Jesus is
preparing the disciples for his death on the cross and after that. He predicts
his crucifixion and resurrection and then, there is a discussion about who is
the best disciple. So Jesus explains what discipleship is really about.
He says whoever wants
to be first must be last and and become like a servant.
The greatest is
like a child! Humble, dependent, vulnerable.
Jesus didn't
want the people to know where he was because he needed to spend time with his
disciples.
He tells them he is going to be given over
to wicked men, this servant of God and they will kill him, execute him. And
when he is killed, after three days he
will rise. The disciples don’t understand it!
He asks them
what were you arguing about. They were arguing while on the way.
But they kept quiet.
Mark does not say that Jesus was angry
with the disciples for discussing this issue, nor does he say why they were
quiet. They may not have wanted Jesus to know what they were discussing.
Mark then
records a series of discipleship sayings.
The first
saying is about humility and being a servant.
Jesus sat down, the normal posture for a
Rabbi, he sits to teach and his disciples stand to hear.
Jesus called out, he shouted. It is probably
used to emphasize what Jesus is about to say
"If he wants to be first he must be last” (cross bearing discipleship).
The second
saying Jesus actions by taking the child into the middle of the circle of the
disciples, picking her up, and hugging her, illustrating the servant-like attitude
that he wishes to inculcate .
The service /
servanthood that Jesus is referring to is the receiving / welcoming / accepting
of a member of lost and broken humanity who experiences Gods kindness/ mercy.
The child represents the lost and the disciples are
encouraged to receive the lost as Jesus received the lost, illustrated now in the
child. Such is servanthood of the Jesus kind, defining greatness in the kingdom
of God, it is like the poor, or even so called insignificant humanity. Syrians?
The child was made to stand where they
could all see him.
He took him in
his arms, and said whoever welcomes one of these little children,
it is equivalent to receiving Jesus himself. Note that in Aramaic the word for
"servant" and "child" is the same. Disciples are to be like
Jesus who receives/embraces the child, the servant the lost - the hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked, sick
and imprisoned. Because they are my representative! This action is something I
desire. Whoever does not welcome them
does not welcome me! (Liberation
Theologies “Option for the Poor!)
Jesus had a nasty habit. He took people on the edge and brought them
centre stage. People who were silenced or silent or unclean or foreign or sick
or immoral. The blind begger, the disabled man, the foreign woman, the woman
who was haemmoraging all the time, the tax collector, the prostitute-the
child!. All those who were outsiders through no fault of their own. And he
invited them in and gave them a voice.
Genesis tells us that we are all made in the image of God-all of us. We
are all made with the sign/mark of Gods image. We are all equal in Gods sight.
It inspires us to seek peace and justice not just for people like us, but for
those worse off than ourselves, the poor, the stranger, the outsider, those of
a different colour and culture to our own and the people we dislike.
The gospel is uncomfortable even shocking. It forces us to go places we
don’t want to go. But we have a heavenly mandate, a vision. We are not tied
down by ordinary human prejudices or the behaviour of people around us. We are
called to move those on the edge to the centre because we are one people, Gods
people.
