Christian Living

---

Jesus’ disciples were arguing about which one of them was the greatest. Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he had a child stand there beside Him. Then He said to the disciples, “When you welcome even a child because of me, you welcome me…whichever one of you is the most humble is the greatest.
Luke: 9:46-48

Jesus said to His disciples, “There will always be something that causes people to sin. But any person that causes people to sin is in for trouble. A person who causes even one of my little ones to sin would be better off thrown into the ocean with a millstone tied around his neck.
Luke 17:1,2

Some people brought their children to Jesus, so that He could place His hands on them and pray for them. The disciples told the people to stop bothering Him. But Jesus said, “Let the children cone to me, and don’t try to stop them. For the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Matthew 19:13,14

The story is told of an old teacher in England who would always greet his class with a deep bow on the first day of each new school term. It was a strange custom, since all the other teachers always stood erect and waited for the students to kneel before them. They thought it only proper that the students should bow to pay honor to their “masters”, to affirm that they were under the teacher’s authority. “Sir, why do you bow before us?” asked one of the students. “I am all I will become, a teacher,” replied the old master. “But I do not know what you will become. One of you might someday be prime minister of England, or perhaps even royalty. I would not dare withhold respect from people who have the potential to become so great.”

Who are the great among us? That is the question the disciples asked Jesus. This was no innocent question asked to satisfy idle curiosity, however.

“Yes, Jesus. A few of us were having a discussion and were wondering if you could settle a dispute for us. Not that its of great interest to us, but for the sake of argument: who is the greatest in the kingdom?” No, it wasn’t exactly like that. Luke 9 and also Mark 9 expose their pride and ambition quite well.

Ambition has an appetite that can never be satisfied. All those who seek the throne of worldly power will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. A brief look at politics in Washington D.C. is a quick lesson in the power of ambition. After a presidential election, all the chairs of high office are up for grabs. As one senator put it, “Everyone is scratching, drooling and lusting for a presidential appointment.” Insiders call it “Potomac fever”. It’s an ambition that only asks who do you know and what can you do for me.

The disciples who are competing for first place in the coming kingdom are Peter, James and John…the inner circle whom Jesus had chosen to be with Him on the Mount of Transfiguration. You can almost hear their debate: “I stood closest to Jesus when He shone in glory…Yes, but did you see the way He looked at me? I think He might have been hinting that I have a special place in the coming Kingdom…You! You are too proud. In all likelihood it’s me. I’m the most humble person here.”

Fortunately for them they asked Jesus. And Jesus would answer the question like He answered so many: by correcting the question to reveal the motive of the questioner. Jesus responds by basically saying, “You do not even understand the nature of the kingdom and you are already arranging the seating. You assume because you are with me that you are better than the rest of the world. Now all that needs to be determined is which one of you that is with me is the greatest. But you are asking the wrong question. The question that needs to be asked is: What is greatness in the kingdom.

What Jesus does next must have completely bewildered His disciples. He calls forth a child and says, “Here is a person of greatness in my kingdom. Be like this child.” To fully appreciate the radical nature of this illustration, it is important to understand the Jewish attitude toward children in first century Palestine. In the present day we tend to idealize childhood as a happy age of innocence and wonder. We write books about and for children by the hundreds. The “childhood business” in this country is a multi-million dollar operation. But in New Testament times the child was considered to be of no particular importance, meriting little attention or favor. Children in that society had no status at all…for all intents and purposes, they were invisible. Jesus was showing his disciples that by seeking the “high” place, they were going in the wrong direction. The child is the symbol of those who occupy the lowest rung of society, those whom society would consider unimportant…the poor and oppressed…the beggars…the prostitutes…the tax collectors…the people Jesus often called “little ones” or “the least”. So, what was Jesus trying to say about greatness? They key is in two words: repentance and humility.

