31  The Mark of True Greatness  (Luke 9:46–50)

An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest. But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side, and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.” John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow along with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you.” (9:46–50)

This section stands at a critical juncture in Luke’s gospel, as it records the close of the Lord’s Galilean ministry. Beginning in 9:51 and continuing through 19:27 Luke records His final journey to Jerusalem. While traversing the towns and villages of Judea for those months leading up to His death, Jesus focused on more intensive training of the Twelve. This passage is also a crucial part of their preparation for future ministry.

The overarching theme of these two incidents is the importance of humility, set against the backdrop of the disciples’ blatant pride. The first incident finds them arguing among themselves about which one was the greatest; in the second one John confessed that they had attempted to hinder the ministry of someone outside of their group.

Nothing comes more naturally to fallen human beings than pride, manifesting itself in self-centeredness, self-love, self-promotion, and self-fulfillment. Pride is the defining sin of fallen human nature, the soil in which all other sins sprout, take root, and grow. It is the damning sin that produced angelic rebellion against God and sought to topple Him from His throne as the sovereign ruler of the universe. It produced the sin of Eve and Adam, plunging the race into corruption. That pride has been reclassified as a virtue throughout history and in contemporary society only reveals the depths of human depravity. Isaiah wrote of such a wicked reversal of reality, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isa. 5:20).

In contrast to the pride that marks fallen humanity, those who come to Christ for salvation are transformed and become characterized by self-hate, self-denial, and self-abasement (see the discussion of 9:23 in chapter 28 of this volume). Only when pride is divinely overpowered by the conviction of one’s sinfulness and wretchedness can a person truly repent and come to saving faith.

The apostle Paul’s spiritual biography illustrates that truth. His resume, from a human perspective, was impressive (Phil. 3:5–6). He had adhered to all the rites, rituals, and traditions of Judaism, starting with his being circumcised when he was eight days old. Paul was not only an Israelite, but also a member of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the most noble of the twelve tribes. The zeal for the law that made him a Pharisee also made Paul a persecutor of the church. In terms of the external righteousness of the law, he was a blameless “Hebrew of Hebrews” (v.5; cf.Gal. 1:14).

But when he was confronted by Christ and convicted by the Holy Spirit, Paul’s view of himself was reversed. Those things that had been in the plus column he now wrote off as losses. So strongly did he repudiate the achievements of which he had once been proud that he described them as rubbish, or manure (Phil.3:8).When through the convicting work of the Spirit, Paul understood that he was actually condemned because he was living as a consistent violator of God’s law, he was brought face-to-face with the condition and consequences of his spiritual bankruptcy. As he explained in Romans 7:9–11:

Although pride is broken at conversion, when the repentant sinner approaches God with what the Old Testament calls a “broken and contrite heart” (Ps.51:17; cf.Isa.57:15; 66:2), it is by no means permanently defeated. Even after his salvation, Paul still struggled with the sins that flow from pride:

Sanctification is the progressive triumph of humility over pride in the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:1–14). That pride is not easily defeated is evident from the experience of the disciples. Even after the Lord confronted their pride on this occasion, it continued to surface even in the most shocking and unlikely of circumstances. At the Last Supper, just after the Lord had made His dramatic announcement that one of them would betray Him, the apostles “began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing” (Luke 22:23). Incredibly, the discussion degenerated into “a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest” (v. 24)—the same selfish argument that prompted the Lord’s teaching on this occasion.

It must be noted that sinners’ humbling themselves in repentance is not a pre-salvation work by which they prepare their hearts for God to save them; the unaided human will has no capacity to be humble. Those who are spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1), blind (2 Cor. 4:4), and unable to understand spiritual truth (1 Cor. 2:14) are not able to debase themselves, repent, and bring themselves to saving faith and spiritual life. Only the Spirit of God, using the Word of God, can penetrate the stubborn, proud heart, humble it, and make it contrite and penitent.

Throughout the Bible God promises to bless the humble. He will strengthen them (Ps. 10:17), teach them (Ps. 25:9), save them (Ps.76:9), give grace to them (Prov. 3:34; James 4:6), revive them (Isa. 57:15), give them the blessings of His kingdom (Matt. 5:3–5), and exalt them (Luke 14:11; 1 Peter 5:6). Humility is the ground that receives the refreshing rain of God’s richest blessing; it is the soil in which all the other Christian virtues grow. Believers must strive with all their strength against remaining pride in dependency on the Holy Spirit to gain the humility that honors God and brings His blessing. The battle is relentless all through life, since pride is powerful and resistant in the heart.

