Who is the greatest?

Who is the greatest? How do you even know how to answer that kind of question? Lately there have been a number of columns written about the greatest rugby players and the greatest All Blacks. I have read some blogs about the greatest US Presidents and arguments about where Obama fits in all that. But just the greatest! What were those disciples talking about? The greatest disciple? The greatest Jew?

Mark sometimes enjoys painting the disciples in a not very positive light. This is one of those times. This debate is their response to Jesus teaching around his death and resurrection; none of which they had understood. They were too afraid to ask what he was talking about, and instead pretended he had not talked about any of that worrying stuff, and returned to the big question – who is the greatest?

Involved in all this is a certain understanding about God. God is on the side of the winners; the powerful and the great. God is found in great people – hence their debate about who was the greatest. God is not found in betrayal and death. So maybe in their expectation that their arrival in Jerusalem will bring about the victory they all looked to they were debating who among them was the most righteous, and therefore would be rewarded with the most great. Imagine that life!

But Jesus responds to this debate and questing for greatness by saying that those who want to be great need to be the least, the lowest, the servant or slave. This is a pretty hard thing to say. And he illustrates that by placing a child in their midst. “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and welcomes not just me but also the one who sent me.”

That is a really interesting line. To welcome a child is not just a nice and good thing to do. When we welcome a child we welcome God. When we welcome their noise in the midst of our service we welcome God’s noise. When we let them disrupt our order and quiet with racing cars or loud disapproval we welcome God and all God’s disruption and joy and such.

I am not sure the disciples really got what Jesus was on about. It seemed way too different to how they normally thought of how things worked. I am not sure we really get children being the way we welcome God either. What would we have to do to really welcome them? Not just put up with them. Not just enjoy them until they grow up. But really welcome them.

Jesus was very patient with those poor old disciples. Luckily, I think Jesus remains patient with today’s disciples as well.