Proper 20 (B)
September 21, 2003
Who is Great?
Mark 9:30-37
On the journey to Capernaum, the disciples
had been discussing greatness. Nothing really unusual about that. The
conversation had been on which of them was the greatest. Nothing
really wrong with that. Not really. There is a natural and universal
desire within the heart of human beings to be recognized, to be
acknowledged to be the best.
Jesus asks them
what they had been talking about. But He already knows. He heard the
comments on the journey. He does not chastise them or scold them for
thinking about greatness. He does not tell them that they ought not
to strive for greatness. Jesus does not try to make them feel guilty
about their ambitions. He simply says that they ought to understand
what is true greatness. They need to have a clear picture of what
constitutes enduring greatness.
Jesus says in
the kingdom of God, greatness — real greatness — comes in
developing the attitude and the ability of people of power to be of
service to those who are invisible. Jesus says, "If you want a place
of honor, you must become a slave and serve others." Greatness,
prestige, honor in the kingdom of God is given to those who make
themselves the servants of those who have no power to command.
Jesus
then takes a little child and says to them that it is in how we
receive this little child that you show whether or not you have
received Jesus and have become part of His kingdom. The places of
greatness in the kingdom of God are judged on how we treat the child.
It
is not a new notion for the people of God. It is not some radical new
idea that Jesus brings. The people of God are judged by how they
treat those who are the weakest, the lowest, the poorest. Amos the
prophet had called Israel to task for the way it abused the widow and
foreigner.
Jesus says the places of honor in the kingdom go to those who have
eyes to see the child. In Jesus' day, a child was just a piece of
property to the adult male. True disciples achieve greatness not by
holding great office but by doing services to insignificant people
such as the child.
We have not completely lost
sight of that standard of greatness. Mother Teresa spent her life in
the service of the untouchable, the dying, and the abandoned. She
took in the children left to die. She did out of love what you could
not make strong men do for money.
When Jesus took
the child and said that greatness in the kingdom of God is to be
found in serving those who are vulnerable, those who are at the mercy
of power, those who are invisible, it was because in his society
children were nobodies. Children didn't count, except as numbers,
except that you had to have some. But today that is not always the
case.