FROM THE PASTOR
How to be a Disciple
“Jesus sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” Mark 9
The disciples have been discussing who is the most important among them. They have heard Jesus teach about denying self and saving your life by losing it, but they are still focused on what’s in it for them. They see following Jesus as the fast track to power and prestige.
Bishop Craig Satterlee helps the listener understand what Jesus is doing with the disciples and the child when he writes, “To understand Jesus’ point we must let go of both our image of Jesus snuggling children and our own love for kids. In the culture of the New Testament, children were considered physically weak burdens on society, who had little value in the wider life of the community. In Greece and Rome, it was an accepted practice to abandon unwanted children along the roadside to die.”
For Jesus and his culture, a child is pure vulnerability, pure need. There is no percentage in serving a child, no reciprocal payoff which benefits the giver. That, says Jesus, is what you need to be about–finding ways to be servants, not masters.
The disciples are very concerned about their status, their rights as the inner circle. Jesus tells them that the only right which love has is to give itself.
In his book, Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times, Rabbi Jonathan Sachs argues that the great crisis of the modern world is that we are so individualistic that we have lost sight of the fact that we can only live in a community. We are so focused on the “I” that there is diminished sense of “We.” Society has become a collection of individuals who ferociously defend their rights, yet have little sense that with rights come responsibilities. This, says Sachs, is a recipe for social chaos and bitter politics.
How would our society be different if we had a greater sense of “We?” How would it be different if our first thought was not how to protect our preferences, but how to serve those most in need of our care?
That is why it was so hard for the first disciples and it is so hard for us as well. It is so easy to be drawn into our own self-care and to forget the call of discipleship to serve others first. We will often times fail miserably to be that servant….but with God’s forgiveness, we are given innumerable chances to be the servants God is calling us to be.
Jesus reminds the first disciples – he reminds us as well today – “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
See you in Church!
Pastor Johnson
