Scrambling for Greatness – Luke 9:45-52 – Grant Vissers

I don't have to yell. OK, great.

I might yell anyways, but you know, at least now I don't have

to. OK, here we go.

One day everything will work all at the same time.

It's great. I love this.

Hey, if you're new special, welcome to you.

Sometimes I'm better at technology than this.

That's all I can give you. Sometimes my name is my name is

Grant, and I'm one of the pastors here at the church and

it's good to have. It's good to have all of you

with us. I do want to say this one thing

because I saw, listen, like some of us wandering in as Chris was

giving this announcement. And I just want to point out, if

you are a young adult, if you consider yourself to be a young

adult, I'm not gonna challenge you too much on how you define

that. We're we're hosting, we're

hosting a young adults lunch at our house.

Connie, my wife and I are hosting that lunch.

And so we're looking forward to it.

I was thinking as I was sitting there was like, man, wouldn't it

be crazy if you forgot that you were hosting and then it was

just announced and you're OK? Alright, here we go.

Game on. That was not the case.

OK, That was not the case today. We're so looking forward to

that. So I hope that as many of you as

possible can come out to young adults Lunch and we'll try to

fit as many of you into our place as possible.

But we're looking forward to that.

Do you wanna say listen, like if you're new, if you're new, if

you just checking us out and new to Guelph.

Welcome. About a year ago, I was brand

new to Guelph and we've absolutely fallen in love with

this place. So we would love to talk to you

about that as well. We're picking up in a series

that we've been working through on the Gospel of Luke and we're

going to be in it for a long time.

So don't worry if you're just catching up.

There's time to catch up and hang with us for a while.

But we are still in Luke Chapter 9.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

And if you want to find Luke 9 on a phone in a Bible, we've got

some Bibles at the back of the sanctuary over there.

We'll have it on the screens as we work our way through it as

well. I just think it's good to have

it in front of you. It's good to read.

And if it's a different version, that doesn't matter.

And if you write in our church Pew Bibles, that's great.

Like underline things. I just want to get it in front

of you as we work our way through it.

But Luke 9, we're going to be reading from about verse 43,

which backs us up a couple verses through to verse 50.

And I'm gonna pray before we do that.

So if you take your time, find those verses, Lucas, most of the

way through your Bible, and that'll get you most of the way

there. Let's pray.

God, thanks for your love, thank you for your grace, and thank

you for this rhythm of life and gathering that you call us into.

Thanks for this habit and discipline of worship that we

are challenged to embrace. And I'm grateful to be here and

that you would gather us here to worship and to encourage one

another to pray together, to read scripture.

Yet at the end of the day, like none of this works without you.

And so we need you to do what you promised to do, which is to

show up and speak to us and challenge us, encourage us.

Yeah, we're yours. So over these next few minutes

as we read and as we work our way through these these verses,

yeah, what would you do that? Would you remind us of who we

are and whose we are? Would you remind us of your

goodness and of your grace? We pray in Jesus name, Amen.

So Luke 9, starting at roughly verse 43, it says this while

everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, He said to his

disciples, listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you.

The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.

But they did not understand what this meant.

It was hidden from them so that they did not grasp it, and they

were afraid to ask Him about it. An argument started among the

disciples as to which of them would be the greatest.

Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him

stand beside him. Then he said to them, Whoever

welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me, and whoever

welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me for it is the one who is

least among you who is the greatest Master, said John.

We saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we

tried to stop him because he is not one of us.

Do not stop him, Jesus said. For whoever is not against you

is for you. Now I've got a question for you,

and you can answer this by putting your hand up if you'd

like or you can not. Choices.

Up to you, but I'm curious who here is bold enough to admit to

being competitive? OK, right on.

I would add my hand to that as well.

Now here's the real challenge. Who raised their hand first?

Like we want to settle it. OK, try again, 123.

No, I'm just, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

I am competitive. I don't know if you know this

about me. I don't know if this is a

surprise to you or not, but I'm competitive by nature.

