“The Last in Line”
Mark 9:30-37
This past Tuesday, David Bracket and I were unloading the flooring for the new nursery and we were doing it right in front of the big windows at the Redding Road entrance.
A big group of our Preschoolers had just come in from the playground and ran over to the window to see what we were doing.
We waved and they waved back with their sweet little, wide-open, we are who we are way of doing things…
…accepting of all—regardless.
I said to David and he said it at the same time—it was one of those jinx moments—“If you do not become like one of these little children you will not enter the kingdom of God.”
While this particular passage does not say this it does say that when we welcome a child in Christ’s name we welcome Him.
And while our Scripture passage is not about children, per say, Jesus uses the example of children and welcoming them, serving them, treating them with great dignity to demonstrate what He is trying to get across to His disciples.
In any culture, children are among the most vulnerable; they are completely dependent on others for their survival and well-being.
And in the ancient world—the world of Jesus’ day—their vulnerability was magnified by the fact that they had no real legal protection.
They had no status, no rights.
Yes, people loved their children, or most people did—but this was clearly a “children are to be seen but not heard” kind of culture.
Add to that that children were cared for by women, who were also second-class citizens—both children and women were considered property—and we can understand why Jesus used a child as an example of the very least and last.
And children are still among the most vulnerable people in our world.
It’s so very sad that we don’t do a better job of protecting and caring for the least and last of society.
It continues to speak to us here in the 21st Century with all the abuse that is coming to light.
So, Jesus turns everything on its head.
The first are last; the last are first.
(pause)
In our Gospel Lesson Jesus is teaching His disciples the He is going to be arrested.
And these people who arrest Him are going to kill Him.
But, after three days He will rise again.
Of course, they have no idea what He is talking about.
And on their way the disciples get arguing with one another—apparently out of ear-shot of Jesus about which one of them is the greatest.
And Jesus allows this to go on.
When they arrive at the house, Jesus, asks them what they were arguing about, but they don’t tell Him.
That is when Jesus gently instructs them that “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all.”
He knows they won’t get this; at least not for a long time, but He takes the time to teach them this none-the-less.
And this question of “Who’s the greatest?” is a question that will never get old, never run its course…
…it’s been around since Adam and Eve decided they wanted to be like God.
Of course, they were listening to the devil and the devil has no idea what true greatness is, and apparently what God is really like.
(pause)
Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be great.
Jesus doesn’t say to the disciples that their ambition to be the greatest is a bad thing; what He does tell them is that their idea of what true greatness is—is all messed up and backwards.
And we still don’t understand this today.
I forget about it all the time; how about you?
Most of us just assume that greatness implies power, accomplishment, fame, wealth and all the other things that enable people to have influence over other people, to make things go their way.
Even within the church we get it messed up all the time; and I think it makes us miserable.
We naturally think that the greatness of our ministries, the greatness of our churches, the greatness of our preaching depends on how many people are sitting in our pews.
I mean, let’s be honest, and I am as much a part of this kind of thinking as anyone else.
Why can’t I get it right?
I’d be so much happier if I did.
I’d be so much more free.
When we are trying to measure the “greatness” of our church and it’s ministries—out come the numbers, the statistics.
Out come the membership roles.
Out come the attendance records.
One of the first things we ask is how is attendance?
How is giving going?
None of us imagine the success of our church as being the least, as being recognized as the church with the least power, the least influence.
Not one of us imagines being looked down upon so as to be deemed great.
I mean, when we really think about it on this level how many of us really agree with or like Jesus’ characterization of greatness?
What do others think about us?
What does the world think about us?
Who has the biggest steeple in town, the most-full parking lot?
Who has the best and most hip music?
Who has the biggest choir?
Who puts on the best show?
Who is most entertaining?
Who has the fanciest sanctuary and the most kids in their nursery?
Who has the most rich people, beautiful people, young people—whatever?
This is what most of us are concerned about.
I don’t think Jesus is very concerned about this.
And yet, I sometimes find myself to be obsessed by it.
I suppose because I feel I am judged by it—by others, and I judge myself and my worth by it and I guess I think God judges me by it.
