"On the Greatest and the Least"
Mark 9:30-37
10/8/06
Today's Gospel text reminds me of my days as a pastor in
Kansas. When I look back on those days, I can remember feeling
very out of place in that rural community in which I lived. Here
I was, this suburban southern California boy, reared up in wealthy,
prestigious Orange County, an experienced traveler, a former employee
of Disneyland and Westin Hotels and Resorts no less, with two
post-graduate degrees to my name, and I found myself living among a
bunch of simple, ignorant farmers, whose lives revolved around corn,
milo, beans, wheat, and the weather, whose most exciting form of
diversion was bowling, and who wouldn't have known a past participle of
a verb if it had bitten them in the asparagus. I truly thought of
myself as superior to those people and really wanted to have as little
to do with them as possible. I didn't want to learn their
ways. I didn't want to become like them. I even washed my
car on a regular basis, which surprised many of them, since the amount
of dirt one could display on one's truck seemed to be seen as a status
symbol in that community.
But now, looking back on my attitude towards those people
I see that I was doing just what Christ's disciples were doing here in
today's Gospel text by elevating themselves over others, viewing
themselves as better or greater than everyone else. Here I had
been called to be a pastor to those people, a servant of God's Word to
God's people, people who had been redeemed by the blood of Christ,
people who were members of Christ's body, and I viewed them with such
contempt and with such an air of superiority. I can only pray
that God forgive me and have mercy upon me for treating Christ in such
a way.
For it is, after all, Christ and the Father who sent Him
that we are dealing with in our treatment of others, not only in how we
treat fellow Christians - Christ's body, the Church where this is
especially true, but also in how we treat even the lowest of human
beings in this world. Jesus teaches this lesson when He deals
with His disciples' arrogance by taking into His arms a child and then
telling them, "Whoever receives one child like this in my name receives
me; and whoever receives me does not receive me, but Him who sent
me." With these words, Jesus would drive out this attitude within
each one of us that sets itself over other human beings, and instead
work in us an attitude of humility that would cause us to treat each
person as if he were Jesus Himself, no matter how insignificant that
person might appear to be. Because the truth is, no person is
insignificant to Jesus. Think of all the people that you consider
to be beneath you. Perhaps you think they're beneath you because
of their age; certainly children aren't worth talking to or spending
time with or even taking notice of. What about those of other
races? Certainly, we are superior to Asians, Blacks, and
Hispanics; why, many of them don't even learn our language while many
others live off of welfare. Then there are those people of
different religions. Certainly, we're better than those backward,
uncivilized Muslims. (As is often the case, those who know the
truth frequently look down upon those who don't. As the Apostle
Paul writes, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.") And there
are so many other reasons why we elevate ourselves over others, whether
it's because of their economic status, their education, their
experience, the way they act or the way they dress. The truth is,
there are many people in this world that we would not even give the
time of day to, let alone pray for or help in any way. We often
act like the priest and the Levite in Jesus' parable about the Good
Samaritan who, when they saw a man who had been beaten and robbed in
need of their help, walked on the other side of the road in order to
avoid him. That's what we do every day to the people we consider
to be beneath us, and in doing it to them we do it to Christ Himself -
we, who call ourselves His disciples and yet act just like His
disciples do here in today's Gospel text.
And why do we do this? Why do we elevate ourselves
over others? Is it because we want to feel better about
ourselves? Is it because we believe ourselves to be more
righteous and holy than others? Is it because to treat someone
with kindness and to help them would cost us something? Maybe our
resources would be drained if we used them to help someone else.
Maybe we're worried how we'll be received by others, if we are found to
be associating with the wrong kind of company. Maybe we try to
wriggle out of our responsibility by saying that we don't treat anyone
badly; we just avoid certain people. But is this what our Lord
Jesus did for us? Did He avoid you? Did He treat you as if
you were beneath Him? Did He care about His status as God?
No!
