It’s easy to understand the disciples’ ambitions. After all, it was just in the previous chapter that they had finally realized Who Jesus is – the Messiah. They therefore expected that He would soon set up His kingdom, and that, as His most loyal followers, they would serve as his counsellors and generals. It was only natural for them to begin jockeying for the best positions at court. It’s simply the way power works in this world – for someone to go up, others must go down.

But that’s not God’s way, and that’s why Jesus chose to use a child as an object lesson for the disciples. Now, however Romantic our notions of childhood innocence and purity may be, in the Ancient world, people generally looked down on children because of their weakness. So when Jesus told these aspiring courtiers that they should become like children, they would have been scandalized. Who would voluntarily choose to be so vulnerable, so helpless? Who would want to give up his own power in order to serve others?

Well, yesterday we celebrated the fact that the Almighty God did just that. He humbled Himself, allowing Himself to become a helpless baby, born to poor and powerless parents. Jesus became a man so that we might be able to receive Him as Savior. He humbled Himself on the cross, dying in our place so we might be able to bow the knee to Him as Lord. That’s the way He expressed His unconditional love for us.

And that’s the example of self-sacrificial service He set for us. So, if we want to follow Him, if we want to receive Him, that’s the road we must travel as well. How can we serve others today?

Mark 9:33-37 (ESV)

33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?”
34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.
35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them,
37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”