But that is not what Jesus is saying.
Someone the other day was asking me about how many kids we have in our Safe-House after school ministry this year.
In year’s past the place has been busting at the seams with kids, but this year we only have 4 children for whatever reason.
But, you know, those 4 kids are the nicest, easiest to get along with kids I’ve ever experienced in Safe House.
And David has been excited by how much they are paying attention during devotion time.
And they really are.
They are learning a lot about God.
They listen; they retain.
It’s exciting.
Maybe it’s more about quality than quantity.
I can’t help but be convinced that their experience at Safe House this year is going to be something that will alter their lives for the better—forever.
And that means everything.
You know, in this passage of Scripture for this morning, Mark is really pointing to something important, something essential, about believing in Jesus.
And so, all this talk of greatness is a question of faith.
Think about it.
God becoming a human being has upended every assumption about greatness that the world has ever had.
And that’s because God becoming human decided that greatness is not about separation but solidarity…
…it’s not about better than, but relationship.
It’s not about self-importance but empowerment and encouragement of others.
Greatness is determined by service, by humility, by truthfulness and faithfulness.
And as Christ’s Church--Christ’s followers--we are called to embody this kind of greatness so that the world can witness the true meaning of greatness born out of love.
It seems like competition is in-bred into us from the very start in classrooms, workplaces, neighborhoods and families.
We measure ourselves over and against one another as we seek to discern our place in the whole scheme of things.
And maybe this has something to do with the notion of the “survival of the fittest.”
But Jesus, turns that on its head as well.
The so-called fittest are called to serve and help the least fit to survive and thrive.
This is what makes Christianity so great and the teachings and sacrifice and modeling of what true greatness is by Jesus Christ so radical, so other-worldly, so convincing that this must come from God—there is no other answer.
It just is not the way we humans naturally think—even when we have studied it, experienced it and tried to live it…
…we have to keep being reminded.
I mean think about it.
For Jesus, an anonymous person serving in a soup kitchen is greater than Julius Caesar!!!
Let’s try and get our minds around that.
I mean, what if we imagined that greatness isn’t about power and wealth and fame and all the rest, but instead we measured greatness by how much we share with others, how much we take care of others, how much we love others, how much we serve others?
What kind of world would we live in?
What if our churches really believed, really took to heart what Jesus is saying right here in the Bible?
Make no mistake.
This is hard stuff, absolutely and totally different than what the culture—whether in the 1st Century or the 21st—tells us.
And it goes against our nature.
But Christ offers us a new nature; a new way of doing things; a new way of living.
And if we really follow Him—seek to be like Him—we can live into this way of living, not through our power but through the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us.
The road the disciples were traveling with Jesus when they fell into their petty arguments about who is the greatest…is the road to Jerusalem.
And even while the disciples misunderstand, don’t believe or just ignore what Jesus is saying, Jesus is walking the road to Jerusalem and the cross willingly in order to sacrifice everything for them and for us.
“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very least, and the servant of all.
He took a little child whom he placed among them.
Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
It’s not uncommon, then and now, to receive someone as an emissary of someone else.
When a government, for example, receives a foreign minister of another country, they are officially receiving the government of the other country.
The disciples would have understood this.
What is shocking is that Jesus is saying that by receiving a child, one of the least and insignificant people in the world, we are also receiving Him, and not only Him but the Father as well.
When we receive, welcome, serve the homeless, the marginalized, the least, the last, even the child we are receiving, welcoming, serving Jesus Christ Himself.
What did Jesus say in Matthew 25?
“I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed cloths and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…”
And He says EVERYTHING rests on this.
Let us pray: Almighty God, we admit that we, so often, like the first disciples have a worldly view—even within the church of what greatness is.
We ignore the poor.
We look down on the down and out.
We don’t welcome the stranger.
We don’t serve humbly but seek recognition and fame instead.
Change us.
Free us.
Give us the faith to trust you so that we will have the ambition to be the very least, and the servants of all.
In Jesus’ name and for His sake we pray.
Amen.
