Climbing the Social Ladder
“Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:26-28
In Matthew’s Gospel, the mother of James and John requests that her two sons have the best seats in the house when Jesus comes into His Kingdom. However, Jesus warns hHs listeners from seeking out the best seats.
Jesus knew that our desire for status and position and the threat of losing it is never too far from our minds. And yet, Jesus reminds us in Matthew’s Gospel that all our jockeying for position — all our climbing the social ladder — none of it counts in God’s Kingdom. Instead, Jesus came to do away with anything that gets in the way of our relationship with God including our social status.
The good news is that before God we are all alike. We are all God’s beloved children. And while this is great news, it also throws us into a radical dependence upon God's grace because there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn God’s love. We can’t rely upon our accomplishments, achievements, bank accounts or resumes. Suddenly, there is nothing we can do to establish ourselves before God except rely upon what God has already done for us through His Son Jesus.
So, today, with God’s grace, may we seek to serve others instead of ourselves. May we use what God has abundantly blessed us with to bless others, and may we remember: “whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.”
