Who is the best?

Luke 9:46-48

46 An argument arose among them as to which one of them was the greatest. 47 But Jesus, aware of their inner thoughts, took a little child and put it by his side, 48 and said to them, “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.”

As Jesus was struggling with the knowledge of the coming showdown in Jerusalem, the disciples got into an argument about which of them was the greatest, we don’t know what criteria they were using to determine greatness – all we need to know is they are arguing about who was best, most important. They were careful to make sure Jesus did not overhear the argument, but he knew anyways.

Children in Jesus’ day were on the lowest rung in terms of power/authority. Even slaves had more power than children. Jesus takes the conversation about greatness and turns it on its head. His point is this, every one of the disciples would love to have Jesus as their guest and they would treat him as an honoured guest. Jesus says, if you welcome this child, who has no status, no authority, no power, into your home you have in fact welcomed me into your home. The least, the lowest, the overlooked, the ignored – they are the most important, they are the greatest.    

The question we are invited to ask is: who do we meet in the course of our everyday lives who are the least, the overlooked, the unseen? These are the ones that Jesus invites us to regard as the greatest and the most important. In welcoming them as honoured guests, we are welcoming Jesus. Jesus is to be found with the least and the lowest standing by his side (vs. 47).

The least is the greatest, the last is the first, the overlooked is the most important; this is Jesus’ upside-down kingdom.

PRAYER:

God of grace, be the action of the Holy Spirit you are bringing an upside-down kingdom, where the least is the greatest and the ignored is most important. Teach us to see the ignored and to care for the least. These things we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.