The Child In Our Midst
Mark 9:30-37
Now let’s just review that Gospel story that we just read.
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. On his way he begins teaching his disciples that he must suffer many things at the hands of humanity, and die, rise again. This is the second prediction of his death recorded in Mark’s Gospel. Mark records that they did not understand what he was saying and they were afraid to ask him.
I don’t think that they wanted to understand. I don’t think that they wanted to even consider the death of Christ, and possibly their own death. It didn’t fit their idea of what a Messiah was. I think that their heads were still filled with thoughts of glory…what it would be like when their leader…Messiah…would really take control. They would rule with him in all his grandeur. They would share his fame.
In fact they argued with one another along the way as to who was the greatest. When they got to Capernaum, Jesus asked them what they were arguing about (he really knew what they were arguing about), and he took this opportunity to teach them a little more about what life in the kingdom was all about, or true living was all about. The one who is truly great is the one who is willing to serve. Sometimes the greatest hindrance to our being willing to serve is our pride. That is the first thing we have to deal with.
A seminary professor who taught preaching used to painfully tell about the first time he preached or tried to. Fresh from some minor triumphs in high school and college speech classes, he confidently strode to the pulpit with all the brashness and self. importance that can afflict a college sophomore. To his dismay, he discovered he didn’t have all that much to say and what he did say came out badly. After a few miserable minutes he gave up the effort and sat down in a mood of dejection and defeat. A wise old listener put his arm around him after the service and supplied a sage bit of counsel. “Young man,” he said, “If you had gone up there like you came down, you would have come down like you went up.” (1)
Sometimes it is pride that can ruin a good thing.
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In the midst of the conversation that Jesus had with his disciples about true greatness, he brought a child and place the child in the midst of them. This image of the child in the the midst stands out for me.
It is that image that I am left with after the gospel has been read. It is that image of the child that will stay with me as I leave here this morning. It is that image that will appear to me over and over again during the week, even trouble me, maybe even haunt me.
I believe that is what is so powerful about the actions of Jesus in the Gospels. They stay with you and wont let you go until you have struggled with them.
The child, or the “little ones” were representative of all those who were weak and vulnerable in society.
The child is the image of vulnerability. To me you could speak of the child as a metaphor for the poor, the dispossessed, and all those who were powerless and unable to stand up for themselves. When Jesus is lifting up a child in their midst, he is not just lifting up a child, but he is lifting up all those in need of some one to stand up for them, in need of advocacy. There is a ‘child’ in our midst.
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Jesus talked of ‘welcoming’ them. When we look at the meaning of that term it is more than ‘welcoming‘ . It is standing up for them, serving them, even risking yourself for them.
On the other hand we are taught in this world to think just the opposite, that true happiness is found in getting as much power, status, and wealth as we can. But as Harold Kushner points out in his book, When All that You Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough, even the rich and the powerful has an unnameable hunger.
Kushner talks of people who are successful and well off, still saying, “Is this all there is?” Part of the problem he points out is a soul-lessness – our lives so revolve around ourselves that we cannot give ourselves to others. We are like the Humphrey Bogart character is Casablanca, who tells a desperate man about to be arrested by the Gestapo: “I don’t stick my neck out for anyone.”
In a chapter in that book entitled, The loneliness of looking out for number one, Kushner goes on to describe how in this brutal and competitive world, many people are telling us that they only way to get ahead is to ruthlessly take advantage of other people’s weakness. He goes on to say that this Bogart character felt alienated from life when he cared only about himself, but finds himself only after risking his future for people he loves. (2)
Jesus says one more thing about this standing up for the weak and powerless. When we welcome one of these vulnerable ones, we welcome Jesus himself. Are you looking for Jesus? You will find Jesus as the ‘Child’ in your midst.
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The image of a child brings to mind another passage where Jesus said that entering the Kingdom of God was dependent on being “like a child”, recognizing our own vulnerability and in need of the simple trust that we see in a child. .
Sometimes I think back when I would sit in my chair chair and watch my two year old grandson playing. The little boy hardly slowed down for anything. Since learning to walk, he had forgotten what the word walk meant and he would run everywhere. He would run to get a toy. He would run to chase a ball. Then he would run from one side of the room to the other chasing the cat.
When I watch him I think of the story I’ve heard of another little boy:
On one trip across the room,this little boy suddenly stopped, walked over to his father, and pushing the paper aside, climbed up in Dad’s lap. Dad grinned and looked down at his son, and asked, “And what do you want?”
The little boy curled up with his head on Dad’s chest, and with a sigh said, “I rest here a minute. OK, Daddy?”
Dad said, “OK.” About two minutes later the little boy jumped down and started to run off and play but then turned and with a big grin said, “Thank you. I love you.” And off he ran. (3)
I think sometimes that the best times of prayer and the purest times in my life and faith, are those times when I visualize God like that Dad and simply crawl up into His lap and rest. I believe that God wants us to have that same kind of relationship and to take the same kind of time out. Time to simply rest in God’s presence, and to say “Thank you” and “I love you” to God who created us. That’s the purity of faith.
Jesus lifted up a little child for the disciples to see. The image stays with me. We are to welcome them and all the vulnerable in society that they represent. We also need that purity of faith that is seen in a child.
Now that is true greatness.
(1) Glendon E Harris “Having the right Altitude”, Pulpit Resource, Vol 8 # 3 July-September 1980 p.33
(2) Harold Kushner When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough, The Search for a Life that Matters, Simon and Schuster, New York, N.Y., 1986, pg. 47-63
(3) Billy Strayhorn We Are The Children of God, May 7, 2000 posted on http://web2.airmail.net/revbilly//index.htm
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