Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, February 14, 2024
by Madison Johnston, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God has named us as children, which means that God calls us to be childlike (not childish).
In Verse 32 of this story, the disciples feel embarrassed because they don’t understand the prediction of the Passion that Jesus is laying out. Again, in Verse 34, the disciples feel embarrassed, this time because they are confronted with the fact that they have engaged in some vain arguments.
Their embarrassment suggests that shame plays a very big role for the disciples as they struggle to understand who Jesus is and what he is on earth to do. Rather than putting energy into asking Jesus questions, identifying blind spots, or opening themselves up to some constructive criticism from time to time, the disciples put energy into saving face and appearing more mature than they actually are.
Jesus confronts these efforts head on and informs the disciples that if power is truly what they are concerned with, they will need to rid themselves of the concept of power that’s causing this kind of behavior—that’s feeding their particular brand of shame—in them in the first place. He tells the disciples that their definition of power is backward. He tells the disciples that they need to reprioritize. There is so much that preachers can do with the visual of Jesus calling the disciples to welcome a child here, but perhaps a good way to interpret it is to say that Jesus tells the disciples that they are acting childish. And to live a life of greatness in faith, they must become childlike, instead.
One of the best literary illustrations of the difference between adults and children—between people who are childish and people who are childlike, respectively—is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery. In Chapter 4, the narrator is trying to describe to the reader why it is difficult for him to tell his adult peers about the time he met the Little Prince:
“If you were to say to the grown ups: ‘I saw a beautiful house made of rosy brick, with geraniums in the windows and doves on the roof,’ they would not be able to get any idea of that house at all. You would have to say to them: ‘I saw a house that cost $20,000.’ Then they would exclaim: ‘Oh, what a pretty house that is!’ Just so, you might say to them: ‘The proof that the little prince existed is that he was charming, that he laughed, and that he was looking for a sheep. If anybody wants a sheep, that is a proof that he exists.’ And what good would it do to tell them that? They would shrug their shoulders, and treat you like a child. But if you said to them: ‘The planet he came from is Asteroid B−612,’ then they would be convinced, and leave you in peace from their questions. They are like that. One must not hold it against them. Children should always show great forbearance toward grown up people. But certainly, for us who understand life, figures are a matter of indifference. To those who understand life, [different details] would have given a much greater air of truth to my story.”
If we are childlike, we do not put on airs. If we are childlike, we don’t assume that we’re bigger, better or more important than anyone else. If we are childlike, we ask questions and admit our limits and look for help, for guidance. If we are childlike, we listen to details that might not otherwise seem important, and we might even work those details into the center of our worldview. If we are childlike, we reject childish structures of power and influence that serve individual people instead of communities, and we don’t give the time of day to willful ignorance.
Jesus makes it safe for us to be childlike. Jesus takes away the shame that we are tempted to feel when we’re confused, discouraged or pulled into self-centered pursuits. Alongside Jesus, God names us as children so that we are liberated to redefine greatness, again and again and again.
Today is Ash Wednesday, so we might need to lean a little extra into that liberation. We might need a reminder of that redefinition. We are entering into a season of anticipation and grief. But because we know how to flip the world on its head, we know that with that grief comes triumph and joy. Today, we start Jesus’s journey to the cross with him, pledging to be childlike all the way.
