“What was the answer that Jesus gave these men? It’s very interesting. One would have thought that Jesus would have condemned them. But that isn’t what Jesus did; he did something altogether different. He said in substance, ‘Oh, I see, you want to be first. You want to be great. You want to be important. You want to be significant. Well, you ought to be. If you’re going to be my disciple, you must be. But I can’t give you greatness. And really, I can’t make you first. You must earn it. The right hand and the left are not mine to give, they belong to those who are prepared.’

“That’s what I like about Jesus’ definition of greatness: It means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”