Reflection -- Signs of God’s Upside-down Reign

Today's story is a simple little vignette; a slice of the life of Jesus and the disciples.  They are traveling together toward Capernaum, the little village on the shore of the Sea of Galilee that was Jesus’ home base during much of his public ministry.  Jesus takes the opportunity to teach them, for a second time, about what is to come; his death and resurrection.  It is becoming more and more urgent that they understand.  Soon, he will be gone and they will be left alone.  If they do not grasp what is coming and what God’s reign is all about, they will not be able to carry on with his ministry to the people.

Once more, the disciples don’t get it.  Instead, they are arguing among themselves about who is the greatest.  Jesus tries again, this time using a living illustration; a child.

The contrast could not be clearer.  Jesus is talking about pouring his life out for others; for all of us.  In fact, his whole life has been a living example that, in God’s way of thinking, the last are first and the first are last. 

The whole reign of God is an upside-down thing when contrasted to human values.  It is not about wealth, or power, or position, or recognition.  At its core, it really is all about love; genuine, deep, committed, self-giving, compassionate love.

The disciples, on the other hand, are still firmly in the world of routine human values.  Perhaps all the crowds and acclaim have gone to their heads.  Perhaps they had the idea, then common, that the messiah that God would send would be a powerful political and military leader who would rescue them from Roman rule; a king like king David.  They had not understood what the prophet Isaiah had foretold.  The messiah would come as a suffering servant, not a political ruler.  They were not thinking about how they would serve, but about who was the greatest and who would wind up with the most power and glory when Jesus became the king of Israel.

Jesus’ response was simply taking a little child in his arms and explaining that welcoming a child was welcoming him, and welcoming him was welcoming the One who sent him. 

Historians tell us that in those days, before our views became influenced by a much later age of romanticism, children were viewed very differently than they are now.  They were not seen not as “the apples of our eye” or examples of purity and innocence, but, as one writer puts it, as “unbridled little bits of chaos,” “terrible nuisances who were to be disciplined and tolerated until they became useful, reasonable adults.”  The view of them was more through the jaundiced eye of the late W. C. Fields than the magical lens of Dr. Seuss.  In short, children were seen as beings who could only take and not give.

The object lesson was simply this.  God does not put us into the world to chase after power and glory.  God puts us into this world to serve.  And who are we called to serve?  Not those who have power and glory.  They can (or at least they think they can) look after themselves.  The idea is not to serve people for the reward they can give us in return.  God’s reign is a reign of upside-down values.  It is a reign that values most serving not the powerful, but the most vulnerable; those who can give us the least.

Notice that this lesson from Jesus was not to the world at large, it was for his followers; his followers then and his followers now.  As we look at the disciples’ struggle to understand and get their values reoriented to God’s values, we are looking in a mirror.  The disciples idea of greatness is not one limited to a few first-century people.  Their definition of greatness is the common human definition.  If anything, it is worse in our own generation with its only half joking notion that “the one who dies with the most toys wins.”  If we are going to be followers of Jesus, we need to redefine greatness -- redefine it in terms of service; redefine it not in terms of what we can get, but what we can give without any notion of receiving in return.

What might happen if we, as God’s people, as God’s church, really took this lesson to heart?

revclay

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Mark 9:30-37

They went on from there and passed through Galilee.  [Jesus] did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again."  But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. 

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?"  But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.  He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." 

Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them,  "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the one who sent me."

[NRSV]