There is no greater teacher of humility than the Lord Jesus Christ, who is “gentle and humble in heart” (Matt. 11:29). No one has ever been more exalted and no one has ever gone lower. Jesus,

The “Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8) went from the glory of heaven to the shame of the cross. He is the example for believers to follow as they fight pride. Paul exhorted believers to do “nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than [themselves and] not merely look out for [their] own personal interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3–4). By doing so they will have the same “attitude [of humility] in [themselves] which was also in Christ Jesus” (v. 5).

The disciples’ quarrel over which of them was the greatest reflected the prevailing prideful attitude in their religious culture. That was particularly true of the leaders of Judaism, who exhibited their pride openly as a symbol of their spirituality by enlarging the tassels of their robes and their phylacteries (Matt. 23:5), and making a public spectacle of their fasting (Matt. 6:16), praying (Luke 20:47), and almsgiving (Matt. 6:2), as well as in their disdain for all the common people beneath them (Matt. 23:4). They knew nothing of humble servant leadership (Matt. 20:26–28).

The geographical setting for this lesson on humility was Capernaum (Mark 9:33). Located at the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum had been Jesus’ headquarters during His Galilean ministry (Matt. 4:13). The incidents took place in a house (Mark 9:33), possibly Peter’s (cf.Matt.8:5, 14). Jesus used the apostles’ proud quarrel and John’s confession to clarify six characteristics of pride. Pride ruins unity, raises relativity, reveals depravity, rejects deity, reverses reality, and reacts with exclusivity.

PRIDE RUINS UNITY An argument started among them (9:46a)

Jesus’ warning of His impending suffering and death (9:44) and their need to be willing to suffer (9:23–26) had not sunk in with the apostles (9:45–46). They still were focused on the crown instead of the cross; on the glory, not the suffering. Still anticipating the imminent arrival of the kingdom, an argument started among them as to their place in it. Ironically, while Jesus spoke of His personal suffering, they argued about their personal glory.

This was a disturbing and potentially disastrous development. These men were the first generation of gospel preachers, and would be the leaders of the soon to be founded church. With so much riding on them and so much opposition from the hostile world, they needed to be unified and supportive of each other. The danger revealed here is that pride ruins unity by destroying relationships. Relationships are based on loving sacrifice and service; on selfless deferring to and giving to others. Pride, being self-focused, is indifferent to others. Beyond that, it is ultimately judgmental and critical, and therefore divisive. Because of that, pride is the most common destroyer both of relationships and churches. It plagued the Corinthian church, causing Paul to ask, “For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” (1 Cor. 3:3; cf. 2 Cor. 12:20). Knowing that pride is the wedge Satan uses to split churches and splinter relationships, the Lord stressed to the disciples the crucial necessity of humility

PRIDE RAISES RELATIVITY

as to which of them might be the greatest. (9:46b)

Pride results in thinking oneself superior and ranking others lower in an arbitrary fashion. The apostles were arguing about which of them might be the greatest, no doubt touting what they had accomplished during their recent preaching and healing tour (9:1–6). Such an obvious manifestation of carnal immaturity (cf. 1 Cor. 3:1–9) must have saddened Jesus. The apostles were like those of whom Paul wrote, “When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding” (2 Cor. 10:12). Anything they had accomplished in their ministries was not because of their abilities, but solely through the power granted them by Jesus (9:1).

The endless sorting of people in petty fashion to make some feelsuperior to others, as the apostles were doing, merely pours gas on the fires of pride and burns through the fabric of unity.

PRIDE REVEALS DEPRAVITY

But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side, (9:47)

As always, Jesus went beyond the outward manifestation of sinful behavior to the deeper issue. In His omniscience, the Lord knew what they were thinking in their heart (cf. 5:22; 7:39–40; John 2:25). The apostles’ argument flowed from sinful hearts (the noun translated thinking is the same one translated “argument” in v. 46). The singular form of the noun translated heart indicates it is being used in a collective sense. They were all thinking the same evil thoughts.

The depraved heart (Jer. 17:9; Rom. 2:5) is the source of all the defiling speech that flows out of the mouth, since the “mouth speaks from that which fills [the] heart” (Luke 6:45). In Mark 7:14–15 Jesus, “after He called the crowd to Him again … began saying to them, ‘Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.’”

Mark notes that at this point Jesus confronted the apostles by asking them about what He already knew in His omniscience had happened. He said to them, “What were you discussing on the way?” (Mark 9:33). Embarrassed, “they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest” (v. 34). According to Matthew’s account of this incident, the disciples, apparently committed to the nobility of their debate, asked Jesus to settle their dispute and declare which of them was the “greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:1). To illustrate the inappropriateness of their ridiculous hassling and to overturn their legitimizing of pride, Jesus took a child (perhaps one of Peter’s children) and stood him by His side. The Lord chose a child to illustrate humility because children were the lowliest in society. Darrell L.Bock writes, “In Judaism, children under twelve could not be taught the Torah, and so to spend time with them was considered a waste” (Luke 1:1–9:50 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 894–95).

