You're Welcome, God.

Mark 9

33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

36He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."

I teach a Sunday school class for pre-schoolers, so I pay attention when the Bible talks about kids. When it's not talking about children I completely ignore it (joking - you don't need to pray for me). This verse is a challenge to me and also a great comfort.

This was Christ response to an argument of who was the greatest. I don't know what the disciples were arguing about exactly, but I do have an educated guess; looking back a couple of chapters, we see Jesus sending out the twelve in groups of two and giving them authority over demons. The disciples had just returned from a super-powered missionary trip. This is a guess, but their discussion might have gone like this:

James: "Hey, John, how many demons you cast out?"

John: "I don't know, James, I didn't keep count. Maybe ten."

James: "Yeah, I cast out ten, too ... out of one guy! Give me a break! What about you Peter?"
Peter: "Oh, at least sixty! There was this guy that I raised from the dead, too!"

John: "I think that guy might have been sleeping..."

Peter: "Shut up, Mr. Only-Can-Cast-Out-Ten-Demons."

James: "What do you have to brag about, Petey? Between me and my brother, we easily cleared 200 demons and healed at least that many sick. Don't worry, we'll put in a good word for you when Jesus sets up His Kingdom."

Christ wanted to redirect their focus. They thought that casting out demons, healing the sick and doing "big things" for God was what impressed Him. So Jesus, flips everything on its head. He shows the disciples that they are not doing big things for God, but are doing small things TO God. He brings out a child, an individual in that day that had no social significance, and declares that when they welcome a child they welcome Him and His Father.

I like how the "The Message" translates these verses: "He put a child in the middle of the room. Then, cradling the little one in his arms, he said, "Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me—God who sent me."

We're not to just heal. We are not to just cast out demons. We are to love. We are to embrace. Christ shows us that "scoring points" for the Kingdom is not as important as loving others. When we embrace and welcome the smallest and most insignificant people, we embrace and welcome God.

Give What You Got

Mark 6
37But he answered, "You give them something to eat." They said to him, "That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"
38"How many loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and see." When they found out, they said, "Five—and two fish."
39Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42They all ate and were satisfied, 43and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

There are three simple thoughts here that I want to log for posterity. First, I want to point out that the five thousand people were part of the miracle. Jesus did not sit and prepare meals for five thousand people. He had them sit down and then He blessed the bread and it was passed into the crowds. Each person there participated in this miracle. It should be noted that these people were already excited about Christ. He had healed the sick among them. They were in that isolated place because they had chased him around the lake on foot. The people in this crowd were so enthusiastic about Jesus that they told people in the towns they went through as they ran around the lake how incredible this man was and convinced others to join them. Their hearts were so preoccupied with this Messiah that they seemed to have forgotten to bring food. They came expecting miracles and they received what they expected.

Second, the disciples weren’t thinking about miracles. The disciples were tired. Jesus had taken them there to refresh them because he had seen how worn out they were from ministering to the people. They were not thinking supernaturally - even though a few hours earlier they were anointing the sick with oil and casting out demons. I want to highlight their excuse: money. They explained that they didn’t have enough money to do what Jesus was asking them to do and they weren’t expecting to be able to do miracles so they obviously weren’t filled with faith and expectation. They came dangerously close to missing a miraculous intervention because they tried to hide behind a lack of money and faith.

This leads to the third point. Even though they lacked money and faith, Jesus asked them for the food they had. He took what they had and used it.

So even it you don’t think you have the money or the faith for God to use you; make sure you offer Him what you have. He may add His own faith and His own riches to it and touch thousands through you.