I’m joining Kate Motaung for Five Minute Friday. One word prompt. Five minutes. No editing. Lots of women. All of us writing on that same word. For the month of October, I am going to try to incorporate the word prompts into my series, 31 Questions Jesus Asked.
Today’s prompt is …. Green.
The first thought the prompt elicited was “green with envy”.
The idiom denotes “jealous; desire for the possessions or advantages of another” (from The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms). As I continued reading, it also means “to be immature in judgment; untrained; inexperienced”.
And that was surely the band of disciples as they journeyed with Jesus.
After being on the road, Jesus and His disciples arrive and get settled in a house in Capernaum. It is then Jesus asks,
“What were you discussing on the road?” (Mark 9:33, NLT)
To their credit, none of them answered as they knew He would not be happy with them. They had been arguing about which of them was the greatest.
Green with envy.
Perhaps this discussion came about because some of them seemed to have had special advantages to be alone with Jesus. He did seem to single out Peter, James, and John at times.
But even so, Jesus was about to teach them another lesson in discipleship.
True greatness is not in the number of followers, or the size of one’s platform, or money acquired, or achievements.
True greatness is found in self-denial and sacrifice. And so Jesus teaches them, and us today:
“Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.” (Mark 9:35, NLT)
Jesus leaves no room for “green”.
Instead, greatness is found in being the servant of all.
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This is Day 16 of 31 Questions Jesus Asked. You can find the entire series here.
Today I am joining .. Five Minute Friday and Faith Filled Friday and Fellowship Friday and Grace & Truth .
Great message your neighbor at FMF
Great job incorporating both into one. 🙂 Love that idea for the 31 days challenge. Jesus sure set an example of servanthood, didn’t He? Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thank you for your kind words. Jesus set the example and then equips us to live it out. Just amazing!
Joanne – I love where this prompt took you – smiling at the ‘to their credit…’ line. How often have we been caught thinking or saying something that we shouldn’t – like being caught with a hand in the cookie jar! Our Jesus must have really been a trip to walk around with – like he was reading minds or something! Wink. Truly, this is one of my favorite posts of yours. I guess I prefer my ‘green’ to represent growth, rather than immature, inexperienced judgment or jealousy. I hope you have a great weekend.
Janet, that line seriously made me chuckle. There truly wasn’t anything they could get away with. And truth be known, neither can we 🙂 Your kind & encouraging words are always appreciated! Thank you!