We continue with the hard teachings of Jesus as he prepares his disciples for his suffering and death and also for what it means to be followers on the way. (Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Proper 20 [25] Mark 9:30-37) These teachings are hard because they run contrary to much conventional wisdom and our aspirations. Also because these lessons invite us to be humble and childlike - or little.
You may like to read what I wrote about this gospel text three years ago.
It is interesting that this particular teaching happens in response to Jesus trying to prepare his disciples, for the second time now, for his coming humiliation and suffering and what will await them as followers on the same way. The disciples initially seem to have responded by missing the point and arguing among themselves as to who was the greatest, or who had the best seat on a vessel on a collision course! So Jesus tries again this time with an unexpected and unlikely prop – a child!!
A child in the first century was surely as loved and precious to their family as our children are. I’m sure they were also cute and inquisitive, naive and trusting and all the other attributes this story often leads us to romanticise about children. But they were valued and treated in different ways as well. Children were very physically vulnerable to illness and survival rates were very low compared to our time. There were also no rights of the child and they were inevitably without authority, status, prestige or power. (See link below to John T Squire’s blog) When Jesus puts forward a child as a teaching point he is challenging his disciples and us to understand that we are invited into vulnerability, to humility and littleness, not into greatness!!
Even more radically Jesus says that when we welcome a child, the vulnerable and humble, we are not only stooping down out of our greatness and importance to be kind but that we are seeing Jesus and the One who sent him! In other words God is present in the vulnerable and humble and the Jesus we seek to follow is also vulnerable and humble.
The wise Henri Nouwen said it this way: “Jesus came to announce to us that an identity based on success, popularity and power is a false identity.” How much of human history, and our own personal journey, have we got it back to front thinking we were called to become great, full, wonderful, very holy and radiating spiritual success? But the values of the kingdom are upside down and inside out and are counter cultural. The gospel is subversive even in Christianity! Expressed here as: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all”.
So how do we make any practical sense of these teachings? As I have reflected on the text I have thought of three ways in which seeing God in the humble and little might manifest in our life. Firstly in our attitude and behaviour toward those who in our community are vulnerable, humble and little. This does mean to help where and when we can but even more to see and to listen and to respect the very ones usually thought of as less important or successful. If God is manifest in the little then we look to littleness as a teacher and an expression of the divine not something or someone to be pitied. (Think of the Beatitudes.)
Secondly our attitude toward our self ought to be of acceptance because we know that we are loved and valued as we truly already are, not as we think we need to pretend or aspire to be. And maybe our goal needs to be to become a little one, a no-one, rather than aiming to become important and powerful. (Many a saint has realised this at some point in their journey) Contemplative practices and loving practical engagement with our neighbour both empty and fill us with love and respect and welcome of the little and humble.
And maybe most importantly and improbably we need to aspire to build the kingdom here on earth now, to build a world in which all are valued no matter how vulnerable, humble and little. Imagine a world in which questions of coming first or last are irrelevant because there is a communion at the centre of creation that is better represented by a circle than a hierarchical pyramid!
Even so, come Lord Jesus the Christ, come open our hearts and eyes that we may see you in the vulnerable and little ones.
This is my work informed by all I have heard, read and experienced. I am indebted to the wisdom of others. This week I am especially grateful to:
Richard Rohr and others, Center for Action and Contemplation, Contemplative practices
John T Squires “He took a little child ... and taking it in his arms ... (Mark 9; Pentecost 18B)” An Informed Faith
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