Some men crave the limelight.
In 1964 Cassius Clay embraced a new religion. However, he was also poised to challenge Sonny Liston for the World Heavyweight Boxing Crown. Liston was the hands-down favorite, and Clay was expected to be soundly defeated.
Clay wanted the limelight. In the months leading up to the fight, he was bold and braggadocios, making outrageous claims, and even predicting specific rounds in which he would defeat his opponents. He also kept his newfound religion under wraps. He was afraid it would impede his chances at the Crown.
While preparing for the upcoming match, Clay had some surprise visitors. Four young men, rising musicians, had been refused a photo op session with another well-known athlete. Yet, when they showed up at his practice gym, Clay hammed it up with the youths, giving the public a series of now-famous photographs of him against the Beetles, boxing in the ring.
Afterwards, Clay quipped to those around him, “Who were those boys?” He had grabbed yet another opportunity for self-promotion on the outside possibility it might lift his standing among men.
Cassius Clay won that fight against Sonny Liston. Subsequently, he announced his new name, Muhammad Ali, meaning “worthy of praise” and “most high.”
Cassius Clay craved the limelight, and he would go to any length to get it.
Now let’s look at another type of man, one who was content to perform his life’s work behind the scenes. His name was Andrew, and his claim to fame was no greater than to be someone else’s brother.
We see him listed in Matthew 10:2-4:
“The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.”
Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter, who was to become the Rock of Christ’s coming church. This was the same Peter who, by the spoken word of Jesus in Matthew 16:18, would one day be known as the bulwark against which the gates of hell would not prevail.
How intimating was that, to be the brother of such a man?
Yet Andrew did not crave the limelight. In John 6:9 we read Andrew’s humble words:
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”
Andrew did not claim to have found the solution. Rather, he brought another to Jesus, and he allowed Jesus to become the solution.
In fact, Andrew was the one who brought his brother to Jesus. In John 1:41, we learn that after Andrew heard John name Jesus as the Lamb of God, he ran to find his brother Simon and brought him to Jesus, telling his brother:
“We have found the Messiah.”
Andrew did not claim the glory. Rather, he brought another to Jesus, and he allowed Jesus to claim all the glory.
Tradition says Andrew was crucified in Greece after being severely whipped by seven soldiers. His reported words were: “I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it.”
According to this account, it took Andrew two days to die, during which he continued to point his tormentors to Jesus. He never claimed the magnificence of the Christ for himself. Rather, he gave all credit to the one who had come to offer salvation to humanity. He pointed others to the Christ.
Andrew never desired the limelight, and in the sincerity of his belief in Jesus, he never failed to do what we should all strive to accomplish.
He directed others to Jesus.
When we have a heart for Christ, we will want others to know him as well.
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