The Right Question

In Eleven O’Clock Tick Tock, Bono sings, “We thought that we had the answers; it was the questions we had wrong.” The disciples were in a similar situation with the wrong questions. With the wrong questions, the answers would inevitably be wrong.

On a journey to Capernaum, their home station, the disciples debated,

“Who is the greatest?” (Mark 9:33–34)

This word, “the greatest” (meizon), comes from the familiar word: mega “great.” Was Peter the greatest because he was older? Perhaps Peter, John, and James were greater than the rest because Jesus took them to his transfiguration. Was John the greatest because Jesus loved him?

Jesus wanted them to know that their question was wrong. It shouldn’t be, “Who is the greatest, meizon, but who is first, protos?” (9:35a). This was determinable.

“If anyone wants to be first, s/he will be last to everyone and a servant to everyone” (9:35b)

When they looked around and saw who was the last person to enter the house after serving all the others – by giving water to wash their feet – that person was the first. He would have been that person who ran ahead of the pack, gathered the water, and washed their feet one by one as they entered the house, and finally, he, too, washed his feet and came in. It wouldn’t have been Jesus, Peter, James, or John who would have entered the house first. Perhaps it was Nathanael or the other James, the not-so-well-known James, who entered the house last after serving everyone else. In reality, he was first.

As good as being first was, that was not the right question either. To demonstrate the right question, Jesus gave an object lesson: he took a child, placed him in their midst, picked him/her up in his arms, and said:

“Whoever accepts one of these children in my name, that one accepts me. And whoever accepts me, not only accepts me but the one who sent me.” (9:37)

The true question wasn’t “Who’s the greatest?” or “Who is the first?” But “Who accepts the unacceptable?” Somehow, as they entered the house, the children were in the periphery, not their midst. But Jesus brought one of them, stood him/her right in the middle of the disciples, and carried that child in his arms as a sign of his acceptance. When the disciples learned to make those in the periphery, like the children, the center of their lives, they had the right question and answer – they accepted Jesus and Father who sent him. Instead of being self-focused, they became others-focused. They served others. They accepted those they didn’t usually accept and made them the center of their lives.

We may be too humble to ask, “Am I the greatest?” or “Am I the first?” But we center our lives around us, “me.” We sing, “Make me a servant.” “I want to serve you, Lord.” “I am your servant.” We forget how we-focused we are. We are still after the greatest and first, even though we don’t think we are. The Lord Jesus gave a simple formula to be one who accepts him and the Father: accept the person we find the hardest to accept, whether a race, color, people group, or simply a neighbor, classmate, churchmate, or enemy!