The Greatest in the Kingdom

Meditations of the Gospel of Mark

September 14, 2020

The Greatest in the Kingdom

“Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not only me but also my Father who sent me.”

Mark 9:37

Read: Mark 9:30-37

Mark presents the disciples as masters of ‘not getting it.’ Mark isn’t putting down the first followers of Jesus; rather, he’s using their experiences for teaching purposes. Jesus is presenting himself as the Messiah, yet he behaves nothing like the Messiah the Jews were expecting. Add to that Jesus teaching in parables and the disciples spent much of their time confused. I believe Mark used this material as a way of teaching his church that following Jesus takes work. The hardest part of the work is in erasing what we think we know and learning how to receive Jesus as he is, not the way we think he ought to be.

Without parables, Jesus speaks directly to his disciples the literal truth. He says he, the Messiah, will be betrayed, he will die, he will rise again.  The disciples had a vision of the Messiah as the leader of a great army leading his followers into battle. However, instead of a mighty King dressed in battle armor and riding a big horse, a humble shepherd walks to the head of the army. No armor. No weapon. And he expects his army to dismount, remove their armor, drop their weapons and follow him.

My Takeaway: Jesus’ idea of the Messiah just didn’t compute for his disciples, as evidenced by them immediately debating who will be the greatest in the Age to Come. Then Jesus, again, dashes their perceptions. Everyone, even a child, will have equal standing in the Age to Come.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.