Luke 9
Arguing Over The Greatest
46 An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. 47 Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. 48 Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For whoever is least among you all is the greatest."
This picture in the Gospel of Luke relates to equally revealing scenes in Matthew and Mark; the disciples, expecting Jesus to reign over his earthly kingdom, argue about which of them should hold the title of Lead Disciple. Matthew's version is in chapter 18 and Mark's version is in chapter nine. There's an ever more revealing scenario in Matthew chapter twenty wherein James and John's mother comes to Jesus with a special request...Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.
One would hope that at this stage in Jesus' ministry and with the intimate knowledge the disciples supposedly had of Jesus, that should misunderstanding wouldn't occur. You would hope that they would have gotten it by now...that Jesus is not going to fulfill the traditional expectation of the role of the Messiah, to defeat the Romans and raise up a new God-centered earthly Jewish state. Well, like us, these disciples are a mixture of spiritual depth and personal agenda; a mixture of sincere desire to do God's will and gravitation to personal desires; a mixture of true devotion to Christ and checkered commitment to Christ. Like us, these disciples couldn't get their personal needs and desires out of the way. We, too, far too often want Jesus on our terms and not on his terms.
In all of the Gospel scenes related to this issue, Jesus quickly points out that servanthood, not glory or prominence, is the essence of faithful discipleship. He did not come to be served but to serve; and that should be true of us as well.
When Jesus takes the child and speaks about receiving children, he's referencing the notion that those who care about and reach out to the ones who occupy no place of honor and hold no lofty position or status are his true followers. Children in that culture had no real status; were to be seen but not heard; certainly weren't considered to be prominent. Thus, in reaching out to the least and receiving the lowliest, one vividly honors Christ.
One Biblical scholar says that Jesus essentially is saying, If you are prepared to spend your lives serving, helping, loving people who, in the eyes of the world, do not matter at all, you are serving me and serving God. If you are prepared to spend your life doing these apparently unimportant things and never trying to be what the world calls great, you will be great in the eyes of God.
It's worth pondering for each of us what mindset propels our service to Christ!
