Wulf's Webden

I could end there and it would run neatly into the song Roger has carefully prepared to follow the talk. However, I have only touched on one of the readings and I also want to add a few thoughts to help you draw on the extract from Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians.

Paul is someone who could lay claim to be the greatest of all the apostles. Even before he met Jesus and became a committed follower of our Lord, he was notably well educated in the Jewish scriptures and might have won a “best Pharisee” award several years in a row. After his dramatic conversion, he spent several years receiving further revelations and then blazed a course that founded numerous churches and gave us about a third of our New Testament, writings that still strengthen many of us on a daily basis. And what did Paul say about himself? “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” (1 Tim 1:15, KJV).

That is one of most remarkable things about an altogether remarkable man. When he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, the Lord pierced his heart with insight and killed Paul’s pride in himself. Personal glory no longer attracted him; he was content to pour himself out for the Lord and for others.

The Corinthian church he was writing to was dangerously exciting. Believers with a whole range of gifts, including clearly supernatural ones, jostled together and trampled on each other. Paul had helped establish the fellowship and reached out to them with parental care. He wanted them to stop seeking glory and fame for themselves and to come back to remembering that Jesus is the one who is worthy of all honour and glory and praise (Rev 5:12, NIVUK).

1 Corinthians looks like it was a difficult letter to write, although some of the final chapters are particularly rich. To my mind, 2 Corinthians suggests there had been an improvement in the church, although still a need for guidance. We don’t have a 3 Corinthians but perhaps that is a reminder to look back at ourselves? We are among those who carry the mantle forward from the early church, writing a new letter by our lives.

Do we let our passions run unbridled, seeking our own glory and fame? Perhaps we don’t think of ourselves as that exciting but just move from week to week, keeping things ticking along in a way that is comfortable to us and forgetting our call to serve others rather than judging and dismissing them? It is the example Jesus gives us and it is simply good for us. When I think of the people I know who are willing to pour themselves out for others, their lives seem full. Conversely, those who seem unwilling to pour themselves out for others often seem quite empty and troubled. I’m still pondering that line of thought, so don’t take it as gospel but it does make sense that, for best results, we follow the Maker’s instructions!

Let me end by giving you another reading from Paul’s letters, from the joyful book of Philippians and his portrait of Jesus that matches John’s memory of the Master girding himself with a towel and washing his disciples’ feet (Php 2:1-11, ESVUK).

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

May God bless the reading of his word to us and use it to shape us into people who show his truth to a needy world, as we stand and bring our lives as an offering of worship to the Servant King.

With all due respect, it is safe to say that that Nathanael Bartholomew was not the most important of the twelve. Who do you think was? Quite a few are easy to group with him in the ‘not’ category. I would even concede that includes Thomas, about whom I spoke in April, who I always feel inclined to champion. Who was the greatest of the disciples though?

I won’t ask for votes on this but I expect Simon Peter would be a strong contender. He has such a prominent role in the gospels and was an important figure in the early history of the church. His friend John might be in the running too, having written a visionary gospel account and some very profound epistles. A more left-field choice might be Judas Iscariot – not a hero but certainly a decisive part in the story of redemption. Back onto the heroes’ side, although bending the rules, I could also see an argument for Paul. He wasn’t part of the twelve but transformed the church through his ministry and writings – more on him later.

Hopefully you have in mind our two readings from this morning and will realise that, by these speculations on greatness, I’m leading you a little way up the garden path. However, it is true to say that our own culture is deeply addicted to figuring out who is the greatest. For example, the most-watched TV shows are often contests to find the “best” in a given field. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of us in this room like to sit down to watch people get up and dance on Strictly or perhaps you make a beeline for the Bake-off. I’d like to pretend I’m immune to this craze for judging greatness but I need to be cautious about getting too smug. While I can name plenty of contests I’m not interested in, I can also think of other ones I have followed at times. Sit me down in front of Portrait Artist of the Year and you are likely to find me watching avidly and spouting opinions with the best of them!

It isn’t just me and it isn’t just you – it seems to be a trait that is deeply embedded in the human psyche. Travel back 2,000 years to the Roman province of Judea – in other words, the setting for the gospel accounts – and you find that people in those days were just the same. As evidence to support that, I give you the fact that the disciples often found themselves debating which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom of Jesus. We get that in today’s passage from Luke 22 but also Luke 9, Mark 9 and Matthew 18, which are other New Testament passages featuring the word ‘greatest’. Those three seem to be the same incident, a different one from the discussion at the Last Supper. In all three, Jesus contrasts the disciples’ desire to be honoured with the humble attitude of a child. The child enters in not by their own strength but by the love and grace of another. I also found ‘greatest’ used in Matthew 23. In that case Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and condemning their desire for greatness but the disciples were present to hear this teaching. You might be tempted to think they would have got the point but they come back to it, after Jesus has broken bread, poured out wine and spoken plainly about the new Covenant to be established through his body and blood!

If you have studied all four Last Supper accounts, you might remember that John gives a lot more details than Matthew, Mark and Luke put together. Early in John’s description of that evening, Jesus washes the disciples feet – that wonderful lesson we recall on Maundy Thursday – and demonstrates that we are called to a life of service. How on earth could those disciples be so thick as to return to the subject of which of them is the greatest later on in the same evening?

Let’s not judge them too harshly. I’m sure most of us have been similarly dense in the past and, given half the chance, will demonstrate that again in the future! When you do though, remember the graciousness of how Jesus responds to them (Luke 22:25-27, ESVUK):

The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.

We like to be exalted. Perhaps even more than that, we like to sit in judgement on others. May Jesus help us to set that aside and, instead, follow his path as the Servant-King.