Jesus gave His life for the world, even the least among
the human race. He shed His blood for every child, every bum,
every Muslim, Jew, Asian, and Hispanic, every trash collector, every
IRS agent, every criminal, every sinner in the whole world. We
are all the least for whom Christ died, chiefs of sinners everyone of
us, worthy of God's wrath and punishment now and forever. But
Jesus, far greater than all of us in His righteousness, holiness, and
perfection, did not allow His greatness to keep Him at a distance from
us. Instead, He came to us in human flesh and revealed His
greatness in serving us, in treating us as more important than Himself,
in laying down His life for us. In the letter to the Philippian
congregation the Apostle Paul writes, "Do nothing from selfishness or
empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one
another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your
own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who
although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with
God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a
bond servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found
in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the
point of death, even death on a cross."
Now, when you look at another human being, you can see
him/her in a whole different way. You can see that person as one
whom Jesus loves, as one for whom Jesus died, as one who is worth the
shed blood of Christ to God. As the Apostle Paul writes,
"Therefore, from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh;
even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we
know Him thus no longer." In other words, Christians whose eyes
have been opened by the Holy Spirit do not judge people by what they
see with their eyes, but on the basis of what the Word of God
says. Jesus Himself can't be judged with the eyes alone. If
you had seen Him He would have looked like any other man, in fact, the
least of men, a despised criminal hanging dead on a cross. But
the Word of God tells us who this despised man was - the Son of God,
the greatest of all, and yet the sacrifice for our sins. So, with
regard to our fellow human beings, we no longer judge them according to
their appearance, status, race, age, etc., but as people redeemed by
the blood of Christ. That's how much God values every human
being; that's how much He values you.
Treat others as having the same value to God as you do, as
Christ Himself. The book of Hebrews says, "Let love of the
brothers continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to
strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing
it." We have an example of this in the O.T. when Abraham
entertained three angels who appeared as men weary from travel.
Luther writes that Abraham received these men as if they were God
Himself, unaware that they were angels and that, in fact, one of them
was God appearing to him in the form of the Angel of the LORD.
The Apostle Paul writes that the Galatian Christians first received him
as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself. Forget angels!
How much greater a privilege is it to serve Jesus? We don't need
to be wondering when we're showing hospitality to angels or not.
Every time we see our neighbor in need, especially if they are our
brothers and sisters in Christ (and you never know whether a stranger
is or not), we are given another opportunity to serve Jesus. As
He says here, "Whoever receives one child like this in my name receives
me." To receive someone in Jesus' name is to treat that person as
Jesus would treat that person, to treat that person as if that person
were Jesus Himself. On this basis the sheep and the goats (or the
believers and the unbelievers) will be divided and judged by Christ on
the Last Day. He will say to the sheep on His right, "Come, you
who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me
something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a
stranger, and you invited me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick,
and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me." And the
sheep will say to Him, "Lord, when did we do all these things for
you?" And He'll say, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you
did it to the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."
In God's eyes, then, the least are those who elevate
themselves over others and make themselves out to be great, while the
greatest are those who make themselves the least for the sake of their
neighbors in need. Jesus did this for us; He who is greatest of
all made Himself least of all in order to save us all. We who are
His disciples are to live as He did, treating others as more important
than ourselves. He who gave His life for us expects us to give
our lives for one another without showing favoritism. James
writes, "Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith
and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love
Him?" Jesus saw you in the poverty of your sins and made you rich
by taking your sins upon Himself and giving you instead His
righteousness, holiness, innocence, blessedness, and the inheritance of
eternal life. Jesus is your Good Samaritan who had pity on you,
bandaged your wounds, and paid the price for your recovery. If
your Creator and Redeemer so humbled Himself to serve you, is there
anyone in this life who is too humble for you to serve, love, pray for,
entertain, and proclaim the Gospel to? James writes, "God is
opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble." And
Peter writes, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of
God, that He may exalt you at the proper time..." Let us repent
of this sin of elevating ourselves above others, receive our Lord's
forgiveness, and humble ourselves before God and man, so that we might
learn to treat one another as if we were treating Christ Himself.
And we will find that in fact we will have done all these things all
along to Jesus, whom the Father sent to be our Savior. Amen.