33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
36He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37"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."
Mark 9:33-37
Jesus and his disciples are still on the road, travelling through Galilee. He is seeking time on his own with the disciples so he is trying to remain out of sight of the crowds. In this time together Jesus is continuing to teach them about his work as Messiah and how he must be betrayed, suffer and die, but with the promise of hope, the resurrection. Verse 32 highlights the difficult task that Jesus faced in teaching them as we read:
“But they did not understand what this teaching meant, and they were afraid to ask him.”
Lack of understanding. Fear of looking silly. A lethal combination particularly when applied to your faith. The disciples compounded the difficulty by not asking Jesus. Do not ever hesitate to ask questions about faith, doctrine, teaching or Scripture. One of the best examples we can follow is that of the Bereans Christians who;
“...listened to the message (from Paul) with great eagerness, and every day they studied the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was really true.”
They were not afraid to listen, to study, to question, and neither should we.
What is a great irony here, is that these very disciples who do not understand what Jesus is talking about and who are so afraid to question him about the teaching then begin to argue among themselves about who is the greatest. They are like students comparing test scores and end of term reports. They are like pastors discussing how many they worship each week, as in "We worship about 430 at both services." They are anyone who has ever written a memo containing the words "measurable outcomes." Which of the disciples is the star pupil? Who is the greatest?
Jesus catches them out and asks them what they were arguing about knowing full well what their topic was. The disciples are too afraid, too ashamed, too embarrassed to admit it. They act like little children caught in the act of doing something wrong. Whatever you do, don’t say anything that might incriminate yourself.
So Jesus demonstrates that even though the disciples are not admitting anything, he knows full well what they have been arguing about and its implications. For greatness is about power, superiority, authority. Greatness is about being one step up on everyone else. It is about who looks up to whom and who gets to look down on everyone else. This is so much a human way of thinking. It helps us feel good about ourselves when we are able to see ourselves as superior to others. To be the one in authority. To be standing on the higher ground spiritually, morally, personally. But Jesus turns that all upside down. To be ‘first’ in his kingdom is to be ‘last’ and to be a ‘servant’. He is once again trying to get the disciples and us to understand just what his coming is/was all about. He came not in power, but in humble servanthood to take up the debt of our sin and serve both God and us through his willingness to suffer and die for our sins. But then he takes his explanation a step further and quite a radical step for the disciples in his time.
The disciples want to know who is the greatest. The disciples want to know who is the best at following Jesus. Jesus says, "Do you see this child?’ (v36-7) and he presents this child, who was socially invisible in that 1st century culture, as the stand-in for himself. For children had no status. They were subject to the authority of their fathers, viewed as little more than property. In fact until they reached the age of 6-7 years old children were disposable so high were the levels of infant and young child mortality. Now Jesus says that membership within the community of the faithful will involve giving status to those who have none. Accepting such an unimportant member of society in Jesus' name is equivalent to accepting Jesus. And accepting Jesus is equivalent to accepting God. Hospitality, a major aspect of life in the ancient world, is to be extended to the most unlikely, thus challenging traditional notions of status. Hospitality to the unimportant will be a hallmark of the circle of Jesus' followers, as it was in Jesus' own ministry. And this has everything to do with faithfulness to the one whose rejection and death mark the way to glory.
Jesus is telling you and me to start seeing the invisible because to receive the invisible one is to receive Jesus, and to receive Jesus is to receive the one who sent him. In our sacramental theology of Holy Communion it is hearing from the young child who tells you she thinks she is ready to receive communion because, simply, "I can eat." It is recognizing the ministry that every individual of our faith community is carrying out as they seek to live their lives for Christ. It is treating the very people our society would describe as bludgers or outcasts with the same respect we would accord Jesus were he to be standing before us.
It raises an interesting question.
What would our lives look like if we really believed and acted on these words of Jesus?
True greatness is to be like Jesus, a truly powerful person, but who valued himself not because of power but because of his being and his doing the will of God, which meant lowliness, in his case including following the path to the cross. That is all implied in the context of Mark’s story. Jesus in Mark subverts the standard values. He is a king, but wearing a crown of thorns. He is the Christ, but broken on the cross.
A young rabbinical student asked the rabbi, "Rabbi, why don't people see God today as they did in the olden days?" The wise old man put his hands on the student's shoulders and said, "The answer, my son, is because no one is willing to stoop so low."
