How Great Thou Art

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100118.cfm
Job 1:6-22
Luke 9:46-50

What does it take to be “The Greatest”? The first reading has Job, a “blameless and upright man” of vast wealth, losing everything and still praising the Lord. Our Gospel reading has the disciples arguing about which one of the is the greatest. It seems that to be the greatest, we must have humility and serve the lowly by following Jesus and the Father in faith.

“I am the Greatest,” exclaimed the late Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) in 1964 when he beat Sonny Liston in a surprise upset for the world heavyweight boxing championship. 

“The Greatest Generation” is a term we now use to describe those who came of age during World War II in the US, first coined by journalist Tom Brokaw in his book of the same name.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth.

Led Zeppelin’s 1971 hit Stairway to Heaven is often considered the greatest rock song of all time.

There are so many “best of” or “greatest” lists on just about any subject you can imagine:  places to live, race horses, books, sports teams, restaurants, and, well, just about everything else. More often than not, you can find lists that disagree with each other on which is on top, or “the greatest.”

Wikipedia tells us that greatness is a concept of a state of superiority affecting a person or object in a particular place or area. Greatness can also be attributed to individuals who possess a natural ability to be better than all others. The concept carries the implication that the particular person or object, when compared to others of a similar type, has clear advantage over others.  

Greatest would be the best of all in that class, be it dogs, places to go on vacation, or, as we read in today’s Gospel, apostles.

My grandmother, the gentlest of humans I have ever known, used to sing How Great Thou Art while doing various chores around the house. I think she knew who was the greatest.

Our first reading today is a little complicated because it only tells a little bit of the story of Job. From our reading, lots of REALLY bad things happened to Job, pretty much all at once and wiped out everything and everyone he had.

How wealthy was Job? I had to read the few verses that preceded our reading today. He had seven sons and three daughters, seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she-donkeys, and a very large household, so that he was greater than anyone in the land of Uz, a non-Hebrew community to the south and east of Israel.  

In our first reading, we hear this when the Lord is speaking to Satan who was in attendance with the angels of God during what must have been something like a board meeting in heaven.  There is some disagreement among Biblical scholars as to whether the one described as Satan is the devil as we believe we know him or satan (lower case 's') as it is sometimes translated. The Hebrew phrase is actually Ha satan, which translates into the challenger. A job description for a challenger would be to, well, challenge things that are going on, maybe put forth a different perspective on an issue to make sure things are working to plan.

The Lord starts by asking, “Whence do you come?” Satan replies, “From roaming the earth and patrolling it.” That must be the executive overview of what he’s been doing. I’m sure the Lord knew before asking. The conversation turns to Job, when the Lord asks Satan if he noticed Job, saying “there is no one like him, blameless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil”.

Satan observes that the Lord has surrounded Job and his family with protection, blessed the work of his hands, and given him great wealth. Is Job God-fearing because of all that he has received? If his great wealth was stripped away, would Job “surely blaspheme you (God) to your face?” Will Job lose faith if he loses his trappings of prosperity?

At this time (500 BC, give or take a couple 100 years) many people believed the retribution principle, a term used in Ancient Near East studies and Old Testament studies to refer to various forms of the belief that the righteous will prosper while the wicked will suffer.

Without showing much emotion, the Lord says to the challenger, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand upon his person.”

Sudden and extreme disasters ensue. All of his wealth and children are wiped out, and all but a few workers who were spared for the sole task of being the messenger of bad news.

Job tore his cloak, cut off his hair, and cast himself to the ground, saying, “Naked I came forth from the womb, and naked I shall go back again. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!”

It is noted that Job did not sin, nor did he say anything disrespectful of God.

And that’s the end of the reading as we had it. There must be more to it. . .  I read on.

Another meeting of the angels, Satan and the Lord chat, and the challenge becomes Job’s health. Satan gets permission to do whatever, as long as he doesn’t actually kill Job. Job’s body is inflicted with severe boils. Though in pain, Job refuses to curse the Lord. What we have here is one “blameless and upright” individual!

