Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Character
- Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person. It is hearing from God and obeying. It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.
I’m
willing to bet that the first teaching of Jesus has plenty of places for us to identify. Ever be that person who follows the rules,
does what they should, gets what they agreed to get, and then watches someone
else get the same thing for far less work and effort? Or have you ever seen someone else work
really hard and you work far less hard and get the same result? This is life.
This is grace. It’s easy to get
mad when we’re the hard-worker and we see others working less hard. It’s easy to get lazy when we don’t work as
hard as others but still get the same good result. What keeps us in line is our character. Character knows we should work hard without
getting upset about other people and their effort. Character keeps us humble when our effort was
poor but we’re the beneficiary to grace.
The same
thing is true about the passage with a mother requesting special treatment in
the kingdom of heaven. We are a people
called in grace. None of us deserve
anything! Good character looks towards
eternal life and the kingdom of heaven and simply responds with an attitude of
humbleness. When we don’t it is
inherently a character issue.
What
stops us from having a bad character?
Jesus gives us an example in between the two bookend stories in this
chapter. Jesus came to die. He came to put Himself behind the needs of
others. He came to serve, not be
served. That’s character. The person who comes to serve and not be
served doesn’t worry about having the best seats, the most honor, or getting
paid more than others who may not have put in as much effort.
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