The disciples thought that if Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, then someday He would be king, and they would be ruling the new kingdom at His side. Whoever sits at the king’s side on the right and on the left would be second only to the king himself. James and John asked Jesus that when Jesus establishes His kingdom, they may sit one at His right and the other at His left (cf. Mark 10:37; Matthew 20:21). James and John were planning ahead – they wanted Jesus to guarantee to them the highest positions of honor when the time comes; but the other disciples became indignant because if Jesus granted their request, they would be ranked lower than the two brothers!
Many people wish to be great, and they reckon that they can achieve greatness by gaining power, honor and positions of authority. But according to Christ, the first and greatest among His disciples must be the servant and slave of all (cf. Mark 10:43-44; Matthew 20:26-27). The greatest in the Kingdom of God are the humble servants – people who take upon themselves the burdens of mankind and produce fruitful works of faith, hope and love. The greatest in God’s kingdom are those who give so much more to the world than what they take from it.
“The Tower” by Richard Paul Evans is a story of a young man who wanted to be great. He thought that in order to be great, he had to be higher than everyone else. But in his quest for greatness, he learns step by step what greatness really means. His encounters with the poor old woman and the little boy on the tree made him realize that in order to be great, one must be concerned not of himself, but of others.
Once there was a young man who wanted to be great. He asked the old wise man in the village what it meant to be great. The old man said, “To be great is to be looked up to.” So, the young man went home and built a platform. He took it to the center of the village and stood on it. But not everyone looked up to him, because the taller people were higher than him. He decided to build a taller platform. He said, “Now everyone will look up to me!” But when he was up on the platform, a little girl was looking down at him from the window of a two-story house. Finally, the young man decided to build a tower. He told the people, “Do not bother me.” For months and months, he was so busy building the tower. When it was finished, it was the highest structure in the village. He said, “Now everyone will look up to me. I am the greatest man in the land.”
A little bird flew by and looked down at the young man; the bird told the young man about a woman whom even the birds looked up to. The young man imagined that this woman must fly higher than the birds. So, he set off in search for the woman. When he found her, he saw that she was just a small, old woman in ragged clothes. She was surrounded by the birds as she fed them crumbs of bread. The young man said to her, “I heard that you were great, but you can’t be great because no one looks up to you except these little birds.”
The young man boasted to the old woman, “You must have heard about the man who built a tower and everyone looked up to him.” The old woman replied, “I don’t know if he’s great or not, but I pity him.” When the young man asked why, she said, “I pity him because he must be miserable. He is up there alone when it is hot or cold, and he does it only to be higher than another.” The young man replied, “But he is great because everyone can see him and that makes him great.” The woman said, “Being seen and being great are not the same thing; to be great isn’t about being seen by others, or to be higher than another, but to lift others higher than yourself.”
The young man was puzzled as he went back to town. On his way, he saw children playing, but one boy was apart from the rest and was high up on a tree. The boy looked sad, so he asked the boy, “Why aren’t you playing with the others?” The boy said, “I would rather sit above them in this tree.” “Why?” the young man asked. The boy replied, “It is better to be above them.” The boy pointed to the tower and said, “One day I will build a tower like that one, then I’ll be happy.” The young man said to the boy, “No, you will not be happy there.”
After a long time thinking, the young man took an axe and chopped down the tower. Not long after, a man walked by and said to the young man, “I just got married and I could use some of that wood to finish building my home for me and my wife.” The young man replied, “Help yourself. By the way, do you need help building your house?” Word went around the village about the fallen tower and the available wood. Many of the villagers came to ask for wood. The young man turned no one away and everyone in the village got some wood. Some used it for heating, some used it for cooking, some used the wood to make beautiful carvings. Some of the wood was used to finish a small school building. The whole village was changed by his gift. When the young man was giving away the last of his wood, he overheard some people say, “Look how generous this young man is, everyone in the village says that he is a great man.”
Humble service is based on the love of God and neighbor, and it results from a deep understanding of our relationship with God. If we see ourselves as children of God, depending on Him for life, health, purpose, meaning and everything else, then we begin to understand that life is not all about us, and that we are in this world for a far greater purpose than our own. When we accept the idea that what we accomplish all come from God, then it no longer matters who accomplishes what, because we begin to see the bigger picture that God has put us in this world together.
There is an ancient Chinese saying: “Why is the sea – the king of a hundred river valleys? Because the sea is humble and lies below all of them.” (Lao Tzu – Tao Te Ching)