It's something I've had all the way through my entire life, my

child's entire childhood and into adulthood.

I think the older I get, like an old age, it's maybe kind of

tempering off a little bit. But I, I, I'm competitive.

I actually think most of us, if not all of us are competitive

human beings seem to have this like really fundamental habit

and way of competing and comparing ourselves to one

another, right? We we compare ourselves to those

who are immediately around us, those we know, like our family,

our siblings growing up. Like don't get me started on

that. Our friends, maybe our

neighbors, our coworkers, like we look around and we just

naturally start to compare and to compete who has what and when

and who's reached what benchmark first and how.

But I think here's where we also as a culture and as a people,

like we tend to get a little bit silly because you and I, we

don't just have a problem comparing ourselves to people

that we know, to people immediately around us in our

life. We compare ourselves to people

that we have never met and probably never will meet.

We compare ourselves not not only to like, siblings and

coworkers and friends and neighbors, but to imaginary

benchmarks that we see all around us, like from advertising

campaigns that push these irrational views of self.

Sort of standards where we ought to be where we aren't to news

outlet stories, to Instagram posts, to social media videos,

all of it that kind of tip us into this mode of who has what,

who looks like what, who is doing this and that that I am

not that I want to. I don't know about you, but

like, when was the last time you remember looking at somebody and

thinking, I'm just not keeping up.

I thought I'd be done school. I thought I'd have a career by

now. I thought I'd be married.

I thought I'd have kids. I thought I'd be retired.

I I thought I'd travel. I'd thought we'd vacation.

I thought we'd enjoy. I thought I'd keep up, like we

all try to do this kind of imaginary, like keeping up with

the Jones, this kind of thing. And it's like the pressure and

the habit of trying to match the social status and lifestyle and

possessions of family and friends and neighbors and peers

because we're afraid that we might be left behind.

So I read this, this story. Everybody's marveling at all

that Jesus did while everybody was looking at all that Jesus

had done. He gathers his disciples and he

says to them, listen carefully. Like don't pay attention to

what's going on over here. Listen carefully to what I'm

gonna tell you. The Son of Man is gonna be

delivered into the hands of men. But they did not understand.

They didn't understand what it meant.

It was hidden from them so that they did not grasp it, and they

were afraid to ask him about it. And in that moment an argument

started among them as to which of them would be the greatest.

Which among us is the greatest, like here?

So here's the situation. A father has just brought his

son to Jesus and his his father's father's begging,

Jesus, heal my son, heal my son. Like cast out the demons that

are imposing on him, that are making him ill.

And furthermore, like this father comes to Jesus and he

says, listen, like I brought my kid to your disciples.

Your disciples couldn't do it. They couldn't heal him.

So I'm begging you, Jesus, would you please heal him?

Jesus has healed the son. That's happened.

And people are marveling at that healing.

They're all over here watching what Jesus had done, celebrating

that this kid was healed. And Jesus says to his disciples,

hey, don't become distracted by what's going on over here.

Don't become distracted away from what really matters.

And so he calls them in close and he says, listen carefully to

what I'm about to tell you. And it's a turning point in the

Gospel of Luke. These last couple of verses,

this chapter, as we move into 10, like this is a turning point

for Luke's gospel because from here we're gonna move very

decidedly toward the cross and towards Jesus's death and

eventually his resurrection. And what we see in these moments

is Jesus saying, listen, like, I'm still going to bring the

Kingdom. I'm still going to heal.

I'm still gonna cast out demons. People are still gonna have

their lives restored. Relationships are still gonna be

made right? All of that will happen, but

don't lose sight of the fact that it is not the Kingdom in

its entirety. This still needs to happen.

We still need to walk to Jerusalem.

We still need to move toward the cross.

Jesus will still need to die. All of this will continue to

happen. But he says, hey, disciples,

don't become so distracted by the miracles and these moments

that you lose sight of what I'm really trying to show you and

reveal and accomplish and do in the world.

And it's like he's saying, hey, pay attention, pay attention.

