How to Welcome Jesus into Your Life

September 19, 2021

One of my favorite seminary professors was Dr. Frank Tupper, whom some of you know. He has spoken here a couple of times.  He was brilliant and funny.  I took every class of his I could.  He taught theology and, unfortunately, died a few years ago after a tragic fall down some stairs.  One day, we were talking about our text from Mark 9 and others like it.  They are called the Passion predictions.  Jesus plainly tells his disciples that he will be betrayed into human hands.  He tells them that he will be killed. And then he says that three days later he will be resurrected.  Time after time, Jesus tells his disciples this, and time after time they seem not to understand.  In Mark, he’s already told them once, and he will tell them again.  Three times in Mark Jesus predicts his passion and resurrection. Each time Jesus then gives a teaching on discipleship.  And each time some incident occurs that shows the disciples do not understand what Jesus is saying.

In classic Tupper style, Dr. Tupper looked out at our class of ten or twelve students one day and asked, “Were the disciples prevented from understanding this, or were they just dumb?”

I certainly don’t want to call the disciples of Jesus dumb!  In fact, I wonder if we would have believed it?  It was an incredible claim.  The betrayed into human hands part?  Sure, we can all believe that.  Killed?  At that point in Jesus’ ministry, that would have been conceivable but not likely.  Here’s the part that made them stumble.  After three days, be resurrected?  Incredible.  Would we have believed it?  I suspect not.

Of the three passion predictions in Mark, this one in Mark 9 is my favorite.  Following this one, Jesus gave a profound teaching and then an object lesson that is quintessential Jesus.  They were in the village of Capernaum, possibly at the home of Simon Peter and Andrew, who lived in that village. 

“What were you arguing about on the way?” Jesus questioned the disciples. 

Remember when you were a kid and got caught red handed doing something you were not supposed to be doing?  There wasn’t much you could do but keep quiet and look down at your shoes, right?

That’s what the disciples do here.  “They were silent,” Mark says.  You see, they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest.  It was probably an argument about which of them could best represent Jesus, an argument they knew was inappropriate and probably immature. 

Jesus doesn’t scold his immature disciples.  No, he turns this into a teachable moment.  And it is profound, one of his greatest teachings.  I say, it is profound to this day.  Notice Jesus sits down first.  That’s no big deal to us, but it’s an important cue from Mark.  Sitting before teaching was the official posture of a teacher, a rabbi.  They didn’t teach standing as we do.  The teacher sat.  Mark is giving us an indication here that what comes next is authoritative.  Pay attention, he is saying, this is important.  Jesus then follows that teaching with an object lesson that must have shocked his disciples.  Here’s the profound teaching:

Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.

It’s the Greek word diakonos, from which we get the word “deacon.”  Whoever wants to be first, greatest, must be last of all and servant of all.  It is still radical, isn’t it?

Here’s the shocking object lesson.  This is not as shocking to us as it would have been to his disciples because we are a child-centric culture.  We love our children.  We dote on them.  We pamper them.  So, sure, using a child as an object lesson feels perfectly natural to us.  But it would not have felt natural or appropriate to the disciples.  Their culture was not child-centric.  I know this is not easy to hear, but children in biblical days were non-persons, especially in a man’s world.  They were socially invisible.  They were inconsequential.  Paul says in Galatians 4 that children are no better than slaves.  I’m glad were not like that now, but they were then.  A child certainly should not have been hanging around a male teacher and his male students.

Look at what Jesus did.  Mark says he took a little child, not just a child.  He took a little child, think three year old, and put the child among the disciples and him.  I picture the disciples cutting their eyes at each other and with their expressions asking where the child’s mother was.   Then Jesus took the little child in his arms and said,

Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.

The non-person.  The socially invisible.  The inconsequential.  A slave.  When you welcome these kinds of people in my name, my brothers; Jesus taught his immature disciples; you welcome me and the One who sent me.  That is greatness in the Kingdom of God.  If you truly want to be great in the realm of God, you welcome, you honor, you cherish, you respect the most vulnerable in your midst. 

I learned something this week that I want to share with you.  I’m proof you can teach an old dog new tricks.  It’s the difference between dignity and respect.  I have used these two words interchangeably, but we shouldn’t.  It’s actually grammatically incorrect to say, “We should show dignity to all people.”  Or, “we should treat all people with dignity.”  Here’s why.  Dignity is our inherent value and worth as human beings.  We are born with dignity.  It is God’s gift.  It’s part of what it means to be “in the image of God.”  Dignity is our inherent value as a person.  We can’t give it to someone; they already have it.  Respect, on the other hand, is something we can give.  We can show respect to our elders, our teachers, our mentors, etc.  We don’t treat people with dignity.  We treat them with respect and honor their dignity.

Jesus knew there are no non-persons, not even a three-year-old child.  No one is invisible in God’s realm.  No one inconsequential.  Everyone has God-given dignity.

 Dr. Donna Hicks has written a book on the role of dignity in resolving conflict.  She’s an Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.  She has facilitated conflict resolution in the Middle East, Cuba, Columbia, Sri Lanak, and Northern Ireland.  Here’s how she does it.  She takes the two opposing groups, each deeply entrenched in its position, and begins with a conversation she calls Dignity 101.  Before addressing the conflicted issue, she sits with both groups and talks with them about human dignity, the inherent worth, value of the persons on the other side of the room.  She says it’s amazing how it changes conflict when we acknowledge that everyone has dignity and that we all have a deep, human need to be treated as a person of value.  (Psychology Today, “What Is the Meaning of Real Dignity,” April 10, 2013)

Do you want to welcome Jesus into your life?  This is not a complicated issue that requires a Dr. Tupper to explain it to us.  If you want to welcome Jesus into your life, then welcome the non-persons around you.  In the name of Jesus, welcome the person others treat as invisible.  In the name of Jesus, welcome the inconsequential woman, the inconsequential man.  Honor their dignity.  You see, Jesus knew that there are no non-persons.  Not in God’s realm.  No one is invisible.  No woman or man is inconsequential.  We are all created in God’s image and, therefore, imbued with dignity. 

Jesus redefined greatness that day.  If you want to be great, get in the back of the line.  Last.  That’s where the people are who need you.  If you want to be great, welcome the little ones, the overlooked ones, the ones left out.  You know who they are.  The immigrant family across the tracks everyone else shuns. Welcome them. The disabled guy in the other office no one wants to eat lunch with.  Welcome him. The gay kid down the street that others bully.  Welcome.  The Muslim family across the street everyone stereotypes.  Welcome.  Jesus practiced a radical kind of love that looks deeper than ability, deeper than nationality or religion or sexual orientation.  He challenges us to look for human dignity, a gift God has bestowed on everyone.  Welcome people in my name, he says, and you welcome me and the One who sent me.

So, do you really want to welcome Jesus into your life?  Then welcome the little ones around you.

Closing Prayer

  Lord, you have welcomed us.  Now, you ask us to welcome others.  Help us to do so.  Amen.