As He leads his disciples to Jerusalem for the final Passover, Jesus teaches them about the true meaning of discipleship. Today we hear the second of His three predictions of His passion in Mark’s Gospel. Mark presents the disciples as being in such a state of confusion that they can’t grasp what Jesus’ teaching means. Perhaps they want to shut out the growing implications of the kind of Messiah Jesus is proving to be; maybe they still nurture hopes that the kingdom of David will dawn when they reach Jerusalem. And so they argue about their position in the kingdom.
In response, Jesus takes a child. We shouldn’t sentimentalize His action. The child is not so much a symbol of innocence and humility as someone without legal status and therefore helpless: in first-century Palestine the child had no rights. Jesus invites his disciples to embrace this kind of selflessness and powerlessness. When He puts his arms around the child, it is a gesture of total identification with the powerless. The child can do nothing for the disciple, and so to receive a child is to do a good act for an insignificant person, without hope of earthly reward.
There’s more to Jesus’ teaching than the idea that each person should take the child as a model. Jesus is making a profound statement on greatness, and it’s a clear rejection of the way the world organizes itself.
Throughout history power and domination have been the goal of human ambition: the disciples’ argument is a demonstration of that! But according to Jesus’ criteria, the least, the servants, the children, are the greatest. Those with power need to look anew at their own attitudes. And those without can learn to value themselves more, for they are of great value in God’s sight.