by Rev. Dr. James I. Lamb
Text: Mark 9:33-37
It was bound to happen. As the disciples were walking along on their way to Capernaum, they were arguing about who was the greatest. It was bound to happen because of what had just happened. Three of them—Peter, James, and John—had been with Jesus during the glory of His transfiguration. You may remember that when they came down from the mountain, they found a large crowd around the rest of the disciples. A man had brought his demon-possessed son to them, but the disciples could not cast it out.
On the road to Capernaum, then, you had disciples who felt favored because they had been privileged to see Jesus glorified and disciples who felt humiliated because they could not cast out a demon. It doesn’t take much imagination to hear their conversation. Perhaps outspoken Peter turned to James and John and said in a voice loud enough for all to hear, “Too bad we weren’t around. After what we just got to see, I bet we could have sent that evil spirit packing!” “Oh yeah?” Philip may have shot back. “If I remember correctly, it wasn’t that long ago that Jesus rebuked you, Peter, and called you Satan himself! So don’t think you are so great!” Yes, it’s easy to imagine the twelve arguing about who was the greatest. To be fair to them, I doubt if their motivations were entirely selfish. I’m sure they wanted to do great things for their Lord and Master, but they just had the wrong idea of greatness. A malady common to us all.
So in order to teach the disciples, and us, the true nature of greatness, in order to illustrate what he meant when He said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all,” Jesus “took a little child and had him stand among them.” Then He said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me but the One who sent Me.” To visually illustrate His point as He is saying this, He takes the child in His arms. “This is a picture of greatness,” Jesus says as He embraces this child. “This is a picture of doing great things for God—welcome a little child.” Jesus would have us learn two things about welcoming a child in this text.
First, it takes a servant to welcome a child. Jesus would have had to stoop down to embrace this child. He would have had to get down to the child’s level. Of course, Jesus was used to “stooping down,” for children wasn’t He? “Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). Paul reminds us just how far Jesus had to “stoop” to serve His children. “Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-7). It takes a servant to welcome a child, it takes sacrifice. Jesus became the ultimate servant and gave the ultimate sacrifice so that He could “take us in His arms” and welcome us as His forgiven children. It is only in this context, that we are forgiven children embraced by Jesus’ grace and love, that we can begin to be a servant ourselves and welcome a child.
It takes a servant to welcome a child. That’s because a child is vulnerable, completely dependent, and at the mercy of others. Unable to serve, he must be served. A child’s life and needs must come before our own. A child’s “smallness” must take precedent over our desire for greatness. That is what Jesus is teaching His disciples. If you want to be great, you must be last of all and servant of all.
Of course, the child in Jesus’ illustration can be a picture of anyone who is vulnerable and in need. This text could lead us to focus upon any number of situations. However, in this “Year of the Child” and on this Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, we are reminded particularly of two such “children” who are vulnerable and in need of someone to serve them. Let’s focus upon the young woman or teen experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and the child she carries as “children” who need to be welcomed.
Unfortunately, the United States Supreme Court does not see it that way. In the Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973, the court declared that the right of a woman to choose an abortion is greater than the right to life of her preborn child. In the twenty-eight years since that decision, “a woman’s right to choose” has been elevated to the status of a “sacred” choice that must be defended at all costs. It has become such sacred ground that nobody really wants to talk about what that choice is. It needs to be talked about. As a country, as a church, we need to talk about it. The right to choose that has become so “holy” and “sacred” is the right to choose death for a child. The right to choose goes against everything Jesus is saying in this text about being last of all and servant of all and about welcoming a child. The right to choose takes advantage of the vulnerability and helplessness of a little preborn child, and it takes advantage of the vulnerability and feelings of helplessness of a pregnant woman.
When God looks upon a woman in an unplanned pregnancy, He sees two children. He sees the mother as a “child,” someone who is in a very difficult situation, someone whose life has come crashing down around her, someone who just wants it all to go away. He sees someone in need of love and forgiveness, someone in need of a servant’s embrace, someone in need of support and a listening ear. God sees someone who needs help in becoming a servant herself.
She needs this help and support to be a servant because the other child God sees is the child in her womb. This is a child completely at the mercy of the choices of others. This child needs to be welcomed. This child needs a servant’s embrace. A woman in this situation provides opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the hope and healing it can bring. The Gospel can help her see through the pain of her situation so she can become a servant and welcome the child within her. The message of the Gospel can help her lay aside for a time her goals and plans and start making goals and plans for her child.