And, and I think like the disciples at best in this

moment, they lean in and they say, hey, we don't understand

what you're talking about. We're a little bit afraid to ask

you, Jesus, But like, could you just, could you, could you

reveal a little bit more? Could you tell us a little bit

more? We're a little bit curious here.

What do you mean? Like, at best, they would lean

and ask For more information. At worst, like I think maybe

they'd continue to celebrate the miracle and continue to like be

distracted over here and be like, hey, yeah.

But Jesus, can we just remember what you did?

Like, look at this son, he's healed and this father's kid

back. Like, let's celebrate this.

And to me, it's just like it becomes it's almost painfully

funny that they do neither of those things.

The disciples who have just failed to heal this kid.

I say up here, like in the verses that go for it.

They've failed to hear to heal the kid.

Jesus has stepped in and healed, and then the disciples get into

an argument about which of them is the greatest.

It it's a little ironic. It's like, I got an F on this

test. You also got an F on the test.

None of us passed, but who's the greatest is like you can get

into their minds a little bit. It it doesn't make sense.

But I wanted to know something that is so important because I

think it's something that like every single one of us struggles

with in one way or another, and it's this.

So they don't understand. It was hidden from them.

They did not grasp it, and they were afraid.

They were afraid. They argue about who's the

greatest. They begin into this like

descent of comparison because they are afraid.

They didn't understand it was hidden from them.

They were afraid to ask him about it.

And then an argument started. The way that Jesus teaches all

throughout the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the way

the early church wrestle out Jesus's teaching, all of his

teaching invites us toward asking questions.

That's the intention. There's a passage of scripture

where Jesus actually breaks down, hey, we teach in parables.

I teach in parables because. And the because is that he wants

you leaning in. He wants you not just like, hey,

so spoon feed me and so that I can go off and feel a little bit

better about my life. Jesus wants you to lean in and

have to work a little bit, right?

Have to wrestle with what he is teaching and how to apply it to

your life. The implication for you

specifically, you need to be active and participate in it.

And so Jesus is constantly teaching in a way that invites

us to ask question. His desire is for you to lean in

and to ask what does it mean? But in order to do that, you've

got to take a vulnerable and humble posture.

The expectation here isn't for the disciples to know

everything. The expectation isn't that they

can explain why Jesus has done everything, why he was able to

heal the the kid and why they weren't.

Jesus is expectation is is not that the disciples would know

immediately what he means when he says the Son of Man is going

to be delivered into the hands of men.

Like he's not demanding perfect knowledge from them, he's

inviting them into deeper relationship and into wrestling

it out. But the disciples are afraid,

and it's their fear that drives them away from vulnerability,

away from humility, and toward comparison and into this

argument about who will be the greatest, about which among them

is the best. So I kind of think like, what?

What are the disciples trying to figure out?

They're, they're trying to figure out where they fit.

Like where do I fit within the social hierarchy of this group?

Like maybe it is out of fear because they've just failed and

they recognize it. Like where do I belong?

If not here, then how like do I belong?

Here's the thing about comparison.

You and I, we compare ourselves to others because we all have a

fundamental human need for social connection and for self

understanding. Like I need to know who I am and

where I fit, that I do fit, that there is a role for me within a

community. And and so we're all driven,

each of us to ward comparison in an attempt to figure out who am

I? How do I understand myself?

And, and not only that so that I can go off and do my own thing,

but how do I then understanding who I am?

How do I fit into this community around me?

How do I fit into my family? How do I fit into my friends

circle? How do I fit into my profession

and occupation or vocation? Like what role do I have to

play? We're all looking for

connection. We're all looking to understand

ourselves. We need to know who we are, and

we need to know that there is something for us inside of

community. But like so many things and so

many other ways that sin distorts, it takes something

that is good and twists it just enough in the just enough of a

lie that that it looks almost right.

And so it's no longer that I'm just trying to understand

myself, and it's no longer that I'm just trying to understand

how we fit together. It's that I'm trying to

understand who I am and you know that I belong maybe just a

little bit more than the next guy.

