An argument arose among the disciples
about which of them was the greatest.
With the predictions of the Passion the disciples came to understand that the Kingdom of Jesus was to take a very different shape than they had probably imagined at first. Had Jesus come to overthrow Rome and restore the monarchy immediately his disciples might have hoped for the power and wealth of Kingdom leaders in a literal and physical sense. The cross seemed to indicated this was not be. So, in lieu of material rewards, and in place of the imminent physical coming of the Kingdom, they began to shift their motivations for following the Messiah, looking for new reasons to pursue a difficult path. If they would not receive wealth and power they would now at least hope to for pride, and seek after the vanity of preeminence.
Jesus realized the intention of their hearts
Jesus knew this current condition of their hearts. He knew that he had not called them to walk a way of comfort and ease, not promised rewards of the sort to which people were accustomed. He knew that they would naturally struggle with the purity of their motivations. The true target on which their hearts would need to fix was more elusive than the short term benefits of the normal struggles and efforts in the world to which they were accustomed. For those, they did not need the theological virtue of hope. The rewards were already, as it were, right in front of them. But following Jesus did not promise anything immediately visible in return. Yet there was much in which they could hope, and even begin to taste. There was much on which they could fix their hearts, but it would only be evident to the eyes of faith.
Jesus realized the intention of their hearts and took a child
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.
Children do not labor for pride, power, or wealth. The disciples were called to receive children even though they seemed to have nothing to offer, nothing of value in the eyes of the world. But in welcoming them the disciples welcomed more perfectly the one in whose image they were made. In welcoming children, who could offer nothing, they learned to welcome Jesus himself without the need for benefit to themselves. Hidden in the child was the value of every person, before a single act of merit was undertaken. And hidden in that value was the worth of the one who created them.
Had the disciples understood what Jesus meant they could have experienced greater freedom. They would not have felt the need to insist that someone stop casting out demons just because he was not part of their company.
Jesus said to him,
“Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you.”
Only a child could truly and without suspicion believe that everyone who was not against them was for them. The path to becoming childlike oneself was intimately bound up with learning to welcome children, and with welcoming others with that same level of acceptance and affirmation. Jesus was teaching them how to affirm, not what they could contribute by strength and effort, but the fundamental goodness of being which was already underlying all things. In welcoming that goodness, though, they were not merely welcoming some vague, ambiguous or subjective reality, but Jesus himself, in whom all being is sustained (see Colossians 1:17).
The great reward of learning to be childlike is the hope it makes possible in our hearts. Jaded adults can't know such hope, for to them, scarred by life in the world, it can only seem foolish. But children can be examples to us of those who still have an innate sense that the world is a gift of wonder of which they are not the origin. They can teach us, even the jaded among us, how to hope.
The city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.
Thus says the LORD of hosts:
Even if this should seem impossible
in the eyes of the remnant of this people,
shall it in those days be impossible in my eyes also,
says the LORD of hosts?
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