First things first, who can argue with wisdom like that? It is the essence of Stephen Covey’s book of the same name, “First Things First”. Covey claims that his organizing process will help you categorize tasks so you focus on what is important, not merely what is urgent. Covey claims that using his book will help you create balance between your personal and professional responsibilities by putting first things first and acting on them.
The essence of this conventional wisdom should be obvious to us, shouldn’t it? But, Jesus is anything but conventional. As we see in our Scripture today, Jesus wouldn’t agree with Stephen Covey…first things first? No, it’s last things first. In fact what we may see as our first priorities, Jesus might say are our last priorities. Jesus tells us to stop, turn around and look at life from a different angle. High is low. Up is down. Top is bottom. First is last. Last is first.
Jesus isn’t giving us some philosophical nonsense, or vague semantics. Jesus is telling us how the kingdom of God really works, how we are to live our life as Christians, which, it turns out, goes against our conventional wisdom.
Jesus is giving us a basic key spiritual understanding today: How to be great in the kingdom of God.
As we look at our Scripture today we see several separate elements, which at first glance may appear to be about several different subjects, {who is the greatest, welcoming children, those who are for us are not against us, being maimed and salt} but they all are speaking about the same exact thing: Greatness; who, in the eyes of God is great in the kingdom of God. All these elements come together to give us a fuller understanding of how the kingdom of God works.
Our Scripture opens up with Jesus and the disciples back in the town of Capernaum. If you have been able to take a trip to Israel you probably know that Capernaum is a beautiful place. It is lush, abundant in produce and has mild weather, when it is snowing in Jerusalem, it is in the 70’s in Capernaum. It is no mystery why Jesus spends so much time here.
After they arrive in town Jesus asks what they were talking about as they traveled, and they hesitate to tell him what they were talking about. Understand that for Jesus, this is a rhetorical question – Jesus already knows, He’s God incarnate. In verse 34, we see why they are hesitant, they were arguing about who is the greatest, they inherently knew this was wrong, but still they argue about it. This isn’t surprising, questions of precedence and rank were constantly arising in the culture of first century Palestine. This was of very high importance to them. It arose around literally everything, from administration of justice to meals. At a meal there was concern about where to sit, who was served first, who drank first out of the sometimes one cup available, just to name a few – all of these issues just around a meal revolved around who was great. In everything that Jesus deals with when He is working with the disciples, this question of rank was in the background. Knowing this, Jesus calls the disciples to him with the intent of teaching them about biblical greatness, and He hits them from several different angles to reinforce His point. Jesus starts with the first way to be great in the kingdom of God – the example of children.
As Jesus calls a child to His side, He gives them a paradox of the true spiritual nature of being a Christian: “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” Notice that not only does Jesus turn their understanding of greatness, and ours too, on its head, but He adds a little extra – not only do we have to be last to be first, but we have to be a servant, a servant of ALL. Jesus is not playing mind games with us here, He is quite serious. Jesus gives us a hint of this in Matt. 19:30 where He says, “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” See, Jesus is referring to the end of time when we stand before the Lord, and we will be surprised by many who we see as being first in the kingdom, that God sees them as last. We will be surprised because this is a difficult concept for us as Christians to understand, because like the disciples we have our culture impregnated into our lives and it is difficult for us to discern true Godly wisdom. By the way, Jesus is both the first and the last, Rev. 22:13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
So Jesus calls this child to his side. The word that Jesus uses for child here is of Aramaic origin and this word can be translated a both child and servant. So here Jesus is using a real life example that parallels exactly what He just told us in verse 35, being last AND the servant of all. Children were not seen as full persons in Israeli society and in many cases were treated like property, if anyone is last in terms of rank in is a child, rather a child servant. Again, notice that He doesn’t tell us to be a child, but to welcome children. Now remember Jesus is teaching on greatness in the kingdom of God so we need to keep this in the context of how to be great in the kingdom of God. Jesus has already to us how to be great: be last and be a servant – here He gives us an example of how to practically do this in our daily life. Understand that Jesus isn’t saying that we say to every child we see, “Welcome in the name of Jesus”, Jesus is speaking on another level, Jesus is using the example of a child to show that the way to be last is to welcome those in the name of Jesus, and by being last, you will be first.
