Please turn with me to Mark, chapter 9
This morning I am tasked with attempting the minor miracle of a short sermon. We’re going to attempt this on every month that has five Sundays, on the fifth Sunday, an all-family service. Should be fun! Let’s get started!
Mark 9:30–32 (CSB)
30 Then they left that place and made their way through Galilee, but he did not want anyone to know it. 31 For he was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after he is killed, he will rise three days later.” 32 But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask him.
This is the second of three times Mark records Jesus teaching his disciples that he will be arrested, killed, and then will rise from the dead. Their response is different each time.
The first time, Peter argued with him. Peter didn’t understand Jesus’s mission. He had his own ideas about who the Messiah was supposed to be and what he would do. Peter had the idea that the Messiah was going to come and overthrow Roman rule and set up a new government and new religious system. Peter had in mind that he was on the ground floor of the ruling elite. He would be someone important. So when Jesus starts talking about betrayal, arrest, death, and resurrection, Peter argued “no, that’s not how its supposed to go, I’m not going to let that happen to you!”
Jesus used that moment to teach his followers that just as his mission on this earth is to go to the cross to die for the sins of the world, that following Jesus means we must likewise be willing to give up our lives in service of others.
This second time, they likewise don’t understand Jesus fully, but we do get some sense that they were picking up more of it now. The next passage shows us that they understand that Jesus is going away, so they start arguing about who is going to take the lead when Jesus is gone. Obviously Jesus is the greatest among them right now, but what about when he’s gone, whose up next to lead the band? To carry on the work? They show that they have a wrong understanding of what leadership is about in God’s eyes. They are wrong about what greatness truly is. And just as Jesus used their misunderstanding the first time as an opportunity to teach them about what it will be like to follow in his footsteps, so he does here as well.
He shows them that leaders in God’s kingdom, those who want to be important, prominent, powerful, and heroic in God’s kingdom, must be willing to serve the lowliest. Those who are insignificant in the eyes of the world.
Mark 9:33–37 (CSB)
33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34 But they were silent, because on the way they had been arguing with one another about who was the greatest. 35 Sitting down, he called the Twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all.” 36 He took a child, had him stand among them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one little child such as this in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but him who sent me.”
Greatness is a Good Goal
God does not rebuke the desire for greatness. Greatness is a good goal! We have a built in desire to be great. To strive for glory, to be of help and of service to our friends and communities. To be of significance! What Jesus teaches, is that the way you are to get there is entirely upside down from the world’s view of greatness.
God’s definition of greatness is different
“If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all.” In our world, greatness comes with reward, recognition, awards, places of honor, applause, and praise. Whereas those who are considered servants are almost always invisible, unnoticed, unrewarded, unheralded. Jesus says “do you want recognition, notoriety, and prestige in God’s eyes? Serve in unnoticeable ways.” And he gives an amazing illustration to show what he means.
Welcoming Little Ones
Jesus takes a child who was with them at the house where they were staying. And says “the kind of work you will be doing won’t be about ruling great organizations or kingdoms or political systems, but it will be about helping ones like this.
Children in Jesus’s day had zero social status or cultural clout. Helping children out didn’t win you friends or popularity or wealth. If you had in your mind that you were going to be a great mover and shaker in culture or in your world, the last ones you’d expect to be dealing with are children. They’d be considered an annoyance.
To be honest, this illustration is not lost on modern ears. If you are trying to accomplish big things in business, culture, or even on the mission field, children often seem like a burden to be dealt with rather than serving them being a path to greatness.
Our disposition toward them can often be a bit like very important businessman Walter Hobbs in the decades-old Christmas classic Elf. Probably the greatest Christmas movie ever produced. Hobbs was under a lot of stress from a Christmas deadline for a very large company, when he was saddled with caring for his estranged son, who was raised by elves in the north pole. In the face of losing his job, caring for this surprise visitor probably seemed like a massive hassle.
As silly as the movie was, it is a great example of “welcoming one little child.” Walter Hobbs gained no professional reward or cultural prestige, quite the opposite in fact. These were the things he was running after in his life at every expense.But by the end of the movie he gained his soul, and his family.
Who Are The Little Ones In Your World?
Who are we supposed to welcome?
Well, first we can apply this directly and literally, and serve our young ones! Whether its through formally serving in our children’s ministry in teaching Sunday School, helping tend children in the nursery, perhaps its informal, giving weary parents some rest from children who require more care and attention than average. Teaching, mentoring, showing love and care for our young ones is a great service in God’s eyes.
But take a moment, all of you, to ask yourself who the hardest person for you to have a conversation with, or want to sit with, or spend time with or want to do something good and nice for.
Who would you consider to be your enemy?
Determine in your heart who you view as the least worthy of your help and service. Go serve them.
Kids, how about you? Maybe your brother or sister is super annoying, and being nice to them is hard. Maybe there’s a kid you know that no one likes because they are weird or annoying?
Adults, maybe this is someone with different political opinions. Different social status or class. Someone with a different personality or interests. Someone who is loud or rude or ungrateful or bossy?
Maybe its people we just tend to not notice. Wait staff at a restaurant. Cashiers at the grocery store. Gas station attendants. Delivery people. Trash collectors. Janitors.
Whoever is least in our minds, they are the ones Jesus calls us to die for. To serve.
Will you receive them and serve them and love them?
For all of us, one helpful way to help change our heart and mind toward these kind of people is toremember that you are a little one. You were not worthy of God’s time, attention, or service. Your sin required his death on the cross. But he gladly went there for you, out of love. Receive him, and receive all those he receives, the little ones. This is what it means to be great in God’s eyes!
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