They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.” (Mark 9:33–37 NASB)
All I Have To Do Is . . .
I was interviewing Professor K.A. Ellis — who is the Director of the Edmiston Center for the Study of the Bible and Ethnicity at RTS Atlanta — for Africana Manna. Ellis studies theological ethics and world Christianity and works with Christians who are following Jesus on the margins and under persecution.
She was telling me about a powerful opportunity she had while serving Christians on the margins. Prof. Ellis was honored to facilitate a hand-delivered letter of encouragement from a group of pastors in a closed country. This letter went to another church in another country thousands of miles away across a language barrier.
Reflecting on this opportunity, she said, “I am just the middle man standing in the middle of all these people doing really amazing things. All I have to do is just stand here and be small.”
Being Small
Isn’t that a great way to view all of ministry, all of life? “Lord I will stand here and serve you and be small.” This is God’s path to greatness. The beginning of every great ministry is a small person.
But don’t we often embrace the opposite posture in our service to God?
We will only stand in service of God if we can be big. And if we are not big, we refuse to stand in the service of God.
That is exactly what the disciples embraced in our passage, but Jesus corrects them. Jesus invites them to be great, but differently than they expected. You might be wondering, “Will God make me successful?” The answer is, “Yes, but in a different way than you expect.”
Jesus invited them to be great by being small. More specifically, he invites them to embrace smallness.
Competing with Each Other
Our passage is a part of a larger section that begins in Mark 8:22 and ends at Mark 10:52 where Jesus gives his disciples three rounds of teaching on his suffering, death, and resurrection. In our passage, Jesus and his disciples are traveling through Galilee as he is teaching them for the second time about his own suffering and death.
Jesus noticed they were arguing and having divisions among themselves as they were traveling. When they got to their destination, Jesus asked them what they were arguing about. The disciples were silent. They were either too embarrassed or scared to answer, but Jesus knew exactly what they were arguing about. Mark tells us in vv 33-34 that while Jesus was teaching them about suffering and death, the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest!
Now I don’t have a good idea of what their measurement system was in order to figure out who was the greatest. Whatever it was, they were obsessed with their own status, exaltation, and glory compared to others. This obsession with greatness caused them to be in competition with each other.
The Way Up is Down
So Jesus sat down in the house to reinforce what he was trying to drive home while they were traveling. He began by saying, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (v 35).
The way to become great is to become small. The greatest leader among them was the greatest servant among them.
Then Jesus totally revamped their measurement system by a live illustration. Jesus took a child in his arms and said that to receive the child in Jesus’ name is to receive him. This is powerful. The apostles were to embrace the small.
Like the parables, Jesus means for this to impact us, not to be dissected. But let’s notice a few things.
Becoming a Child
Why the child? Soceity considered a child as the most humble and unimportant people. They would have been restricted from the company of important people. It would have actually been jarring for great Jesus to embrace a small child in the presence of the apostles.
What does it mean to receive in Jesus’ name? To do something in the name of someone is to represent that person. Jesus is saying that in order to understand him, you must understand that he can use even the most unimportant, small, and lowly of society to be his representatives.
Jesus embraced the smallest as worthy of association with the greatest. And Jesus shows this by embracing this child in his arms.
We must also notice the language formula Jesus uses here. When sending out the apostles for ministry in Matthew 10:40, he said to them, “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.” It is the same language Jesus uses here for a child! Jesus is artfully challenging the apostle’s conception of what it means to be an apostle. To be an apostle, you must embrace the persona of a child — small, unimportant, lowly. To be an apostle is to be a childlike representative of Jesus.
But the disciples were exactly the kind of people who would not have embraced the small. Why? They would have seen Jesus as too important to receive a child. We know this because Mark comically tells us in Mark 10:13 that they rebuke people for trying to bring children to Jesus. We see that the disciples fundamentally do not understand their Lord. Will they ever learn?!
Are You Small?
Family, this passage ought to shape our lives today and forever. Are you always comparing yourself to other people around you to see who is better? Are you a competitive person, measuring your success based upon being “more than” someone else? Are you only able to do something if it means you will rise to the top? You maybe be struggling with “greatness.” Jesus invites you to be great in a different way. Christ invites you to be small.
We do this by the power that Christ gives.
The truly great one became small so that us “great ones” might have the power to become small. Christ gives you his pardon and his power so that you can actually embrace smallness.
With people, it is impossible, but with God, nothing is impossible. We can only become small and give it all for Christ when we realize that Christ became small and has given it all for us.
Be great today.