Greatness

John 3:30.

 ³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease.’^*

In our culture greatness in human terms is recognised for a whole assortment of reasons. Sporting success, political leadership,  popular music performance, design fashion, being born into the right family or part of the right economic dynasty; these all seem to indicate the possible ‘X Factor’ for greatness in our everyday culture.  But what about greatness in terms of the story of Jesus life, who was the greatest person according to Jesus? In Matthew 11:11 Jesus named the person who was the greatest person who ever lived. He was the most unlikely character. A person, who lived in the sticks, ate the most simple of foods and dressed in the most basic of clothes. He challenged the most powerful religious elite as being a bunch of snakes and challenged a national leader on his corrupt lifestyle as symptomatic of the desperation of the nation.  On a more positive note he told ordinary people that they could be better people than their current lifestyle suggested. They were struggling under the tyranny of a violent military occupation and a bunch of religious fundamentalists. He told the people that a great liberation was close at hand and that they should be part of it; they should prepare the road for a great liberation King as He is on his way; it’s close now, so close we can see all the evidence of His coming. He was of course talking about? Yes you’ve got it; Jesus. The key to this person’s greatness is that He recognised that Jesus was the person who would liberate all humanity from the life controlling issues that they experienced.  As a result of fulfilling the life that he was called to, this man paid with his life so that many lives could be saved. What was his name? ‘John the Baptist’ the greatest man that ever lived according to Jesus.  John had no fancy house, clothes or food. He simply became the person God created him to be. So how great is it possible to be in this life? It’s possible to so great that you can actually be your true self. Your true God appointed self; it’s possible to be the person God created you to be. This is achieved the same way for us as it was for John; by recognising who Jesus is and preparing the way into our lives for the teaching and practices of the liberation King Jesus. John said of Jesus: ^‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’ This is the way of true greatness.