Within a few days, after examining multitudes of videos and photos, two suspects in the bombing were identified and their names and pictures were broadcast throughout the area and around the world.
The ones identified as suspects were still in the area, and in their efforts to allude capture they killed one police officer, and in a gunfight they severely wounded another. In that exchange of gunfire with police one of the suspects was killed. The other managed to escape the scene on foot.
The city and surrounding towns were shut down and police began going door to door in hopes the suspects were still in the vicinity. Within 24 hours a local resident discovered the wounded man hiding under the tarp of a boat in his back yard. At first the suspect refused to surrender and fired at police, but soon gave up and was arrested and brought to a hospital for treatment of wounds received during the earlier firefight with police.
I don't know what the reasons were that the bombers decided to kill as many people as they could at the end of the Boston Marathon. But they must have thought is was a very important thing to do. They must have spent time learning how to construct the bombs, and then making them. They even made other bombs, including smaller ones that that were used when being pursued by the police. They were prepared to kill and maim men, women, and children as well as any police officers who tried to apprehend them.
It seems to me that in their own minds they thought they were doing something important. Something great.
People have many ideas, including very perverted ideas, as to what is a great thing to do, and how to be great.
Some ideas of what it takes to be great are fairly harmless. Getting a golf ball into a series of small halls with fewer swings of their golf clubs than the other players is one way people seek to achieve greatness. Others climb mountains, the higher the better. And other people run races, either short sprints or lengthy marathons.
Then there are those who seek greatness by attaining positions of authority in business or government. They dream and work at becoming head of a company, town, state, or nation. If they get what they seek they think it will be a great accomplishment.
Jesus had another idea regarding greatness. And since He is the One who made everything that was ever created, then what He has to say about anything is true. He doesn't just give an opinion. He says what He knows to be absolutely true.
Mat 20:25-28 But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." ESV
Not many people agree with what Jesus said about being great. But whoever disagrees with Jesus regarding this or anything that that He said will sooner or later learn that Jesus Christ is always right. Everyone who rejects His having given His life on the cross as a ransom for many will have all eternity to regret that sin. Everyone who accepts His atoning sacrifice will have all eternity to enjoy being with Him in the new heaven and new earth.
If you accept Jesus as your Savior, He must also be your Lord. So when He tells us how to be great then we need to heed what He says. What does He say? He says that whoever would be great must serve. Whoever would be first among us must be a slave.
What does Christ mean, to be a servant or slave? There is much said in the Bible about how God wants us to serve each other. One such passage we should ponder was written by Peter.
1 Peter 4:10-11 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. ESV
Want to be great? If you do, then let's seek to be great in the way the one true God want us to be great. Let us seek His help to humble ourselves and serve one another in the ways He shows us in His Word.