First, Jesus says repent…change. You’re going the wrong way. Your question reveals it. Turn around and go my way…the way of the child. Second, the way of the child is the way of humility. Take your rightful place as a child before the Father. Take your place in humble relationship with the Master. In His reply to the disciple’s question, Jesus erases any honor in seeking to be first. To be greatest is to be least…to be first is to be last. His role model shall be a child…a person without pretense. I remember when my daughter Kara was a child. She was playing with a friend at our house. At some point during their play her friend came into the kitchen looked at me and almost demanded, “Don’t you have any cookies?” She didn’t say, “Gee, I’m kind of hungry” or “I usually have my snack about now” or even tried to get Kara to ask. Nope…she just marched up to the most likely source of what she was after and asked…without pretense.

The kingdom belongs to people who aren’t trying to look good or impress anybody…even themselves. They are not plotting how they can call attention to themselves, worrying about how their actions will be interpreted. The child doesn’t have to struggle to get itself in a good position for having a relationship with God. He doesn’t have to craft ingenious ways of explaining his position to Jesus. He doesn’t have to reach some special state of spiritual feeling or intellectual understanding. All he has to do is go to the source and ask for “the cookies”. And Jesus responds, “Don’t worry little flock, your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.”

Having taught them the nature of greatness, He now moves on to the real lesson: the true principle of greatness. The goal is not being great…but rather, doing great things. And the greatest thing you can do in the kingdom is to serve the least in the kingdom. Whoever would be first, shall be last and the servant of all.

The Lord calls us to serve all, but He wants our hearts to be especially turned toward those who are in need and lack the resources to return the service. And we are to give it freely without lording over them. No pat on the head and send them on their way. No trumpets blowing…no herald proclaiming your great service as you send them off with a “Be warm and well fed” blessing. No! We bend the knee and say, “I am here…I love you and in the name of Him who loves us both, how can I help?” This kind of service will almost always cost us something. And that is how it should be. “For God so loved the world that He gave…” You know someone really cares about you when he or she is willing to give you something that costs him or her dearly.

Ken Wilson, the pastor of Emmaus Fellowship in Ann Arbor, Michigan tells the story of a family whose daughter was very sick. The younger brother went with them to the hospital. The doctor came into the room and asked to speak to the mother and father privately. When they returned to the room, they looked pretty grim. The father turned to the younger brother and explained, “Your sister is very sick and she needs a blood transfusion. However, her blood is so rare that the hospital doesn’t have any. Your mother and I have a different blood type. But yours is the same as your sister. Would you be willing to let the doctor take a pint of your blood for your sister?” The boy swallowed hard. He looked at his sister and knew that she needed his help. “Sure, dad,” the boy said, trying to hide his fear. “No problem.” A few minutes later a nurse arrived to take the boy’s blood. When it was all over the boy looked confused, so his mother asked him what was on his mind. “Oh nothing,” he said. “I just thought you needed your blood to live.” “Of course you do,” said his mother. “Then how come I’m not dead yet?” When the boy had said yes to his father, he thought he was giving his life so his sister could live.

Kingdom service is costly service. But it is in that sacrifice that we identify with our Lord. Jesus spent most of His time with the poor, the blind, the lame, the leper, the persecuted, the downtrodden, the possessed, the heavy laden, the rabble, the law-breaker, the little ones…the least, the last and the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In short, Jesus hung out with poor nobodies. One of the mysteries of Jesus’ character that surely troubled His disciples was His strange attraction for the unattractive…His strange desire for the undesirable…His strange love for the unlovely. The key to this mystery is “Abba”. Jesus does what He sees the Father doing…He loves those the Father loves. To take the least and the last of God’s people into our arms is to be identified with Jesus, and through Him with God the Father. As the slave bears the identity of the master so does the child bear the identity of the father. We are the children of the Father and bear His identity by the way we live. If power and ambition drive us we don’t belong to Christ. But if we are the last of all and the servant of all than we are identified with Christ as sons and daughters of the Father. Greatness then becomes incidental rather than sought after.

Every person counts with God. His care is for all and He operates without favoritism. The same must be true of His sons and daughters. We must not despise, avoid or be condescending to any of His children, for they are all His. This is true kingdom service…being identified with Christ by serving the least in the kingdom with all the love and gifts Christ has bestowed upon us for the completion of this task.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE