Luke 9:46-48--Who Is the Greatest?

Luke 9:46-48
English Standard Version
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Who Is the Greatest?
46 An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. 47 But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side 48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”

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Jesus has just told the disciples that He's going to leave them (I think pointing both to HIs crucifixion and ascension) and they've seen that they can't do the things that Jesus does by their own power.  Only He is able to will things to happen and creation (whether that be the wind and the waves or the spiritual beings that He also created) obey Him.

Now the disciples start arguing about who is going to be the greatest, probably in reference to who is going to be in charge when Jesus leaves since that's the last thing that He told them.  This may also be the event where the mother of James and John comes and asks if one of her sons can sit at Jesus' right hand and the other at His left hand in His kingdom.  (See Matthew 20:20-28, but I believe this event probably happened closer to the events of the cross as Matthew records it just before the Triumphal Entry and we're still approximately one year before those events now since we know the feeding of the 5,000 happened around the time of Passover and so did the crucifixion, so we're a little less than a year away).  This is an ongoing argument with the disciples and Jesus will rebuke them many times and it's one of the reasons that we see Jesus wash His disciples' feet at the Last Supper.

While they were trying to be quiet about their argument, Jesus knew what was going on in their heads and hearts, and used a little child as an example for them--children were not respected at all by that culture as we see when the disciples tried to prevent the children from coming to Jesus in Matthew 19:13-15.  Jesus tells them that, "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”  This would be counter-cultural to the disciples for sure as taking care of the children was a job that the women were supposed to do in that culture.  Jesus emphasizes that however we treat those that we view to be the "least" (those who can offer us nothing) is what we think about Jesus and who we welcome the "least" is how we welcome Jesus and the Father who sent the Son.

That doesn't make much sense, but we know that Jesus says this is how those who claim to be children of God will be judged (see Matthew 25: 31-46).  Jesus will evaluate who the sheep and the goats are based off of how we have compassion for those who the world would call "worthless."  All people are made in the image of God and all of them have souls that are precious to Jesus--He wants to save all of them, and He wants us to have compassion on the children and those who are naked, hungry, impoverished, and imprisoned.  We should not allow pride or prejudice to allow us to try to pick and choose who we believe is worth of the good news of the gospel.

It takes time to disciple a child.  You must work to teach them things that they have never heard before, and you must be able to to explain things to to them in words they can understand.  However, children have great faith which is many times taken advantage of.  They know they don't understand everything in the world and they have to assume that their parents and the other adults in their lives are telling them the truth, even if they don't understand it for themselves yet and answers like "One day you'll understand" have to do for a time.  There reaches a point where the child wants to be able to understand for themselves, which is a good thing, because then they will be able to teach these same things to others--don't withhold answers to good questions from those who are curious.  Let the children come close to you not only to be inquisitive, but to look to you as an example because they will want someone to watch to see what true faith looks like and you will teach them by example whether you desired to or not, and if you don't take the time to train a child up in the way that he should go, then the world and the devil will be happy to train them for you in the way that they should not go.  Refusal to take responsibility for discipling the children of our generation and having real, authentic conversations with them about our faith (making it out that faith is something that is simply internal, personal, and not to be discussed publicly) has lead to many of the problems that we see in many generations.  We love to blame the younger generation for being rebellious (and every generation has that urge), but did we do anything to train them up in the way they should go?  Jesus seems to say that He will not hold us guiltless if we abdicate this responsibility.

Now, back to the question of who is the greatest.  Jesus is saying that the person who is doing the kingdom work that the Father sent the Son to do and that that Son was going to send the apostles to do was great in the kingdom, and the Son came to seek and to save that which was lost (we will see that In Luke 19).  Jesus will tell them before His crucifixion that the one who wants to be the greatest must be a servant to all and that He came not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many, and that He was leaving them an example by washing their feet.  Unless they were willing to be washed and to wash each others' feet (a dirty, disgusting job done by the lowest servant in the house with no privilege or status), they had no part of Him or His kingdom.  So, yes, there is an outward expression of the gospel that is necessary, though these works in and of themselves do not save people.  True faith will always work in concert with works that will authenticate the message that we speak and will always bring glory to the Father, the Son and Spirit (and not to us).  That's a little bit of a sidetrack, but this passage is one of those that people like to use to preach a "social justice gospel" (that Jesus came to be revolutionary and give equal status and rights to women, children, poor, needy, oppressed, disabled, and so on).  Jesus loved all of them and equally shared the gospel with all, but His motivations were not primarily political or social in nature, but He also wasn't afraid to run shoulders with those that others felt to be "unclean" and "the least of these" because these were the ones who were willing to come to repentance--they knew they had nothing to offer God and that they simply needed to cry out to God for salvation because they could not earn their way to heaven.  We also should not be afraid to engage in such ministry--in fact, we should love to do so because we are truly doing the work of Jesus when we do.