Well, I'm not really sure how I feel about the verse in Matthew. To be honest I never felt like I really understood it. But I think when you connected it to the idea of love with the other verses, it kind of put it into perspective for me. I think Jesus is trying to teach us two things: the first is the idea that we could accomplish great things but if we don't have love it is all in vain. Not that John the Baptist didn't have love or do things in love but Jesus is just using this as an opportunity to say, "Look, it doesn't matter what you do, what makes you great is whether you have love like your Father or not." And I think the other thing He is telling us is that Jesus loves us with an unconditional love because of who we are, and not how great we are in the world's eyes or how many things we do in His name.
I've been reading Velvet Elvis, this amazing book, and in it Rob Bell talks about the Jewish tradition of educating their children. Every male child was sent at the age of 6 to school to learn the Torah. It wasn't optional, but to them edu was the key to survival. So, by the age of 10 they had the entire Torah memorized. THose who showed promise would go onto the next level called Bet Talmud where they'd memorize the rest of the Hebrew scriptures. Around 14 or 15 only the best of the best were still studying and they would then go before a rabbi and apply to be his disciple. So, essentially all who had failed went back home to learn the family trade.
The thing that strikes me is that, when Jesus came, who did he call to be His disciples? Did he call the rabbis, the guys who had the entire Old Testament memorized and years of training behind them, or did he call fishermen, men like Simon Peter and Andrew? Essentially, the failures? I think it is so amazing because God is telling us that we are great, we are chosen, we are His disciples today not for what we have done, but simply because He loves us for who we are. It reminds me of that song we sang at U-Nite: It starts with something like "What can I do for you, what can I say for you Beautiful King" and then in the next part God answers with "You don't have to do a thing, just simply be with me."
We are great in the Kingdom of Heaven, and have value here on Earth because the God of the universe loves us. We can wake up victorious every morning because we're loved by the King of kings. It's all about identity, and our identity is not found in what we do, but in who we are.
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Wow, Amen Kailey, you really dug out some great insights there! Especially the part about Jesus really using literally those who would be considered "the least of these," thanks for the illustration by Rob Bell!
I think you are right on the money insofar as what Jesus was trying to say with his example of John the baptist. It is really refreshing for us to understand that like you said: "...what makes you great is whether you have love like your Father or not."
Kinda reminds me that if we speak with the tongues of angels, heck, if we prophesy and do all these actions yet have not love, like Paul says, we are really doing nothing.
The human preoccupation with greatness is really interesting and paradoxical. I don't think its inherently sinful, but it challenges us to think about whether or not we want to be great for God or ourselves, and how we should act correspondingly. Think of the story of the Syrian general, Sisera, who had leprosy and went to Israel to be cured by a prophet. When he was told all he needed to do was to bath in the local river, he left in a huff, saying that the rivers of his homeland were mightier than the ones in Israel, why did he have to travel all that way, bearing all those gifts, if all he had to do was bathe. Sisera was looking at the method of healing, not the power of God behind it. As his maidservant pointed out, he would done whatever the prophet had said if it had been some elaborate and difficult task for him in order to get healed, instead he balked at something that he thought was simple and beneath what a man of his status and nationality and rank should be doing.
I think that Jesus is telling us that we would be surprised at times at the sheer humility and lowliness it would take to really be great in His. Its also amazing how we know this, but we still expect to see or be something *greater * than ourselves on this earth to be great for God. I have to admit something very silly, I oft-times fantasize that I could do so much more for God on the campus if I was some big-time football or basketball player or someone in Student Government. Its funny, because I rarely stop to consider how much extra pressure, temptation, and plain old paranoia that that occur on me when I have a hard enough time keeping a handle on things and letting God lead and comfort me just as I am.
Why, like Sisera, do we want to make things harder for ourselves in order to match up to an expected level of greatness? Maybe with looking at greatness, we incorrectly identify it with the ability to accomplish the difficult, without looking at it with Jesus' perspective; greatness is the ability to rely on GOD to accomplish the difficult. Jesus said it himself in the book of John, He expects those who believe in Him and follow His commands to do “greater works than these.” That's right, Jesus wants us to do greater works than HIM. This is perhaps the single most terrifying verse in the entire bible to me, its like “You want me to do what now!?!?!” as my mind frantically creates images of failing to heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, or divinely slice a loaf of bread and multiply some salmon.
Yes I am a bit crazy. But if you think of the preposterousness of us achieving something the Son of God would think is greater than what He could do, think about it as just that. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, He had a built-in relationship with the Lord so to speak, so wouldn't it be something if wretched creatures like us with all the disadvantages of our sinful state managed to do the same things Christ did. You go back to Acts and pretty much every miracle Christ performed was done by his apostles, and Christ considers But like Ed Silvoso said in prayer evangelism, the church is better equipped now to reach more people in many different ways than Christ ever could. We are equipped for greatness but when it comes time to grasp it, I know I shrink back.
I am not saying I have all the answers or that my interpretation is correct, far from it. I pray that God grants us courage and humility, two aspects that I certainly know John had. Let us not be reeds shaken by the wind or those who seek only to wear comfortable clothes and live in palaces (at least not till heaven) but let us endeavor to be great now, in the talents that God has given us and in the ministry that he has placed us in. We are who we are but let us seek to be who God wants us to be.
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