Brothers and sisters can argue about the dumbest things! I’m embarrassed to think about some of the things my brother and sisters argued with ME about! Being the youngest, I may have instigated some pretty dumb arguments myself. When I was a kid, I seem to recall hearing from them that I always had to be right. The adult “me” has also heard that criticism.
The disciples – some of whom were brothers and all them like brothers – had a debate in our Gospel today that can only be described as one of the dumbest things to argue about in the presence of Jesus. You’d think they would have known better – having spent so much time with Jesus.
The disciples and Jesus are going for a walk. Along the way Jesus is teaching them that he will have to be rejected and betrayed and crucified and then rise again in three days. As soon as the lesson is over, they start arguing among themselves about which one of them is the greatest.
Who is the most spiritual? Who prays the most? Who can follow Jesus the farthest without his feet aching? Who can nod the most enthusiastically when Jesus confronts a Pharisee? Who is in Jesus’ inner circle of friends? Who does Jesus like the best?
I’m sure they didn’t intend for Jesus to hear them, but Jesus says, “What are you guys talking about?” And they’re like, “Nothin.”
Mental note to disciples: don’t pump yourself up when you’re walking behind the Son of God on his way to be rejected betrayed and crucified! This has got to be one of the worst moments for the disciples! They just don’t get it.
If you’ve ever had a hard time understanding Jesus or the Bible, you’re in good company. The disciples had a very difficult time comprehending who Jesus was and what he came to do. Last week Jesus was teaching them about his betrayal, his rejection, his suffering, death and resurrection. When Peter objects to this view of the Messiah, Jesus scolds him – he rebukes him and says, “Get behind me, Satan.”
In today’s Gospel Jesus uses a different tactic. 35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” 36 He took a little child and had him stand among them.
Children in Jesus’ day did not have the same status they do in our culture. They were considered property. The word of little children is the same word used for a slave in the household. Ancient Middle Eastern cultures denigrated children as nearly useless. During famine children were the last to be fed – survival of the fittest, survival of the greatest. Only 1/3 of children in Bible times lived past the age of 16. If and when children reached maturity then they were considered to have value.
To drive home his point Jesus gathers the disciples in a circle and brings a child into the center, the middle. The circle is not a place of honor but a place of judgment. Religious leaders gathered around a sinner they are ready to accuse. This is the formation of stoning someone to death. Perhaps the disciples thought Jesus was going to beat the child – that would have been less surprising than what he did.
He embraced the child. He took him into his arms.
Jesus and the child become the object lesson. Jesus joins himself to the least – the smallest. This is how Jesus lived – always stepping down and reaching out and embracing those considered unworthy and undesirable. Always encircling with his love those no one else will. Jesus is inviting his followers to do the same. To be stop arguing about who is the greatest and be servants.
Jesus wants to reorder his disciples thinking – turn it upside down – so that they can receive what Jesus wants to give them. Just like Peter last week who didn’t understand and didn’t WANT Jesus’ definition of Messiah and had to re-think who Jesus was, the dsicples who don’t understand or WANT Jesus’ definition of greatness must re-think who they are being called to be. They will all learn this from Jesus and eventually at the cross.
The disciples and Jesus are walking along the road – their destination is Jerusalem, and the finish line is the cross. There Jesus entered the judgment circle and embraced the least likely, the least deserving, the worst sinner. That dark event caused them so much grief and confusion, but if the disciples are really to understand the significance of a bleeding and dying savior, if WE are to understand Jesus, then we have to see his humility as our power. We have to see weakness as strength. And service as our calling.
This wasn’t the first time Jesus directed their focus to the cross. It would not be the last. Today he continues to redirect us – to reorient our hearts and lives – and to place us on the path that leads to life.
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