Jesus on Money, Power, and What You Really Want

I have a question. Is it acceptable for Christians, first of all, to want things — to desire to have things that they do not really need for life? Is it acceptable? Secondly, is it acceptable for a Christian to desire to be great — great in relation to other men? And is it furthermore acceptable, not just to desire to be great, but to desire to be preeminent?

Here is how Jesus deals with that implicit question. The question was initiated by James and John asking to sit at the right hand of God, which was greatness indeed. But Jesus called them to himself and said to them, Mark 10:42 onwards:

“You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Desire Is Not Sin

Notice first: these disciples were not just a group of twelve people with tea towels on their heads, wandering about the Middle East. These twelve disciples were a replacement, a parallel to the twelve tribes of Israel. These were the equivalents of the tribal leaders. The disciples knew they had real rule and authority. What we fail to realise is that rulership in the kingdom of God is real rulership. It has a particular way, but it is true rulership.

So Jesus says: yet it shall not be so among you. Is it legitimate for a Christian to desire something that he does not need just to barely survive? What does Jesus say? “But whoever desires to become great among you.” He does not say stop desiring, quash that desire, do not want anything, be totally satisfied with whatever you have, never want anything more. No.

Now there is a religion that sees salvation as the end of all desiring — just stop wanting things. But that is Buddhism. Are we Christians Buddhists? Absolutely not. Jesus says: okay, you want this? Great. Here is how to get it.

And that is interesting if we note that the word translated as lust is otherwise translated as strong desire when it is directed toward something good. So no, we are not Buddhists, although too often evangelicals have a Buddhist mindset that says wanting things beyond the bare minimum is sin, is wrong, is pride, is selfish ambition. But are we wiser than the Lord Jesus? Do we have a better idea of what the Christian faith is than the Lord Jesus himself? That would be called blasphemy.

Is it legitimate for a Christian to desire to be great? James and John said: I want to sit by your right hand in the kingdom when the kingdom comes. And the other ten were furious at these upstarts. But does Jesus rebuke them? No, he does not. The desire for greatness — does he quash it? Does he call it sin? Does he label it pride? Does he say desire comes before a fall? Does he say this is covetousness? He does none of those things. There is no rebuke, no chastisement, no tutting, no shaking of the head, no rolling of the eyes. There is a covenant: you desire an object, here is how to get it.

What is the condition of greatness? Well, the world’s path to greatness is dominating other people. But this is the kingdom of God. What is the path to true greatness? “Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.”

He does not say stop desiring. He does not say quash that desire. He does not say never desire anything beyond the bare minimum. He emphatically opens the door to a godly ambition. And he is not the only one — Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:31: “Earnestly desire the higher gifts.” That is not just an open door, it is an exhortation to pursue something greater. And speaking about leadership in the church in 1 Timothy 3:1: “If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble thing.” So it is not a mean thing to desire to become great — it is a noble thing, according to the Word of God.

The Path Is Service

Okay, so Jesus says: you want this? Here is the way.

“But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.” The word servant there is diakonos — from which we get the English word deacon. Whoever desires to become great among you, are you among the people of God? This is for you. Do you want to be great? Now great, funnily enough, is megas literally in the Greek. Whoever desires to become megas among you shall be your servant.

The path to greatness is open to the young. It is open to the middle-aged. It is open to whoever. And the path lies along service. Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.

What does a servant do? Does a servant do whatever a servant wants to do? No, that is not the nature of a servant. A servant serves people — a person, a certain group of people, a definite person. A butler, for example. He works hard, he works long hours, he waits on people hand and foot. But he can go home at night. He can go to his quarters and read a book. His time is his own once his employment is over for the day. And if he wants to change employers, he can do so.

Now, the path to greatness is not meditation to find a higher truth. It is not great intellectual study. It is not learning Greek or Hebrew. It is not studying great theologians. The path that Christ has ordained for even his great disciples is not that. The path is serving people. Whoever desires to become great among you — shall be your servant. Not my servant, speaking of Christ. Shall be your servant. The path to greatness is the path of serving people.

Now, if you were a servant, a butler for example, the butler would get his orders from his master. But if we are wanting to serve the marketplace, serve people online, reach people — we have to serve them. But the problem is, how do you know what people want? Because when you serve people, you give them both their wants and their needs.

It is interesting that when Jesus ministered to people himself, what he did first was heal them — he gave them what they wanted. And then he gave them what they most urgently needed, which was a message about the kingdom of God. Greatness, Christian greatness, true greatness, is service.

Think of Jeff Bezos. He asked himself: what do people want that I can give them? First it was books and books and more books. Then it was everything else. He became a very rich man because of service. That is a principle that works for Christians and non-Christians alike — because it is God’s principle. And is it not sad that worldly people are often better servants than Christian people? We can say we are servant-hearted, but consider Bezos and how many people he serves. Or Sam Walton of Walmart — he figured out what people wanted and gave it to them at scale.

We may not be in the selling business. But we are in some sort of context where there is a group of people that only we can serve. And if you do not know who that group of people are, take the time to find out. I am trying to serve men who are stuck in life, because I am an expert at being stuck in life.

The Path to Preeminence: Bond-Service

But it gets more interesting still, because beyond greatness there is something else. Right at the pinnacle of the pyramid, he says: “And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.”

The Lord Jesus has opened the door not just to greatness but to preeminence. This is tremendous. Do you want to be first? God says: okay, here is the path.

And again, it is whoever of you — boys, girls, men, women, old, young, middle-aged, the door is opened. And he says: here is how you do it, you have to pay the price. And what is the condition? Whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.

Now, the first word was diakonos — servant. A servant can go home at night and, if he wants, he can even change employer. But a slave — doulos — that is different. A better word perhaps is bondservant. A bondservant is bonded. If you are bound by something, you are a bondservant. During that time, they are much less free than a servant. Really, they are not free at all in the same sense.

So that is upside down from the world. In the world’s thinking, greatness means controlling other people. In the kingdom of God, greatness comes from serving other people. And the price to pay for being first — for preeminence — is even greater. It is not just service, but bond-service. You have to go all in.

Now Christ is preeminent in all things, Colossians 1:18. We cannot be preeminent in all things, but we can be preeminent in something. Whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. Who is the all? All your people — serving all your people. The servant can say: well, I am bored of this, I am going to do something different. But the bondservant has committed. He is tied to this. He cannot break away. As soon as you say: well, actually, I do not want to do this anymore, I am going to change — the path to preeminence is broken.

This is rather like being a soldier. 2 Timothy 2:4: “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” And Luke 9: “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” If you really want to be preeminent, you plough a straight furrow.

Greatness Is a Communicable Attribute of God

This raises an interesting point. Greatness is a communicable attribute of God. God is great. Is he preeminent? Colossians says he has the preeminence in all things. That is divine preeminence — preeminent in power, in knowledge, in wisdom, in beauty, in glory, in all the positive attributes you can think of. Can we have a like preeminence in all things? No. But we can have preeminence. We can have greatness.

What are some other communicable attributes of God? Wisdom, knowledge, holiness, dominion. We cannot have dominion like Christ has dominion, but we can have dominion — and we must have dominion. And furthermore, since these are communicable attributes of God, it means that for us to be godly, we can and should reflect that greatness in our greatness of service. Have you thought about that before? If you are preeminent in your field — if you are a preeminent chemist, a preeminent biologist, a preeminent linguist, becoming a slave to the people you serve — you are reflecting a communicable attribute of God.

Think of Mary Steele — a slip of a woman who went to Ghana, bound herself to a tribe known for its powerful voodoo, learned their language, worked for thirty-plus years, and in the end they desperately wanted to make a statue of her, so great had she become through service. She had conquered that tribe by bringing the Word of God to them. Did it have a tremendous cost? Yes — she never married. But she has her reward. And she was a picture of preeminence through bond-service.

The Lord has not closed the door to greatness. He has not closed the door to desire. He has not closed the door to preeminence. He has opened it and he has given you a path. In fact, it is not just a path — it is the path. The door is open, the way is clear, it is a guaranteed path.

Brother, I want you to embrace it. So as always, if you have any questions or comments, email me at questions@godsworldgodsway.com.