Mark 9:33-37 – They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, 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.”
In Mark 9, Jesus asks the disciples a question. They were hesitant to answer since, for some reason or another, they knew that their discussion was not the most honorable.
Who is the greatest among us? Of the twelve, which one sits closest to the Messiah, the one to set captives free?
Is that a bad question? Why? Why not? What is the motive behind the question? Why does it matter?
Well, Jesus sits, and says, “to be the greatest, you must be the least.” If you accept this child, you will be accepted into the kingdom.
What does that mean?
In James 4, verses 1-3 the author says that we desire yet are never able to obtain it, we ask but do not recieve. We have wrong motives.
What are motives? Motives are reasons for doing something that are not quite obvious, never showing in plain sight. It is why Jesus kept saying that what we eat is not what is bad for us, but what comes out of us that is a true indication of who we are, and what we follow, what is in our heart. Our motives show in that.
And so in Mark 9, the disciples motives for following Jesus are clear. They were seeking greatness. To be on the winning team. To be behind a great leader, the Messiah who would lead them to a new kingdom, a new victory. But this wasn’t Jesus goal.
Jesus says, to be the greatest, you must become a servant.
What? A servant? What is that? Aren’t we suppossed to lead an army to overthrow Rome? Aren’t we supossed to set captives free?
Jesus’ disciples still had an understanding of that of the world around them. So the understanding of Messiah and disciple meant one of Lord and soldier. To follow the Messiah was to follow the savior of Israel, which is one of war, to regain the temple, so that Israel would once again become a nation.
Our understanding today would be that we follow Christ because he will make all things better. By being on the Lords side, we are on the winning team.
Wrong motives.
Wrong motives lead to Wrong conclusions.
This is why the disciples end up confused when Jesus dies on the cross. Wasn’t he the Messiah? Wasn’t he supposed to lead Israel to victory, and bring in the kingdom of God? Were we not to be at Jesus right hand in this war?
We think that since we are on God’s side, we are the victors at the end, that all is well, all is alright. Yet where is God? If we followed the instructions, we would be victorious. But where is the victory?
The beauty is found in Jesus taking out time to teach them. The patient teacher, the patient Messiah. His answer comes in two parts: become a servant, welcome children.
Now, you may be wondering what that means, that we should love children, that we should serve one another. It goes a bit deeper than that.
The first, to become a servant. There response of being the greatest impedes them from truly serving God for humanity. Jesus is calling disciples to serve humanity, a sort of alternative to the world powers. To be great is to have fame, power, prestige. That is selfish. Jesus desires service to humanity to help those in need. That was the problem. The disciples were seeking power. Jesus was flipping that around and saying to have influence, you need to serve.
And that leads us to the second of Jesus points. That if we accept children in his name,accepts not him, but God. This is interesting. Why incorporate children? The least of everyone? Having to rely on others for support? It is more than that. Children in that time period, lacked status and power. So Jesus is saying embrace and love those who have the least power and privilege. The nobodies. The ones that are not paid attention to. To do that is to have love.
Jesus was actually teaching his disciples that to be great is not the best motive.
The best motive is love, because love is willing to suffer on another’s behalf in a way that redeems. And to follow Christ is to do the same that Jesus was about to do, suffer for the sake of humanity. There is no room for arrogance. Only humility and love.
So what does this all mean for us?
What are our motives? Why are we christian? Why are we here? Are we here to be close to God, to be on the winning team? What does it mean to follow Christ like the disciples followed Jesus?
To be a disciple is to follow Jesus, to have the same concerns as Jesus did. So if we are truly disciples of Christ, then we would do the same. Do we stand for the children, the lowest who have no privileges, or the least privileges? Let me change the word children around and give some other metaphors. Are we standing and having compassion and caring for the elderly woman or man? How about a family in need of food, help with paying rent, school supplies? How about the person who just lost his/her spouse? The poor?
I truly believe that just sitting here does not show that we are different from the world. Going to church does nto make us different from the world. Our actions do. Our motives do. I believe Jesus thought the same. Every moment in scripture Jesus did two, maybe three things. He changed the minds of the disciples to rethink what it means to be a disciple and what it means to follow, he went against the powers of the day, and he helped. He helped heal the blind the sick the dead. He fed the five thousand and the four thousand, brought the dead back to life, and change the life of a prostitute by making her human and treating her as a human, with grace and compassion.
If we are here and only serve God here, and make this our only requirement, meaning go to church, make sure I am correct in all I do, I don’t really believe we are doing exactly what Jesus requested, to make disciples, for to make disciples is to be in the world, and not try to escape it, or create a club within it. It is being involved in the same work Jesus, who we call the son of God, was working in. If we are followers, we have the same heart and compassion for children. We are not great if we do not serve.
Are we serving?