From the Pulpit: Power, Prestige and Position

It's a romanticized and sentimental piece of the Gospels, but what was Jesus really talking about when he told his disciples to welcome the children?

Preaching from the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me,” Canon for Worship Rosemarie Logan Duncan said this isn’t just about Sunday School for kiddos. It’s actually about power, prestige and unchecked ambition:

“We must resist the temptation to become overly sentimental about this scene, for we will miss what is happening here.

In the ancient world, children weren’t just vulnerable because they depended on adults for survival. Children had no legal protection, no status, no rights. They were physically and culturally the lowest people of all with nothing to offer anyone in terms of honor or status. So for Jesus to tell his disciples — who had just been arguing among themselves about which one of them was the greatest — that to welcome him, they must welcome a lowly child, this turns their ideas about greatness upside down.

Jesus is not saying that we should not or cannot be great. Rather, he’s asking us to reframe our understanding of greatness. In our world, most people associate greatness with the achievement of wealth, political power, authority, status, fame or recognition. But in God’s kingdom, greatness involves humility, divine grace, and the love of others.

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I wonder, are we also so concerned with status, personal advancement and public opinion, that we forget to serve one another in those with less power? Jesus wants us to understand that this child represents those of any age who are not valued, who are the least valued by the world and by society.

And this is important because when a society views any of God’s children as contributing nothing, as being weak, when there is a misconception that being different means deficient, it becomes easier to withhold respect, easier to affix labels and stereotypes. And there is the danger that some of our sisters and brothers will be seen as expendable. And my friends, we know from history that this does not end well.”