46 Then his disciples began arguing about which of them was the greatest. 47 But Jesus knew their thoughts, so he brought a little child to his side. 48 Then he said to them, “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me also welcomes my Father who sent me. Whoever is the least among you is the greatest.” (NLT)
The story has been told of a group of American tourists visiting a small town in Ireland. They met an old local resident. “Any great people been born here?”, asked one of the tourists. The local thought for a while, “Nope, only babies.”
None of us is born great. We are all born as helpless infants who will both delight and disappoint ourselves, one another, and God. But we are born into a world which has a distorted view of greatness. Get rich and be great; win a gold medal and be great; get well-known on mass and social media and be great.
Our passage reminds us that even Jesus’ followers get caught up in wrong ideas of greatness. Jesus reminds them and us that greatness has to do with how we treat the least significant of people—in his case little children. It has been said that we can measure a nation’s moral quality by how it treats its poor and its prisoners. A similar thing can be said about each of us.
Those who sacrificially care for disabled children, the frail aged, those caught in cycles of desperate addiction: these are the great ones. Beyond all the headlines which parade the virtues of the famous, the good looking, the athletically gifted and the rich, there are those who without even knowing it display everyday greatness. We don’t recognise much of it. Thankfully, it seems Jesus does.
Blessings
David Reay
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