Christ's type of the truly great.
We treat this as an abstract question. What is true greatness? Who is the truly great man? But the disciples asked a practical question, bearing immediate relation to their temporal expectations. They, and their conversations, can never be understood unless we keep in mind their earthly ideas of their Lord's mission. Judas, with the grasping disposition, was anticipating his chances in the new kingdom; and even James and John were scheming to secure a promise of the right and left hand places in the new court. Over the expected offices in the new kingdom those disciples quarrelled, until at last they brought their dispute to Jesus, for him to decide it by his authority. When they asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" they meant, "Who is to have the principal office in the new Davidic kingdom which thou art about to set up?" Their question was childish; it would have been framed very differently if it had been childlike. As Christ corrected false notions, we h)ok at those false notions first.
I. MEN'S IDEAS OF GREATNESS. "The things that men deem glorious were of no account with Christ. He did not measure a man's eminence by the height of the pedestal on which he stood, nor by the stars that shone on his breast; he had no admiration for purple and gold, for the flash of jewels, for lofty titles, or any of the thousand things that dazzle the eye and impose on the carnal heart." "Does true greatness belong to the lion hearted, to the righteous, to the martyr, to the ascetic, to the saint? Is Thomas on the way to it, with his strong, logical intellect that will take nothing on credit without evidence and his sturdy fidelity of purpose?;' Greatness must associate either with
II. CHRIST'S IDEA OF GREATNESS. Here our Lord is not dealing with all greatness; only with that greatness which is relative to the ideas then in the minds of disciples. Their greatness meant "being served," guilefully watching for the attention conceived to be their due; self-assertion. His greatness meant "serving", guilelessly watching for the opportunity of doing something kind; meekness that is the opposite of self-assertion. Of this a chill is the type. A man ought not to be in everything like a child. Experience of life makes it impossible for hint to be a child. What was needed by the disciples, and what is needed by us, is that "they should turn from their self-seeking ambition, and regain, in this respect, the relative blamelessness of children."—R.T.