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The Pursuit of Greatness: the Disciples of Jesus versus the Spartans (Mark 10.42-45)

One cause of slavery in ancient Greece was, in the case of Sparta, a complex interplay between political structure, economic pressures, and military intentions.  The Lacedaemonians (i.e., the Spartans), as Polybius explains in his Histories, were a militaristic and warlike nation.  Yet they were hindered in pursuits of glory by the very constitution that their lawgiver, Lycurgus, had established.  

To be sure, it was an excellent constitution, claims Polybius, for self-containment and freedom within their own Peloponnesian territory.  Yet it failed to enable the nation's expansionist inclinations.  A key hindrance for Sparta was the restriction that no one of them could own more property than another (Polybius, Histories VI.45.3).  Also, they eschewed money-making (VI.45.4).  As Polybius observes, this limited their ability to create wealth, and, instead of fostering the virtue of self-control, their covetousness turned to war and the enslavement of others (VI.49.1). What the Spartans needed was a supply of grain and labor that freed them to pursue their bellicose endeavors and rise to greatness as a regional power.  Thus, they annexed the territory of their neighbors, the Messenians, and reduced them to working as serfs on their own land.  The Spartans’ ambitions, their consideration that it was more glorious to rule and lord it over others than simply to be content in their own freedom, required a servile class (VI.50.3).

Polybius' analysis of the political, economic, and military characteristics of ancient Sparta in the 8th/7th c. BC offers a splendid example of what Jesus says about the pursuit of greatness in Mark 10.42-45.  He no doubt had more than the Spartans in view, but they provide a fine example of those who pursue greatness in a way contrary to Jesus.  Jesus replied to certain of his glory-seeking disciples that, indeed, the ‘rulers of the Gentiles do lord it over’ others.  His disciples, however, were to serve others: ‘and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.’  For the Spartans, the irony of greatness was that it required enslaving their neighbors.  For Jesus, the irony of greatness was that it involved being a slave of all. 

Jesus himself provided the example: ‘For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many’ (v. 45).  Instead of enslaving others, he served others, offering himself as a ransom for the freedom of those who were enslaved.  Such greatness was a greatness far beyond what the Spartans achieved, but it came at the cost of his own life to ransom those enslaved in sin, as we also know from the various early Church authors writing about the significance of Jesus’ death.  The politics, economics, and aspirations of the Church were counter-cultural or antithetical to the world’s, with the latter's desire for power and authority that allowed the enslavement of others to achieve their ends.  Jesus’ disciples were to become great through a ‘slavery’ of service in imitation of their Lord.

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