We start to believe the lie. I think in comparison that that

belonging is a 0 sum game. We start to believe that that my

belonging is conditional and that in order for me to belong,

I need to belong just a little bit better than you.

I need to have a role just a little bit more than you, and if

you fill this role that that means I like, maybe there's

nothing for me here. We all need to know, have been,

I think, created, believe, created to know they were safe,

that we're secure, that we belong, that we have a place,

that we have a purpose. We wanna know that our lives

have significance, that we are known and that we are loved.

And so we run around looking to fill these longings each of us

created with these longing inside of our heart and our

head. We want to experience being

loved. We want to experience what it is

to love someone. We long to live in a a life that

is significant that to understand and know that we have

a role and a purpose. We search for security and

safety, a place where we can be ourselves actually, fully, truly

and and become vulnerable with others and grow.

We need to be understood and have a purpose.

We need to live for something that matters and do something

that matters. We desperately need community.

You know this belonging to have a people or like a tribe, a

family, a Group, A place to be and to belong, to love and to be

loved. And it's fear that praise on

those longings. It's fear that drives us to

compare and compete and believe that we need to discover and

find and attain and hold on to these things before anybody else

does. Maybe the fear sounds like I I

won't find a community. What if there's nobody for me

there? What if I land?

What if I settle into a residence?

What if I move? What if I change jobs and

there's just nobody for me? What if I make no friends?

What if I have no connection? What if I'm lone?

What if I'm lonely? Maybe it sounds like I I don't

belong. I've never belonged.

I've never been able to find my place.

Maybe the fear sounds like my life doesn't have a purpose and

it isn't where I thought it would be and so therefore it's

never going to be where I believe it ought to be.

Maybe it's fear that sounds like I won't be loved, I can't be

loved, or worse, the fear that I am unlovable.

Like fear and insecurity cause us to grasp that comparison and

it's at the end of the day all of the goodness of belonging

turned in on itself, turned selfish, turned sideways, turned

broken. And in the disciples case, it's

their fear that distracts completely away from what Jesus

is doing. It distracts completely away

from the healing. It distracts completely away

from what he is trying to speak to them and and have them

understand that this is still not it, that there is still work

yet to be done. We need to remain focused.

It's fear that causes them just to descend into this argument

among themselves. Who is the greatest Jesus?

Knowing their thoughts took a little child and had him stand

beside him. And then he said to them,

Whoever welcomes you can highlight that one.

This little child in my name welcomes me, and whoever

welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me for it is the one who is

least among you all. Who is the greatest?

Fred Craddock writes he wrote a commentary on the book of Luke.

He says the argument among the disciples about the greatness

right is ugly and inappropriate for is comparative and

competitive. It destroys their unity and it

diverts praise from God to themselves, and it introduces

into the circle of Jesus followers criteria of greatness

that are totally foreign to the reign of God, something that was

never intended to be part of the community of that eventually we

call the church a part of the Kingdom of God.

Comparative competitiveness. And he says it destroys unity.

Comparison I I believe through and through.

Comparison kills intimacy with Jesus and it destroys unity with

others. There is nothing that distracts

my attention and my affection away from God faster than

comparing myself to others. And you can take it further and

think about your own relationships.

There is nothing that kills the relationship between spouses

quicker than comparison, and there's nothing that destroys

the unity of the Church more than comparison.

Comparison kills intimacy with Jesus and it destroys unity with

others. When I was in high school, my

high school in university, I ran track and field and my coach

would say often run your race, that's it.

Sometimes he's all. He would also say like, run

faster, you're too slow, but but that was just to me.

Run your race. My point is that the you're the

only person who's running your race, so run it.

Don't try to run somebody elses. Like don't get caught up in the

lie that if they win their race, you lose yours.

Don't divert attention away from Jesus because you're more

worried about being greater than the other disciples around you.

It's not a 0 sum game and you can't run somebody else's race,

nor can they run yours. And so I think in this moment,

the disciples here, we're going to talk about this in a second.

The disciples are being invited to own their own formation.

