To be Great

But what does it mean to be great?

Matthew 20:25-27 - Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—

Make America Great Again.  Doesn’t that sound good, it does to me, I think we should all strive to be as great as we can.  The problem is how does one become great? How we define great will depend on our values. Do we use a worldly view of greatness or a Christian view? 

When God sends Samuel to anoint a new king, Samuel is impressed by the looks of Eliab, he has a worldly view of greatness but God tells him  “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” - 1 Samuel 16:7b. This is a preview of what comes with Jesus. Jesus is the perfect example of what true greatness looks like. We should strive for greatness and the more we look like Jesus the greater we are.

The world sees the greatest as the ones that can impose their will on others. The ones that use superior weapons and greater wealth to rule.  It is the ones that can ensure their safety and their comfort over the safety and the actual needs of others.  This view is confrontational, it is the me first, my group first, my country first.  This view is I win you lose; this view is that we are better than you. That we deserve more than you.

Jesus comes into the world born into poverty on the road and soon to be a refugee in a foreign land. Even before His birth, His mother is recorded as saying how He will elevate the weak/poor and lower the powerful/rich. Luke 1:51-53 - He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good thing,  but has sent the rich away empty.  Jesus never says His Gospel (good news) is for anyone but the poor.  The word translated into poor in our English Bibles is “ani” in Hebrew and includes not only the financially poor, but also the vulnerable, and the social outcast.  When John the Baptist sent his disciples to see if Jesus was the one; Jesus tells them “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor” - Luke 7:22b. Jesus would teach  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth” - Matthew 6:19a; “do not resist an evil person” - Matthew 5:39b; and “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword” - Matthew 26:52b

The USA has always between these two visions of greatness.  The Declaration of Independence contains this beautiful thought - “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This is the best example in our founding papers that this country was aspiring to be a Christian nation. This was written at a time when people were enslaved based on race; a time of genocide against native Americans; a time when only white land owners could vote.  

Our founding fathers did not create a country where all men were created equal but did acknowledge that all men should have equal rights. That statement can only be viewed as an aspiration. I need to say that a truly Christian statement should have all people instead of all men. There have been times that we have moved towards a Christian view of all people being equal. Legal slavery is over; the civil rights movement greatly improved rights to minorities; we at times have decreased the wealth gap; we have greater acceptance of the outcast. At those times we were moving toward Christian greatness.

However, we have at times moved away from Christian greatness and towards worldly greatness. We have increased the power of the powerful, rich and violent over the weak, poor and the non-violent. We have at times created a greater divide; we have at times rejected the Christian idea of everyone being equal.

The USA was not a world power until World War 1 then after World War 2 became a world superpower. We have had similar mixed results. We created the Marshall Plan to rebuild a destroyed Europe after WW 2. We funded efforts to address AIDs in Africa, we provide food to help the poorest people in the world. We have worked to reduce wars and reduce human rights violations.  We have at times used our power and wealth to help those in need, we have served instead of demanding to be served. We were seeking Christian greatness.

Then we have used our superior power to subdue other countries. We have at times demanded that our safety is more important than others safety; we have insisted that American lives have more value and the lives in other countries. We have at times put our comfort provided by great wealth over the basic needs of others.  While we are a country of immigrants and immigrants have always boosted our economy; we have at times demonized immigrants. At these times we were using our power to demand to be served, we were seeking worldly greatness.

So Make America Great Again?  Sadly, it is all about worldly greatness and is a complete rejection of the teachings from Jesus on how to be great in Christian terms.  We are increasing the gap between the rich and the poor by cutting services for the poor while cutting taxes for the rich.  We are villainizing the weak, minorities, the outcast and the immigrants.  We are increasing the inequality between the rich and powerful from the poor and vulnerable within this country.  Then we are cutting aid to poorer countries, where children are starving. We are breaking are commitment to organizations that have reduced wars and improved human rights around the world.  We have sided with the more powerful Russia and Israel over Ukraine and Palestinians - who are weaker and had the greater suffering.

I am all for making America Great, but we are moving toward the wrong view of greatness.