Who ever wants to be first shall be last

Summary

Jesus is a hard master to follow.  He is!  I mean, how do you follow someone who constantly is asking you to to try and live, to try and do, to try and speak against your very nature?  HOW?  How?

Look at the disciples, they don’t get how to do it.  In fact they don’t get it to such a degree that they are partaking in one of the oldest debates within the human community, for they are arguing over who is the best!

They are the people whom have been listening to Jesus…well maybe they haven’t.  I guess, but they should be listening, they should be learning for they are Jesus’ disciples.  These people are the ones that are with him day-in-and-day-out.  Yet, in this morning’s gospel we come to read that the disciples are not getting it, they are not understanding what Jesus is teaching, and even more, they are afraid to ask.

It reminds me of when I started studying in seminary to become a pastor.  I was constantly hearing words in my classes that I just didn’t understand!

A professor would speak of; hermeneutics, and I would ask, to myself, not aloud, “Herman who?”  Or, my classmates would be debating the finer points of homiletics and my brain just couldn’t register what they were discussing, ‘cause I didn’t know what the word meant.    And frankly, there was no way that I was going to ask, and risk being ridiculed by my classmates, either aloud or behind my back.  So, I had to learn the lexicon, the vocabulary of the trade so that I could know what people were talking about, be involved in the discussions, and so become educated.

Yet, the problem for the disciples is really not even that they don’t know the words that Jesus is speaking, it’s that his Godly concepts are beyond them.  They haven’t awaited the coming of the Messiah so that he will be killed. So, why is he talking about that?  And if he is dead, how is he supposed to be raised in three days?  None of it makes sense to them, and yet, at this point in their life together, they are too afraid to ask Jesus what he truly means.

It makes me think of how people must have felt when they listened to Albert Einstein explaining his theory of relativity.  Everyone listening knew this genius in front of them understood what he was talking about, because he was convinced.  Yet, to the vast majority of his listeners it just made no sense at all.

That is how the disciples feel in today’s scripture.  What Jesus is saying just makes no sense, and so they do what people do when something is beyond their comprehension, they revert to an easier and more pleasing topic…in this case themselves!

So, it begs the question, who is our faith all about?  Is it about us, or is it about someone else?  Do we live as Christians because we want something, because we understand God completely, or because we believe in someone?  Like the disciples of Jesus are we in competition with other Christians to be the best?  Can we even do that as Christians, rank one another?

At one of my previous congregations there was a kindly, elderly lady whom I would visit.  She was in her nineties, and she loved to tell me stories of growing up with her beloved sister in a small farming town.  Now, when the woman would introduce her sister into whatever story she was telling me, she would always pause and say, “My sister Margaret is a wonderful woman.  Did you know that she was voted the best Christian in the city of Springfield?”

Now, I believe she was starting to slip into dementia, and so did not probably understand the exaggeration of her story, for no one is voted as the best Christian of a city.  Yet, there must have been some churchly honor back in her sister’s past which the lady from my congregation was proud, that in this woman’s mind ranked her sister as a good Christian.

I share this story to point out the reality of how we too often as Christians operate in the same way that the disciples did amongst themselves, which was to find ways to rate who is the best amongst us.

But, in our faith in Jesus Christ, we are called to humility, and a focus upon our neighbors, whoever they might be, even the least in society.  Jesus used a child for his example of this, because in his day, children truly were the least of society.  They had no rights, no value, nothing, until they survived the early years of childhood and could start working, or be married off.  Children were not valued as we value our children today.  A family loved their children, like Fredrick and Naomi love little Adriel, but the society looked at children in general as being at the bottom. So, Jesus was truly holding the, ‘least of these’ when he held the child.

For us to understand Jesus’ point, we would need him to hold in his arms, a homeless person, or a street addict, or….well, you picture for yourself whom the, ‘least of these’ is for you.

Holding the child in his arms highlights Jesus’ main point.  Our faith should not be centered upon ourselves.  The disciples argument was the very antithesis of what Jesus taught, the very opposite!  Our faith is in Jesus!  We live out our faith in the lives of others, in love.  That is why Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes one such child (meaning the least of society) in my name welcomes me…”

How can you live out that kind of faith if you are focusing mostly upon yourself when you think of your Christianity?  Whenever you are comparing your faith to someone else’s faith, you are missing the point of Christianity!  Whenever we end up ranking Christians, we fail at our Christianity.

For instance, I have heard people say, “He is the most humble person.”

What?  How can you rank humility?  As soon as you start to do that, the humility is turned into pride.

Modern Christianity doesn’t help us with this either.  Too often it forces us to take the opposite view when it asks questions that focus ourselves upon ourselves.  “Are you humble enough?”  “Are you a good enough Christian?”

Questions like that force us away from focusing upon Jesus, and upon our neighbor, and focus us upon our ourselves.  How can you try and serve your neighbor, if you are worrying about yourself?  You can do it, but it’s hard, and you end up with feelings of resentment, because no one else might have noticed how good a Christian you are when you helped your neighbor!

Do you see what I mean?

The questions listed above push us towards an ambitious Christianity, of personal merit and gain in the eyes of others, but it’s not humble, and the people ‘helped’ are simply stepping stones towards a personal ambition, to be the best Christian in the eyes of others.

In James we read, “For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, with a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.”

So, we do not want our faith to be filled with envy because we are competing to be the best Christian.  We also do not want our faith to be driven by selfish ambition, for that takes our focus off of Jesus, and so our neighbor.  Rather, our eyes need to be upon Jesus, and the gift of faith and life that he gives us through his death, and resurrection to new life three days later.  Jesus gift of salvation in fact takes away the need for envy, for we are all given new life when we believe.  And because we cannot earn the salvation that Jesus gives, the focus of our ambitions need to be on the child, on the addict, on the ‘least of these’ that they may come to believe and so, experience the loving forgiveness that comes in Jesus’ gift of salvation and eternal life.

Let Jesus welcome you into his love each day, and then invite others, by your loving actions, into Jesus’ open arms as well.  For then you are welcoming God, and God is always welcome!

Amen.

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