While everyone was amazed at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples, "Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands”
In this passage, Jesus has just healed a child with a demonic spirit, frothing at the mouth. In response everyone was astounded by the greatness of God. And in the midst of that amazement, Jesus tells the disciples that he’ll be betrayed by the very people who are singing God’s praises. Jesus knows that their praise and adoration is fleeting and situational. As usual, the disciples didn’t understand what he was trying to say, how he was trying to warn them about how this story was going to play out, at least initially.
Reading this passage is almost painful when you imagine Jesus trying to teach his disciples. Their response, again and again is ridiculously stupid, and unfortunately, so familiar in my world.
After his initial warning, the disciples respond by having a little argument amongst themselves about who’s the greatest. Really? Jesus just said he was going to be betrayed, and instead of trying to learn more, they jockey amongst themselves?
In response to their jockeying, Jesus takes a small child and says that the least among them is the greatest. The disciple’s response is that they tattle that they saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name, but the healer wasn’t an inner circle disciple, so they tried to stop him. Really? Jesus has tried to redirect the disciples about jockeying and their response is to be exclusionist?
As we read this story and because we know the story, it’s easy to fault the disciples. Their responses seem ludicrous. Don’t they know Jesus would not want them to argue about who’s the best? Don’t they know that Jesus would not want them to consider Jesus a trademarked, proprietary brand?
We can see these faults in the disciples. But if I think about it, I can see those faults in me and in most of us. I think we all try to assert that we’re best, or at least better than some. I don’t care who your ‘other’ is, but we all have one – that person who is not as good, not as smart, not as genuine in their faith, not as true in their altruism. We all have someone who’s a little lower in the hierarchy, at least in our head. That’s what Jesus is warning against. Stop thinking there’s a pecking order or that anyone is better.
And when Jesus says that the least will be the greatest, the disciples respond that some have healed in Jesus’ name without being close disciples. I can imagine the disciples thinking, ‘ok, maybe we shouldn’t fight amongst who of us 12 disciples is the greatest, but certainly you’ll agree, Jesus, that we 12 are better than those who aren’t us, right?’
We do that too. When we hear that there is no pecking order, that we shouldn’t argue about which of us is greatest, we make it a more collective pecking order. Maybe I can get behind the idea that no one in my tribe, or village, or denomination is better; God loves us all. But then the trap is that we can think that our tribe, or village, or denomination is better. Those other tribes, villages, denominations, faiths cannot possibly be as genuine.
All of this has to do with how we define ourselves, and how we see ourselves as different than others. It’s in those implicit differences where we risk creating the hierarchy. My husband and I have a few areas where we differ in our parenting style. Our styles are different, and in those challenging parenting moments, it’s easy to conflate different with better.
Today, I’m going to try to let different be just different. My clothing, my skin color, my parenting, my housing status, my faith. All of these things will be different than people I see. None of these things means better. I will try to see all the ways where I, like the disciples, try to use the difference to make me better. Personally, I’m not more loved by God. And collectively, my tribe does not have more rights to God’s love than anyone else.
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