"the Last In Line"

“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.