Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 9 verses 33 through 37:
33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ 34But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ 36Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’
I have to laugh at this text because though after the disciples were fighting over who was the greatest and Jesus uses children as example of humility, I nevertheless spend about a third of my days as a father breaking up the fights my children have over which one of them won a game.
Proof that Jesus wasn’t a parent?
Well, not quite. The child Jesus pointed to was younger than mine — that is clear because the child was small enough to lift up and hold. In other words, the child was young enough not yet to have been “self-differentiated”, as the psychologists call it. In other words, the child was still young enough to know that it needs and belongs to others.
We must become young again — young enough to realize once more that we need and belong to others. And we need to be humble enough to see that no matter how “great” we think we are we can’t be truly great unless we are good — together.
And that’s a life-long Lesson.
Ryon Price is the Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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