But that is not the end of it. Any welcome extended in the name of Jesus, actually is a welcome offered to Jesus. The disciples do not welcome in their name, they welcome in Jesus’ name, we do not welcome in our name, we welcome in Jesus name. In other words, it is not who we are or how great we are that makes this welcome powerful, it is the name in who we welcome that make it powerful. The smaller we become, the more we get out of the way, the more we strive to be last – the greater Jesus becomes in our life. See, by acting in this way, even though we are last, we are first, because the overwhelming power of Jesus in our life makes us first. By being last I become greater, because this places Jesus first. Crisscross. I’m last, that makes Jesus first, that makes me great.
Spiritual insight: To be great in kingdom, use the authority of Jesus not your own authority. Your authority will get you nowhere in the kingdom of God, the authority of Jesus will take you right to the top. See what Jesus is saying here in effect is this: Whoever receives in my name, receives me receives, and therefore receives the Father and the Holy Spirit, so the least becomes the greatest by this effect of reception. The authority of Jesus, makes even the least, the greatest.
Years ago I was on a trip to Israel with my seminary. We were taking a tour of Jerusalem and the church of the Holy Sepulcher. As we walked through the section controlled by the Ethiopian Orthodox, the monks ignored us, it was as if we didn’t exist. Then our professor told one of the monks that we were a group from Princeton Theological Seminary. “Welcome, welcome, welcome”, shouted the monks as they came out of the woodwork. You see, the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has his PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. We received the grand tour, toasted with cups of coffee, took many photos and joked and laughed for quite some time. On our own, we were just American tourists, the lowest of people in the minds of the monks. But when we came in the name of Princeton Theological Seminary, the last became first. When we come in our own authority we are nothing, but in the name and authority of Jesus, the last become first.
The word used n verse 37 for welcome describes a person who is a hostess, like at a restaurant or a hotel. Jesus is not describing an act of friendliness or a person who is kind, no, Jesus is describing some one who is willing to serve this person regardless of who they are, or of what they may get out of it. We usually don’t have a problem with serving others, if we get something out of it – paycheck, kudos, a good reputation, just having a thank you card would be nice. But if you want to be great in the kingdom of God, then you help those who cannot help you, you do things or those who probably will never say thanks, and you act in a way that there is no way people can return a favor to you.
There is a couple who lived here in Anchorage, who lived in one of the most broken down trailers I have ever seen. There home was, clean, and well kept but the trailer sure had seen better days – a long time ago. Some friends who had a little boy were looking at buying a house, but they just couldn’t get enough money together to make a down payment. So this couple, who was living in this broken down trailer, took their entire life savings, $25,000 and gave it to their friends for their house down payment – fully knowing they would never see the money again. And you know who else knew about it? Nobody. I asked them why they did it. Why they gave away everything they had. Their response was one of puzzlement, “Why wouldn’t we? They needed help” That’s what Jesus is talking about! This couple knew the secret: The last are first.
How do you know you are on the right track? How do you know if you are accomplishing what Jesus is asking here? First, you will find that you are not offended when you are overlooked, when you are disregarded, when the thank you card never arrives – if any of that bothers you, you are not there yet, not even close, and in fact you are serving for the wrong reason. Here is another practical way to tell if you are on track: If people treat you like a lowly servant, well then, your getting there.
Isn’t this an appropriate topic right before Thanksgiving? For truly, if you are thankful for what you have, it is easy to start to apply what Jesus is asking.
As Jesus is teaching on greatness, John interrupts with a seemingly random thought, we see this in verse 38. “Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” Remember, this whole section is about who is the greatest in the kingdom of God, and verses 38 – 39 are no exception. This statement by John shows the disciples misconception of the nature of the kingdom of God. They think in terms of culture, Jesus thinks in terms of the Spirit.
The phrase “we tried to prevent him” is in the conative imperfect, this implies that the man refused to comply with their demands. In other words the disciples demanded that he stop, and he just blew them off. The point here is the man’s apparent lack of authorization rather than sectarianism. It is not an issue of us against them, it is the issue of who is the greatest. They are upset that this man is acting without proper authorization, it is an issue of greatness. This shows that the disciples felt only they were authorized. They were the chosen twelve, who is this guy?