One of the best ways to serve this new life, especially for the pregnant teen, is by making an adoption plan for the baby. Notice I did not say, “give your baby up for adoption.” The phrase, “making an adoption plan,” can help people understand what adoption really is. So often you will hear young women say, “Oh, I could never give my baby up for adoption.” There is a sense of abandonment seen in this situation, and this abandonment can seem worse than death.
Adoption, however, is not abandonment. It is an ultimate form of servanthood. So often it is what is best for both mother and child. Now days you can be involved in the adoption plan for your child in so many ways. You can exercise your right to choose by making some loving choices for you and your child. You can choose to have your child baptized, a choice never available in abortion. You can choose Christian parents. You can choose to receive pictures of your child and reports of his or her development. You can choose to write a letter to be read when your child is older in which you can share the assurances of your love and the desire you had to do what was best.
Two months after a young single college student aborted her first child, she was pregnant again. This is not all that uncommon. It is often an attempt to forget the doubt, guilt and torment of the abortion with a “replacement” child only to have the same feelings begin all over again. This time, however, with the help of Christian counsel from a pregnancy center, she chose life for her child. She chose to plan a good future for her baby through adoption. Here is what she says about it all now. “I still think about my baby girl every day, but those thoughts don’t consume me the way the abortion did. I know that my daughter is in the loving home of a married couple who cherish her. I am absolutely certain that I made the right decision. Today I have a loving husband and family and peace of mind about my adoption decision. And that has made all the difference.” This young woman learned what it meant to be a servant, to welcome a child.
It takes a servant to welcome a child. That is the first thing Jesus would have us learn from this text. The second thing He would have us learn is that there is greatness in welcoming a child. The disciples were looking for greatness in great things. It was great to be with Jesus in all His glory on the mount of Transfiguration. It would have been great, if they could have pulled it off, to cast out a demon that no one else could cast out.
It is easy for all of us to associate being great with great things. It would be great to advance in my career. It would be great to get that job or this job. It would be great to be recognized for some achievement. It would be great to be a famous athlete. It would be great … we could all fill in the blanks.
However, real greatness, Jesus says, is welcoming a child, putting the needs of the vulnerable and helpless before our own. Jesus lets us know that the greatness of welcoming a child is much more than just feeling good because we did a nice thing. Welcoming a child is a divine thing, for in so doing, you welcome the very presence of God. “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me but the one who sent Me.”
To better understand that welcoming a child is divine, we can look at one of the great teachings of Scripture that Martin Luther helped us understand, the “Theology of the Cross.” Under the theology of the cross, God is not found in that which is glorious and wonderful. God is found where He has “hidden Himself,” Luther said, in the suffering of the cross. That was not some great man suffering on that cross, some martyr inspiring us to better living. That was our God on that cross revealing Himself and the greatness of His love by suffering the penalty of our sin and the sins of the world. That was our God hiding in the sufferings of Hell itself, so that we might receive through faith in Him the forgiveness of our sins and the certain hope of eternal life. Speaking of Luther’s theology of the cross, theologian Paul Althaus writes, “God shows that He is God precisely in the fact that He is mighty in weakness, glorious in lowliness, living and life-giving in death.”
Based on what Jesus says in this text, we can say of the young woman in an unplanned pregnancy, there is God hiding in her weakness and pain. When we embrace her and welcome her in the name of Jesus, we welcome God.
We can say of the young woman in an unplanned pregnancy, there is God hiding in her womb. When we embrace that child, speak up for that child, embrace and welcome him or her in the name of Jesus, we welcome God.
So, you see, the most sacred choice is not a woman’s right to choose death for her child. When a mother chooses to put her child’s needs and her child’s plans and goals before here own, which may, in the child’s best interest include a plan for adoption, when she chooses to embrace her child and welcome him or her in the name of Jesus, she welcomes God. In a very real sense, she is making a holy choice.
It was bound to happen, the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest. They had the wrong idea of greatness, a malady common to us all. Do you want to be great? Do you want to do something that will really matter in this world of pretense and indifference and self-indulgence? Welcome a little child.