Pride

Read:

Mark 9:33-35

Reflect:

We (humans) love to measure things, don’t we? We measure our performance at work to see if we deserve that raise or not. We measure how tall our kids have grown. We measure someone’s value (often subconsciously and falsely) by how well they’re dressed or the car they drive. We love to measure success by numbers: annual income, memberships, attendance, viewers, likes, etc.

It’s not all bad to measure things. Measuring some things can be useful in making adjustments to do better in future. However, sometimes our measurements are warped. This seemed to be the case for the disciples who argued about which of them were the greatest. They must have known it wasn’t good to compare themselves, because when Jesus asked them about it they kept quiet.

Then Jesus gives them the true way to measure themselves: service. It seems counter intuitive, but Jesus says that if you want to be first, you have to be ‘the servant of all’ (v. 35). The perfect example of this is, of course, Jesus Christ who ‘did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45).

Respond:

Lord Jesus, thank you that you do not measure us by earthly standards. Please forgive me for the times I chose to be important rather than to serve. Please show me how I can serve those around me to the glory of your name alone. Amen.

Remind:

”One of the principal rules of religion is to lose no occasion of serving God. And, since he is invisible to our eyes, we are to serve him in our neighbour; which he receives as if done to himself in person, standing visibly before us.”

~John Wesley~

Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash