The Little Things

I’ve heard people call Christianity a ‘weak person’s religion.’ With ideas like ‘turn the other cheek’ and ‘go the extra mile,’ it’s easy to wonder if they’re right. Are Christians pushovers? Or should they be?

Today’s reading hammers home the point: we should be like children (or, as slaves, the other way the word “children” could be translated).

The disciples are ashamed of discussing who was the greatest because Jesus shows that the greatest is the one who is servant to all.

He goes on to demonstrate this through the foot washing and his voluntary death on the cross.

Our responsibility, as Christians, is to follow this example, to make ourselves the least of all.

But, in making ourselves like ‘children,’ the result is that we become very influential.

Through nonviolence and by serving others, Martin Luther King, Jr., was able to change America. Likewise, Gandhi was able to transform India. And, today, it’s a child, Greta Thunberg, who is leading an international environmental movement.

It doesn’t take money, power, and influence to make a difference.

After all, Jesus didn’t have any of these things. When he died, he was a condemned criminal whose small gang of disciples abandoned him when the tough got going.

But, this small act, this act of service, brought about the resurrection for the cosmos.

So, Christianity is not a ‘weak religion,’ but we are called to transform the world by becoming as children. 

The Reading

And they came to Capernaum. And when he had come into the household he asked them, “What were you debating on the way?” But they were silent; for on the way they debated with one another who was greater. And sitting down he called out to the twelve and says to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” And taking a small child he stood him in their midst, and folding the child in his arms he said to them, “Whoever in my name receives one of the little children, like this one, receives me; and whoever receives me receives not me but the one having sent me forth.” John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us exorcizing demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him, for there is no one who will perform a deed of power in my name who will also be able soon afterward to speak ill of me; For whoever is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in the name, because you belong to the Anointed, amen, I tell you that he most certainly will not lose his reward. (Mark 9:33-41)