As the story of Job continues, three of his friends who believe in the retribution principle, but also believe the inverse of the principle. They believe that if bad things are happening, then the victim must have sinned, and if good things are happing, righteous behavior has caused it. The friends all try to convince Job that he needs to admit his sins and get straight with God. Unable to explain the nature of God with their limited (human) wisdom, they finally gave up.

Job continued to proclaim his own righteousness and began to doubt God. A fourth friend became angry at this and carried on another discourse with Job. This finally prods Job to take his case to God.

But he has no case. He is a victim of a test put in place by the Lord and Satan.  God goes to great length to describe just SOME of His accomplishments and tasks. “Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this” (Job 38:18)

Humbled, Job repents and returns to being righteous and upright. The experiment is over, and the Lord restores Job’s wealth.

Indeed, Job is often used to help understand the uneven distribution of blessings, or “why bad things happen to good people.” We simply do not have the ability to understand the nature of God, we must rely on faith.

It is not unlike trying to be the greatest. If we are blessed with certain innate skills, and we work at the limits of human achievement, we may become a greatest writer, athlete, or cake decorator. But what if we want to the greatest in the eyes of God? That’s what we heard in our Gospel readings today.

We read:

• An argument arose among the disciples about which of them was the greatest
  
• Jesus realized the intention of their hearts and took a child and placed it by his side 
  
• Jesus said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. For the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest."  (Luke 9:46-48)

As part of preparing this reflection, I reviewed a variety of resources, commentaries and sermons to find better explanations or different viewpoints that might help clarify my thoughts on the Gospel du jour.  

This is one of those times when there are two other readings that are pretty much the same, or what we might call “parallel readings.” The Gospel verses from Matthew 18:1-5 and Mark 9:33-37 are often sited as being of the same event as covered in Luke’s writing.

Matthew 18:1-5 says:

• At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
  
• He called a child over, placed it in their midst,
  
• Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
  
• Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
  
• And, whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.” (Matthew 18:1-5)

OK, that seemed a little better to me. Let’s take a look at the Gospel of Mark:

• They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?”
  
• But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest.
  
• Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
  
• Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them,
  
• “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me. (Mark 9:33-37)
  

Now for some detective work – we have the same story as recorded by three different authors. There are differences that can be attributed to emphasis heard, supporting details included, and inspiration received by each of the writers.

Let’s address being the greatest first. In today’s reading, they were arguing amongst themselves about which of the disciples was the greatest. That seems a bit beneath their dignity, but we have to remember that we have a group that is still learning what it is to be a follower of Christ. Being recognized as great would seem to be an honorable position worth striving for. In Mark’s verses, they remained silent when asked what they had been arguing about. Perhaps they were beginning to realize that you have to earn greatness, not merely claim it. Besides, they were disciples of Jesus, and they all must have known that what they were really arguing about at the moment was really, “Who’s number 2?”

I think Mark summarized it best, even before introducing the child into the story. Jesus states, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”

The use of the child in the 3 readings is used 2 different ways. Today’s reading from Luke and Mark’s verses both state something to the effect that if you receive a child like this, you receive me (Jesus), and if you receive me, you receive the One that sent me. In both of these instances, the child was a symbol of the poor in spirit, the lowly in the Christian community, just as a child would be in need and dependent upon its parents for pretty much everything.

So, doing the math, we find that to become great, a person would have to receive, or attend to the needs of, the lowly and poor in spirit in their community. By doing that, the person serving would receive Jesus and the Father.

In the parallel Matthew reading, the question posed was “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  That’s a bit different – maybe WAY different. In addition to receiving or serving the child, the disciples are instructed to become like a child to even have a chance to enter heaven. The disciples become like a child by humbling themselves and accept their dependence on Jesus and trust that Jesus and the Father provide the guidance they need to become the greatest in heaven.

This follows closely with the advice given by God to Job. Don’t try to figure out how I work but have faith in me no matter what. Your true righteousness will be pleasing in my eyes. 

How Great Thou Art indeed!