Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-february-6-2023
Mark 9:33-41
Who Is the Greatest?
33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, they must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
36 He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
Whoever Is Not Against Us Is for Us
38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.
These two little passages seem especially interesting and important to me, and maybe especially to those of us who are in church leadership. The fact that they each have their own subhead makes it seem like they’re not related, but I’ve started to see them as talking about different aspects of the same subject, which is the nature of leadership among the followers of Jesus.
In the first part of the reading, Jesus arrives at Capernaum, apparently coming home after one of his ministry trips around Galilee. (The New Testament scholars say Capernaum was Jesus’ hometown as an adult.) And when they get home, Jesus asks the disciples what they had been talking about on the way there. Mark tells us that the disciples “kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.” The fact that they are embarrassed to admit to Jesus what they had been talking about makes it plain the disciples know he won’t be pleased. And if you remember, Mark’s gospel is basically Peter’s account, so Peter is admitting here that they were off base in their conversation.
And obviously, Jesus already knew what they had been talking about. So he calls his inner circle of disciples around himself and takes advantage of this ‘teachable moment’ to talk to them about leadership among his followers. And as he does that, Jesus gives them a new principle for leadership. It’s a principle the church has come to call “servant leadership.” The idea is that the greatest leaders among the followers of Jesus are those who are willing to sacrifice their own interests for the sake of the church and its mission.
(By the way, at Heartland Community Church, which is one of our partners in an affordable housing coalition, the members of their governing board are officially known as “Servant Leaders.” That’s a nice custom, I think.)
Anyway, in Mark’s account, Jesus picks up a little boy and sets him in the middle of the group. He gives the child a hug, and says that welcoming one of these is like welcoming Jesus himself. It’s probably not obvious what the child has to do with the subject of leadership in the church, but Jesus’ point seems to be that the leaders of his movement are supposed to have the humility of a child.
It takes a little thought for us to see what Jesus is saying. In our culture, people encourage kids to be cute and precocious and to draw attention to themselves. But in the culture in which Jesus lived, that wasn’t the case. Kids were encouraged to be quiet and humble and not to seek attention. So the point Jesus seems to be making is that the leaders of the church aren’t supposed to try to attract attention to themselves, either, but rather to imitate Jesus through humble service to others.
Human nature being what it is, striving to climb the ladder of respect and authority is common among ambitious people who play leadership roles. But it seems to me that Jesus would want all of us who follow him – whether we’re in positions of leadership or not – to adopt that child-like attitude of humility and willingness to serve others.
In the second part of today’s reading, the disciples tell Jesus that they had tried to stop a man who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name. As far as the disciples were concerned, the man wasn’t one of them – so he wasn’t ‘authorized’ to do exorcisms in Jesus’ name.
But Jesus tells the disciples not to try to silence those who claimed to be working in his name. He says, “Whoever is not against us is for us.” In other words, Jesus seems to be saying that being an official, authorized part of the movement doesn’t matter – what matters is the fact that the man is doing good in Jesus’ name.
For most of our history, our Presbyterian denomination has tended to make the same mistake the disciples were making here: We’ve tried to keep our members and churches under control. We’ve commonly said we’re trying to make sure things are done “decently and in order.” But the truth is probably that we just instinctively want things to be done the way we’ve always done them. Today, we’re trying to retrain ourselves to encourage people live out the callings they think they’re hearing from God, instead of trying to strictly control people.
It seems to me that the two lessons from these little passages are among the most important lessons for church leaders – and for all followers of Jesus, for that matter. First of all, that leadership in the Jesus movement is meant to be humble servant-leadership, and that leaders in the church need to lay aside our ‘control reflex’ so the Holy Spirit can lead people into forms of service to the kingdom. If the church really started to demonstrate that kind of humble, permission-giving leadership – both in local congregations and in the church as a worldwide movement – then its work in the world would be a lot more effective in promoting God’s kingdom.
Let’s pray. Lord, we pray that you would nurture within us a humble spirit of service to others, and that you would raise up leaders who demonstrate that spirit. And set us free from our craving to control one another, so that all believers can live out the calling they hear from you, and grow in faith as you lead them. Amen.
Every Blessing,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 29 and 82; Isaiah 57:14-21; and Galatians 6:11-18. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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