“Power, position and passion”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, October 15, 2022
Luke 9:37-50 (Forward, p. 78) CEV p. 1071
What impresses us human beings is often not what impresses God. It is hard to accept that, to stomach that, but it is true. The crowds—including the disciples--were amazed at God’s great power as evidenced by Jesus’ healing of the possessed boy and were simply unable to think of anything else. And so, Jesus’ prediction of His upcoming arrest meant absolutely nothing to them.
But power was not the only thing that impressed them, especially the disciples. Position was also important, in two ways. Firstly, in being part of the ‘in crowd’ or not, in being part of Jesus’ inner circle of disciples. For them, that was the defining characteristic of their existence. ‘He wasn’t one of us’ then became all important. And secondly, position became important to them also in terms of the ranking order, the hierarchy you might say, within the cluster of disciples. Each of them wanted to be counted, be acknowledged, as ‘the greatest’. (Sort of like the boxer Cassius Clay? Or certain politicians?)
But for Jesus something else was important, what I will call passion. This is true on a couple of fronts, firstly in His passion for people—including those, like a young child, that they would have ‘written off’ as unworthy of their attention, as inconsequential. Jesus shocked all of them by lifting up a child to their attention and declaring that if they welcome even a child because of Him, they are actually welcoming Him. That’s how important, how integral, such a one is to God’s love and care.
And secondly, there is His passion in its other sense, namely that of suffering. And yes, Jesus would care for us broken, flawed, sinful, bound human beings, that He would actually go to the Cross. There He would suffer and die for us and for our healing, release, freedom and forgiven. That really shows us what was important to Him, what His priorities were. Maybe our priorities, our sense of what is important, should be the same, not power, not position, but a passion for people. Amen.
Forward notes: “Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me; for the least among all of you is the greatest” (verse 48).
“So, it’s time for Jesus to settle the ‘who’s the greatest argument’ among his disciples, and what he does is refocus them on the mission.
“Isn’t this one of the traps we set for ourselves, pushing to the front of the line, whether for attention or material gain? Puffing out our chests to be seen and to receive praise? But with this simple statement, Jesus deflates any of those attempts to make ourselves great and instead issues a simple but profound statement that greatness comes in the welcome of ‘this child.’ I like to think of this child as the neighbor, refugee, newcomer to our pews, and all the people considered ‘other’ for whatever reason.
“If we allow our disciple-selves to learn from the great teacher, we too may be more aware of welcoming the child in Jesus’s name in all generations.”
Moving Forward: “Did you know that Forward Movement has an active ministry in providing free resources to prisons, hospitals, and nursing homes? Learn more and support this work at forwardmovement.org/donate.”