Having taken up the child in His arms (Mark 9:36), Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3–4). Instead of touting their supposed achievements, the apostles(like all who would enter the kingdom) needed to humble themselves and acknowledge that they had no rank and no achievements that merited entrance into or elevation in God’s kingdom; that they could contribute nothing to their salvation. Since all who enter the kingdom are considered the greatest in it, there is no spiritual ranking; greatness in the kingdom is absolute, not relative (cf. Luke 18:15–17). Jesus used the most insignificant of all to teach what it really is to be the greatest of all.

PRIDE REJECTS DEITY

“Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; (9:48a)

Jesus’ next statement indicates the severest consequence of pride: Whoever receives this child, symbolic of believers, in My name receives Me. The Lord spoke here of His union with those who are His. Paul expressed that principle when he wrote that “the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Cor. 6:17). Therefore those who reject believers are also rejecting Jesus (cf. Matt. 25:41–45; Acts 9:4–5). Further, since whoever receives Jesus receives the Father who sent Him, those who reject other Christians are not only rejecting Jesus, but the Father as well (cf. John 5:23). So strongly does Jesus identify with believers that He declared that those who lure them into sin are deserving of the most horrifying death imaginable: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:6). As the Lord solemnly warned, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven” (v. 10). How believers treat each other is how they treat the Son and the Father. To demean or show disdain toward one of the Lord’s own is to seriously dishonor Him.

PRIDE REVERSES REALITY

for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.” (9:48b)

Pride drives people to exalt themselves, push their agendas, fulfill their ambitions, and receive praise from others. But how fallen minds think is the reverse of spiritual reality since, as Jesus told the apostles, theone who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great (cf. Matt. 23:11–12). Spiritual wisdom, which equates greatness with humility, is counterintuitive; it is the opposite of the way the world, both secular and religious, thinks. The truly great in the heavenly kingdom are not those who claw their way to the top and seek for people to give them honor, but those who humbly defer to others, considering them more important than themselves and looking out for their interests (Phil. 2:3–4). It is the humble, not the proud, that God will exalt (1:52; 14:11; 18:14; Matt.23:5–12; James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6).

PRIDE REACTS WITH EXCLUSIVITY

John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow along with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you.” (9:49–50)

This second incident reveals that John at least was beginning to understand the Lord’s message. In light of Jesus’ warning in verse 48 John wondered whether the apostles had acted properly in an earlier incident, and feeling some guilt decided to ask Jesus about it. “Master, he said, “we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow along with us.” Since this incident is not recorded in the Gospels, the identity of this man is not known. That he was not a phony exorcist like the sons of Sceva (Acts 19:13–14) is clear, since he was successfully casting out demons in Christ’s name; that is, consistent with His authority and power. It was not an empty claim such as that in Matthew 7:21–23:

Whoever he was, the apostles, pridefully jealous of their exclusive position, tried to prevent him from carrying on his ministry because he did not follow along with them. In other words, he was not one of their group. Why Jesus permitted him to do what he did is also not clear. It may be that he would later be included as one of the seventy, who would have such power (Luke 10:17). In any case, he provided another object lesson for Jesus to use to teach the disciples humility

Jesus confirmed John’s doubt about how they had handled the situation, and said to him, “Do not hinder him.” The Lord removed any doubt that this man was a genuine disciple, since He would never have forbidden the apostles to rebuke a false teacher.

Pride promotes exclusivity, but humility promotes unity. We cannot embrace those who claim to be Christ’s but do not preach the truth of Christ. However we must embrace all who both name the name of Christ and also speak His truth, whatever organization they belong to. Christians must have the attitude of Paul, who rejoiced when the truth was proclaimed—even when those preaching it were cruelly hostile to him (Phil. 1:15–18).

Jesus closed this section with the axiomatic statement, “He who is not against you is for you.” There is no middle ground between truth and error; between sound doctrine and heresy. Every person is either for Christ, or against Him. Later in Luke’s gospel, the Lord repeated this saying, this time relating it directly to Himself: “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters” (11:23). Only those who teach the truth can be embraced as fellow servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pride is not a virtue, but the source of all sin. It must not be excused or justified, nor can its heinousness be downplayed. The sobering truth is that “everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; assuredly, he will not be unpunished” (Prov. 16:5), since “a proud heart … is sin” (Prov. 21:4). But the blessed promise is that although “God is opposed to the proud, [He] gives grace to the humble”(James 4:6).