Preached by the Rev. Tammy Martens on March 1, 2009
Matthew 18:1-5, Mark 9:33-37
Through our Lenten journey which started this past Wednesday, we will be examining some of the paradoxes of our faith. I encourage you if you haven’t already done so to pick up a Lenten devotional that has been put together by Barb Hummel which unpacks a number of the paradoxes we experience in our spiritual lives. It will be a helpful companion to you in the days and weeks ahead.
I’ll start today with examining the paradox of becoming “great.” In both the book of Matthew and Mark we read that the disciples were often arguing about which one among them was the greatest. Their need to establish the pecking order of status and authority was very important and it was frequently discussed with the same argument even resurfacing as Jesus shared the last supper with his disciples. Clearly, the disciples had a deep-seated compulsion to find out who among them had the most influence and prestige. In their minds, this had to be ironed out.
And over and over again, Jesus had to present to his disciples a new way of thinking. He taught his disciples throughout his life that in God’s kingdom, all things are reversed, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. One becomes great by being last. I need to share with you that this line of Jesus is quoted often in our household. When our five year old daughter doesn’t get served first at the dinner table, she reminds her brother that “the first shall be last and the last shall be first.” And then says, “So, Gabriel, that means I’m still the first.” I’m pretty sure this is not what Jesus meant and so you can see we have a long way to go.
It’s helpful to understand a bit about the culture Jesus lived in to appreciate more deeply why this was such a consuming topic among the disciples. In the time and society in which Jesus lived, the most important value was prestige. There was a place on the social ladder for everyone and it was clear where everyone landed. Status and prestige were based upon ancestry, wealth, authority, education and virtue. According to Albert Nolan in his book Jesus Before Christianity, “status was just as much part of religion as it was part of social life. Rights and privileges were apportioned according to one’s rank and the people who had not status at all in the society—the blind, the lame, the deaf, lunatics, neurotics, the maimed and children and women—were excluded.” The whole social order was based on this rule of honoring the greatest. In this system there would always be someone honored more than another, and it all depended on his status and prestige.
This is why the disciples had to get it straight. They needed to know who was the most important and who was the least important among them even in their new role as disciples.
And so into their world enters Jesus. And Jesus blasts this notion of status away. He has no time for it. In fact, he would argue that this fundamental way of ordering society is downright evil and would share that in the kingdom of God these status distinctions would have absolutely no meaning. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. Those who want to be first must be last of all and servant of all.
And as Jesus tries to explain this revolutionary way of living, he calls a little child to him and says that “unless you change, unless you change, and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus uses a living being as his visual aid to help the disciples understand the true way of becoming great. The child is a symbol of those who have the lowest place in society and it’s the child’s littleness that Jesus places in stark contrast to those with status and prestige. Jesus’ hope with this reversal of thinking is that the disciples replace the “worldly value” of prestige and honor by the “godly” value of people as people.
What Jesus is saying to his disciples and to us I believe is that we must give up our concern about any kind of status and prestige. We must be willing to take the last place in society and we must be willing to be everybody’s servant. And just as the disciples had a hard time accepting this, so, too, we stumble at such a difficult teaching.
How do we even go about living this out? Just by being citizens of this world, we are involved in this kind of social ordering where status, prestige, and authority are sought after and claimed. Most of us here come from or are growing up in middle income families and have many opportunities and experiences that bring a certain level of status. We admit that our heads turn by the respect of others, knowing the “right” people, and being in positions of importance. It seems an impossible task to do as Jesus says and to let go of our need for status and become a servant to all.
This is where Jesus’ words “unless you change and become like a little child” redirects our thinking. A better rendering of the word change is “convert” or “turn around.” Jesus was telling his disciples to turn around because they were heading in the wrong direction with their selfish ambition. And we too are called to change or turn around; to receive the good news that we are important because we are God’s beloved ones, not because we are held in esteem by others or because we exert power and influence. We are children of God, born of God’s Spirit, and therefore are invited into a different valuation of ourselves. Jesus knew the human condition intimately well and therefore knew that no amount of worldly status and prestige would ever be enough to fill up our unquenchable thirst for esteem. Jesus knew that it was God alone who could fill that need. This is the truth that God wants us to receive. And this is the truth that we try and live into each day. Our esteem, our sense of self is rooted in our loving relationship with God. Therefore, whoever wants to be the most important must be the last of all and servant of all.
Yet I know this is an enormous challenge to live out in our world of work, school, and home life. It is also challenging to live this ideal out in the church. Like the disciples, we, too, in the church can pay a lot of attention to status and prestige—either consciously or unconsciously. The church, just like any other institution, falls prey to levels of social ordering and we become susceptible to honoring some and excluding others. This ideal from Jesus calls us to examine our behaviors both outside and inside the church.
As we “come” to church on Sunday, and other times during the week and as we live and move about among this community, do we consciously try to move beyond the divisions of status and prestige and operate from God’s value system? Do we seek our own ongoing conversion to the truth that our identity is most fully grounded in God and not in whom we impress and who we know? And are we mindful each time we gather to try and live out this ideal; that the way we achieve true greatness is by becoming a servant to all? This is the great and wonderful paradox Jesus impresses upon us.
With this in mind, may we aspire to be a light to the world; a city on a hill; a community that is grounded and rooted deep in the powerful love of the gospel and striving to be great as servants in this world. Amen.