They're being invited to actively participate in how God

is teaching them and where God is leading them.

They're being invited to take a step and to do it with humility

and to do it with vulnerability. Yes, but they're being invited

to act, and I believe the same invitation extends to all of us.

No one can develop your relationship with Jesus better

than you can. People can't do it for you on

your behalf. It's not a spoon fed reality.

You need to be an active participant.

You need to lean in so Jesus knows their thoughts.

This, interestingly, is a phrase reserved typically for Jesus's

adversaries. Most often when we see this line

in the New Testament, it's He knows what the Pharisees are

saying about him or he knows how people are plotting against him.

And so it does create a little bit of this distance he's

pointing out. What Luke wants us to see is

that in this moment, the disciples are not acting in line

with the Kingdom. They're acting in line with

their own will and their own identity and their own wrestling

outs and their own feelings and faults and feeling like they're

not living into the Kingdom. And so then Jesus takes a child

and has the child come up and stand beside him.

And he says to them, whoever welcomes this child in my name

welcomes me. Whoever welcomes this kid,

whoever embraces this kid, whoever draws, brings this kid

in, brings me along with him. And I want us to again notice

this, what I think is a little bit funny, this comedic irony of

what's happening. At the end of the day, the

disciples are acting like kids, like kids like they're acting

like children, like no dad likes me more, more, no dad likes me

more, No, I'm better. No, I'm I'm better.

And Jesus pulls A literal child into the mix and said whoever

becomes whoever welcomes whoever embraces this little kid

welcomes me. Now here's the thing.

In Jesus day, children had absolutely no status.

They were the lowest rung on the status ladder.

All right, we like to elevate children today.

That's not the case in Jesus's time.

They they were less than human beings.

That's kind of how you can think about it.

In Jesus's time, people were concerned about relative status,

How you related, what my status was compared to you, what your

status was compared to me, what our status is like compared to

this group over here, this, you know, group of kids.

And you're constantly trying to navigate who is greater and who

is lesser. And the reason being that to

welcome somebody in Jesus names means to extend to them honor

and hospitality, to see them and to treat them as guests.

To welcome and to receive somebody in means to give them

honour and to treat them with hospitality and then elevate

them. Here's the thing.

You would only do that to someone who had equal status to

you or who was of greater status to you.

You would never welcome somebody who was lower status.

It was expected that they would welcome you, they would receive

you, they would give you hospitality.

And so it's like children lowest on the ladder.

Nobody's giving them hospitality.

Nobody. And Jesus says whoever welcomes,

whoever shows to this littlest of kid, this lowest of honor,

whoever shows them hospitality, whoever receives and welcomes

and embraces and pulls them up, welcomes me.

What Jesus is doing in this moment when the disciples are

are busy bickering about who among them is the greatest, like

let's climb the ladder. Jesus takes the whole thing and

flips it upside down. He begins to dismantle the very

social convention that they're arguing about.

Who's the greatest? Who's less am I?

Are you? And he flips it on his head to

see the lowliest of kids. Now here's the thing.

This could even be and some people suggest that this little

child is the kid that Jesus has just healed.

And he says, this little kid, no status, no honor.

Whoever is humble enough to welcome this kid welcomes me and

welcomes the one who sent me. It's about humility and

hospitality, not comprehension, not competition.

Like everyone is anxious and Jesus is day to extend

hospitality to the great, the greatest.

Jesus says. My disciples, my Kingdom, my

culture is one that offers hospitality to the least.

Alright last slide to wrap up, Master John said.

So this is John replying one of Jesus disciples.

We saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried

to stop him because he is not one of us, she said.

Do not stop him for whoever is not against you, his for you.

Now I read that and like less funny and starting to be like a

little bit more sad. Like, the disciples still don't

get it. This time it's John.

John replies like, hey, yeah, but like, listen, Jesus, OK,

good. Get it about the kids.

But like, we saw somebody driving out demons in your name

and we tried to stop him. Like he's not one of us.

He's not one of us. He's not on the end with you.

