Greatness in serving children.

this week's cg message was about growing from excellence to greatness. in an attempt to follow up on this teaching of greatness, i read up some scripture in mark 9:33-37; and came across this very interesting website http://www.reformedtheology.ca/mark9b.htm. let me just sum up some main points of what i read.

the disciples of Jesus were debating on who was greatest. Jesus said in v35 'If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all'

Notice that Jesus doesn’t attack the disciples’ desire to be great; What Jesus does here is that He corrects their presumptions of how greatness is acquired. He says, ‘If greatness is what you want, then you must become a servant of all.’

In order to demonstrate what He has just said, Jesus brought forward a child, “and taking (the child) in His arms, (Jesus) said to them, ‘Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not (only) receive Me, but (also) Him who sent Me’” (9:36, 37).

How did bringing a child forward demonstrate what Jesus was trying to teach?

Jesus sits them down and tells them that in order to be great they must be “servants of all”; He tells them to be servants of children.

If you desire greatness, if you desire to be regarded by God as great, then you must be willing to serve anyone and everyone; you must be willing to serve children.

Some of you may still be wondering about the reasoning of Jesus in using a child to illustrate His point. Of all the ways Jesus could have demonstrated His point, why did He choose a child?

By using a child as an example, Jesus challenges those who might engage in service for the benefit of reward or praise.

You see, there is very little advancement gained by serving children—they can’t vote, they don’t hold positions of authority, they don’t possess money, nor do they give speeches about how helpful your assistance was.

In fact, one of the first lessons a new parent learns is how their care for their child is taken for granted. Children generally don’t make a big deal out of the fact that you bend over backwards in your efforts to love them and to provide for their needs.

As a result, those who serve in order to be noticed, praised, or promoted, usually don’t have much interest in helping children.

In exhorting us to serve children, Jesus makes an important point about our connection to Him: “Whoever receives a child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, (not only) receives Me, but (also receives) Him who sent Me” (9:37).

First of all, we see that caring for a child for the child’s sake is not sufficient in honouring God. Jesus doesn’t simply say, ‘serve the children’, He says ‘receive the child, serve the child, in My name.’ That is to say that our motivation for serving children must be connected to our desire to serve Christ.

Secondly, our motivation for serving children must be connected to a desire to be in fellowship with Christ. Jesus says, that when we receive a child in His name we also receive Him, and we also receive the Heavenly Father.

So, you see, we don’t serve for the sake of serving. And we don’t serve primarily for the sake of the one whom we are serving. And we don’t even serve because serving makes us great. We serve because our service connects us with Jesus Christ.

And when we are connected in a relationship with Jesus Christ, it is then that we have become truly great.


i think this is so revelational! read up the whole website for yourself and be blessed!