An Unlikely Ambition

An Unlikely Ambition

Read: Luke 9:46-48

“He who is least among you all—he is the greatest.”

Luke 9:48

“Jesus’ life began in a borrowed stable and ended in a borrowed tomb.”

—Alfred Plummer

IN WORD Jesus is always using unexpected examples. Tiny mustard seeds illustrate the potential of His kingdom. Despised Samaritans illustrate what it means to be a true neighbor. And when Jesus speaks of being great, He illustrates the concept with the lowliest people of all. In some passages, servants are the example. In this passage, it’s children—not just children, in fact, but little children. The least self-conscious among us. The most naive about the world’s understanding of “greatness.” The last in line when it comes to “getting ahead.”

This object lesson for the disciples, as for so many others, is yet another indication that God’s whole value system contradicts our own. Ever since the Fall, we human beings have been caught in a misguided ambition—toward self-fulfillment, toward achievement, toward impressive accomplishments, and toward status. The problem with our ambition is that it strives toward unworthy goals. It misses what is truly valuable. It exalts self to the exclusion of God. We can even twist our ambition to make it appear godly, striving for influence and status allegedly for the sake of God’s kingdom. But if it’s not by God’s means, it will never accomplish His purposes. And His means run contrary to our instincts.

God’s means for greatness are not climbing up the ladder, but going down. Why? Because when our ambition accomplishes much, we get glory and we compete with God. When our ambition rests in what God can do, He gets glory. That’s why God chose a wandering Aramean for a patriarch and a shepherd for a king. And it’s why He came as an infant in an obscure little town. He is more clearly the author of greatness when the great get such lowly starts.

IN DEED Do you desire greatness in God’s kingdom? It’s not a bad desire—Jesus encourages it even in this verse. But the means may not be what you’d expect. Measure greatness not by status but by dependence on the One who is greater than all others.