He's like, who should we allow this guy to do the things?

Like, what's that about? But again, like this guy's doing

the things that the disciples just failed at, and he's doing

it in Jesus's name. And it's almost like they're

saying like, hey, like, we get it, we're OK, alright, you've

convinced us about welcoming kids.

But like, surely he's not one of us.

Like we were right for doing this, right?

The disciples? They're still acting like the

Kingdom of God is exclusive and like they have secret knowledge

that nobody else has and that nobody else is entitled to and

that if they receive it, it has to happen through them, like

through their little like in crowd and group.

And and she just simply says, no, don't stop him.

Now eventually we're going to see that Jesus sends out not

just the 12 disciples, but 70 disciples to preach and teach

and heal, to do the things that that are of the Kingdom and to

carry the culture of the Kingdom into the world in very real and

tangible ways. It's not gonna be just about

that little 12 group of in guys who think they know all the

things but are still wrestling it out like this thing is going

to blow up far beyond and NT right.

What he says about these disciples that that they're

gonna have to learn that the Kingdom of God might be going

forward through people that they don't know and who aren't part

of their group. And I would even suggest an an

argue through people that that we don't like or that we think

we might not agree with or get along with, like the Kingdom of

God is exploding. And the disciples have to reckon

with the fact that like even this guy who they tried to stop,

even through him, and I would say especially through him, the

Kingdom of God is gonna go. Fear causes us, and now I'm

speaking to you if you've been in the church for a long time or

some time. I think fear causes us in the

church to act the same way. Like what if I don't like the

way this thing goes? Like surely the Kingdom of God

isn't happening through them, that group over there, right?

Like we don't, we don't agree with them, we don't like them,

we don't get along with them. They don't look like us, they

don't worship like us. Like they don't believe the same

things that we believe. Like surely not through them.

We do it in our own community, like what if?

What if I? What if I'm no longer in

control? Like what if this thing

happened? Like what if I don't like the

change? What if it doesn't feel like

it's about me? What if I'm not comfortable?

What if I don't get the attention that I once did?

Like what if I'm not consulted? Or what if my opinion is not

asked? Like what if I lose influence?

What if and and in fear were driven away from unity and were

driven away from the mission of God?

And again, I say, like fear kills intimacy with God and it

destroys unity with others. And together, those things

distract entirely from the mission of God, from what God is

doing. And so here's my challenge.

In a world that seems to perpetually choose to comment on

other people's lives and to compare and to critique and to

yell and argue and fight and misrepresent God and the gospel,

and in the world that fails to demonstrate the humility and

hospitality of the Kingdom, Let's choose for us here to be

ones who lean in. Let's choose to be ones who are

humble and who are hospitable. Ones who raise up the last and

the least. Ones who work for peace and for

justice, and who do carry the culture of the Kingdom.

Let me pray. Yeah, Thanks for your love and

for your grace and thanks that each one of us gets to

experience that same love and that same grace.

So you got like we would do Wanna pray?

We know those of us here wrestling things out need in a

very brand new way to experience your love and your grace because

of your death and your resurrection.

And God, I pray that for those of us here wrestling that out,

You would continue to convict us and challenge us.

Pray that you continue to push and I pray that, yeah, we we

would turn and I pray that we might know and experience in a

brand new way that love and grace and the life that you have

on offer. And yeah, for many of us, I pray

that you would do that in a new way, for a new season and for a

new time, that you would continue to remind us of your

love and your grace and how it challenges and changes and

transforms our hearts and our minds.

Yeah, we need you to do it. That I I pray against this like

spirit of anger and resentment and one that's driven toward

conflict and comparison that we do seem to see.

I pray God that we would be ones who are convicted and convinced

to be humble and to be hospitable and to welcome and to

receive the ones who embrace all that your Kingdom has to offer.

God thanks that you love us and things that life inside the

Kingdom is one of joy, absolutely one that is fun

living. God, I pray today that you would

challenge us to continue to become the people you need us to

be. And I pray these things in the

strong name of Jesus, Amen.