and placed it by his side and said to them,
“Whoever receives this child in my name receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
For the one who is least among all of you
is the one who is the greatest.”
Jesus insists that we be the least among all. Only then are we able to welcome all people with his own love. If we're focused on greatness we are only interested in welcoming the great, the advantageous to us, and the useful within society. Jesus wants us to have a love that is more than quid pro quo. He wants us to love those who can't earn it. After all, that is how he loves us.
He has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9)
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (cf. Eph. 2:8-9).
God's love for Zion is described as intensely jealous even though Zion herself is seldom faithful to him. He loves her and rebuilds her. He does this not because of those who can be useful to him. He makes her safe for "old men and old women, each with staff in hand because of old age". He makes her safe for "boys and girls playing in its streets". He loves and rescues his people whether or not they can do anything to merit that love. The aged and the children are the least useful in the eyes of the world. Yet they are the first he mentions when he plans the rescue of his people "from the land of the rising sun, and from the land of the setting sun."
Jesus wants to us love this way, too. He himself gives us his Spirit to make this possible. He wants us to rebuild society with a love that rejects the tendency of our society to discard the useless and the inconvenient. He wants us to love the children and the old, the orphans and the widows. We see that much of our supposed love is tainted by self-interest. Yet the LORD will embrace that love. He himself will purify it. He will transform it more and more into his own all embracing love.
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself (cf. Joh. 12:32).
God himself is ultimately the only source of the love we need. He himself will build up Zion again and appear in his glory. But the embrace of his love reaches out for us. It covers and fills us and makes us able to reach out ourselves in his strength. When we do so, when we take our ego out of the equation, we find friends everywhere.
Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you.
We find the same all embracing love of God at work changing our world.
That the name of the LORD may be declared in Zion;
and his praise, in Jerusalem,
When the peoples gather together,
and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
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