdens, yet they wouldn’t lift a finger to help. Everything they did, they did for show, to impress the multitudes with their knowledge of the law and their strict adherence to it. I have a feeling that they were a lot different when they were at home. They relished having “titles” before their names which made them feel as though they were better than the “working man”. However, Jesus said that no one was “better” than another.
Jesus was the only One who could claim the title of “Rabbi” or “Master”. The Apostle Paul wrote in Acts 10:34 that “God is no respecter of persons”. As Jesus had pointed out earlier to His disciples, anyone who wants to be great must become a servant (Matthew 20:26-27). The way of greatness is the way of humility–getting yourself off your mind and finding someone else to serve.