A Child in the Middle

For the second time, Jesus tells his disciples that he will be delivered into human hands, killed, and after three days rise. Mark says they did not understand and were afraid to ask. Then, walking to Capernaum, they argued about which of them was the greatest.

Put those two facts next to each other and the passage almost hurts. He is talking about his death. They are talking about their rank. He is heading toward the lowest place a man can go, and they are competing for the highest.

Jesus does not shame them. He teaches. He takes a child, stands the child in the middle of them, and then takes the child in his arms. Whoever welcomes a child like this in my name, he says, welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

The child is not there as a symbol of innocence. In the first century a child had no status, no income, no vote in anything. To welcome a child was to give attention to someone who could give nothing back. That is the one idea. Greatness in the kingdom is measured by how you treat those who cannot advance you.

Look at how you allocate attention in a week. There are people whose good opinion could help you, and you find time for them. There are others, children, the elderly, the new person, the one who is slow, the one who is always asking for something, who cost time and return none of the currency you are used to counting. Jesus stands one of them in the middle of the room and says, this is where I am.

The turn toward life is simple and hard. Find the person in your circle who can do nothing for you, and welcome them as if it were Jesus. Because he says it is.

The disciples were afraid to ask him about the cross. He answered anyway, with a child in his arms.