Now, we need to be careful here. This is talking about believers and not about unbelievers. We cannot apply what Jesus says too broadly here. Clearly the man who has preformed the exorcism is a believer, and had to been authorized. To command the demons to come out in Jesus name – shows an awareness of who Jesus is and that Jesus ordered the action, that it will be accomplished by Jesus will. Typically, an occultist uses their own authority, or the authority of a demonic being. In addition, those who misuse the name if Jesus will feel the consequences: Acts 19:13-17, 13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 [One day] the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. 17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.
In Jesus remark in verse 39 is humorous, well…at least in the Greek, as he contrast their lack of power with the man who has power. He stresses that the use of Jesus name must mean a recognition of his authority. We saw in Mark 9:18 that the disciples could not do an exorcism, but this man can, so who is authorized? The disciples had presume to speak for Jesus, but they had no competence, an therefore could not speak for Jesus. They had abused their authority.
So again, How do we participate? Jesus again answers that question for us – verse 41, “I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.” Here He shows the extent of the participation needed. That is does not need to be something fantastic to be or outlandish, just something simple. There are no distinctions between trivial and important tasks. Why is that? Because like a welcome in Jesus name, a cup given in Jesus name, places us father back toward being last so that Jesus becomes greater in our lives, and Jesus authority makes even the most trivial of tasks – great.
Then Jesus gives a warning to show how serious He is in verse 42. This looks back to the concrete action taken in verse 41. It is a very stern warning. It I against those who seek to stop participation in the kingdom of God. Little ones here means, not literally children, but those whose allegiance is to Jesus. Irony is that of those who are received to Jesus should cause others to lose faith. The millstone that Jesus mentions is a very large millstone one pulled by animals as opposed to a small household item. This type of execution had recently happened in Jesus day. The Romans punished the leaders of a local insurrection under Zealot leader Judas the Galilean in this manner, tying large millstones to their necks and throwing them into the sea. This illustration certainly would not be lost on the disciples.
Now in verses 43-48, Jesus is not telling us to literally cut off body parts to be holy. Anyone who makes this type of claim is just plain ignorant. In the Greek it is clear that this is purely illustrative. It was a Palestinian custom to refer to a specific member of the body rather than an abstract concept. So Jesus speaks of an offending hand etc. He is speaking in this cultural context.. What it characterizes is a man who concretely acts and is responsible for his actions. The representation of the body members, the hand, the foot, the eye, is the acting subject. The radical demand of the foot is, to be hacked off before it curses the whole. In other words Jesus calls for a renunciation of all that causes us to sin. If something stand in the way of you relationship with Jesus, remove it from your life. This is not a demand for self mutilation, but a demand for costly sacrifice. The members of the body must not place themselves at the disposal of sin
We see this a parallel of this type of analogy in Hellenistic thought where there is a willingness to sacrifice a hand or a foot to pursue a philosophy of the truth. Here in this context, it is clearly understood not to be self mutilation either.
Jumping down to verses 49-50 we see again that Jesus is speaking of greatness in the kingdom of God: 49 Everyone will be salted with fire. 50 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” Jesus has just been talking about self sacrifice and now Jesus takes sacrifice a step further for every disciple is to be a sacrifice to God.
Temple sacrifice always had to be accompanied by salt. Lev. 2:13 “Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.” Indeed, Jesus is speaking of salt in terms of holy sacrifice here. Here Jesus is using it as a metaphor for suffering and trial. The disciples must be seasoned with salt, like the sacrifice, this will take place through fiery trials. 1Pet. 1:7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
This is through which God will purge everything contrary to his will. By this purge we become less of ourselves, and Jesus becomes greater, the less we become in ourselves, the greater Jesus becomes, the greater Jesus becomes the greater we become.
First is last. Last is First. When I become less, Jesus becomes greater – His authority will make me great in the kingdom of God. And so it is, what at first appears to be a paradox, is a key to basic Christian living.
