Check Your Ego at the Door
In our last reading, we saw that the disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was teaching them about his kingdom or his mission here on earth. Today, they prove their lack of understanding. On the heels of Jesus’ teaching about how he was going to be captured and killed, the disciples continue to argue about who was going to be the greatest when Jesus became king. They must have at least known that Jesus would not approve of their conversation because they clammed up as soon as he asked them what they were talking about. Unfortunately for them, but great for us, Jesus already knew what they were discussing, and he took a moment to teach us all a very important lesson. Ego, pride, and selfish ambition have no place in a follower of Christ’s life.
The telling of Jesus calling the little children to come to him and using them as an illustration for his point has been told many, many times, but we cannot allow its familiarity to distract us from the message. Verses 35-37 reveal an important truth about who we need to be. Jesus begins this conversation by sitting down. Maybe that doesn’t seem important, or perhaps it invokes a feeling of intimacy for us today. However, back in the day, when a rabbi wanted to teach a serious lesson, he demonstrated the importance of his words by sitting down. This is how the disciples and you and I know his teaching was meant to impact our lives. What was his teaching? Simply this: “If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
Throughout Jesus’ earthly life, he demonstrated a servant’s heart, yet we struggle with this principle. Perhaps the reason we struggle with this basic construct of our faith is because it goes against our ingrained human nature. No one has to teach us to be selfish. We are born wanting to be the center of everyone’s world. Young children instinctively will fight with one another over who gets to be closest to their favorite friend, toy, or adult. Sharing and kindness are learned behaviors, but that makes them all the more valuable. God constantly turns our world upside down. He challenges us to forsake our human nature and embrace Him instead. Servanthood displays that we have not only understood His command but embraced His authority over all. No matter how important other people think we might be (or how important we think we are), none of us compare with the authority and grandeur of God. By remembering our place in His world, we can embrace the attitude Jesus was teaching about. We all have different parts to play, but the plan and the design belong to the Lord.
Jesus used a child to make his point sink in. Again, this example is better understood when we place it in context of the original listener’s point of view. Children were not coddled the way we pamper our children today. (Then again, neither are we.) Children served a purpose. They worked. They helped their parents. As valuable and precious as God declared children to be (Psalm 127:3), they were seen as third-class citizens. Even slaves were given more value because they brought in more profit and benefit. Had Jesus sat down to teach this lesson today, he might have grabbed the hand of a homeless drug addict to make his point. This is who we should serve. The next time we balk at the idea of humbling ourselves to help out someone we think should be able to help themselves (or will waste the help), let us remember today’s lesson. The most distinguished leaders of our community are called to roll up their sleeves and serve the very least of us.
(Written by Keegan Harkins.)
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