READINGS AND REFLECTIONS FOR MONDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2020

Job 1: 6 – 22            Psalm 17 : 1 – 7           Luke 9: 46 – 50

The Collect :

God of our salvation,

we falter before the demands of your word:

pour out your mercy on us

that we may turn from our sinfulness

and walk the path of self-emptying love

made known to us in Jesus Christ:

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.

Amen 

The gospel starts out with the rumblings of discontent as the disciples argue : “An argument arose among the disciples about which of them was the greatest.” What  makes matters even worse ,is that Jesus has just told the disciples that when he enters into Jerusalem, which they are approaching, he will be handed over to the authorities and will be killed. 

How the disciples missed the point! He confides in them that he is about to lose his life and their concern is who’s number 1!   And still worse there are three such incidents in the gospel of Luke (as well as in Matthew and Mark), where Jesus confides in them about his demise and three times the disciples grossly misunderstand him. 

What must Jesus have thought? His disciples, his chosen ones, the ones he called to follow him, those who were with him through His long ministry in Galilee – could not hold on to the message he gave to them.  They want to know who is the greatest among them. 

Jesus doesn’t blast out at them in anger. He simply dramatizes the incongruity of their actions by taking a child and placing it by his side: “whoever receives this child in my name receives me . . . for the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest.” 

The child represented the “least” because they had nothing to offer to anyone.  Their worth was simply in the fact that they were, not that they had any power or influence. 

Receiving a child, like the young one Jesus introduces in the reading, is to receive Him, and further to that, is to receive “the One who sent me (God).”   The disciples are to be like that child, and in that way to determine who is the “greatest” among them. 

What a paradox. It is the exact opposite of what the disciples and what the world has us think and believe:  to be the greatest is to have and to exercise influence and power.  Jesus’ way is neither the way of the disciples or of the world.  Jesus’ path is the path of humility, the way of being less, yet offering more.  Jesus way is to a live  a life of service. 

Humility, is far from “putting ourselves down,”  or “being trampled on”,  as people may be inclined to interpret, it is the recognition of the joy that is inherent in our status as Jesus’ followers. The “joy” is not from what I or the disciples do or accomplish, but from the simple fact that we are intimately connected with Jesus and his journey. 

The disciples finally did understand, but it took the pain of the cross of Jesus to bring that understanding to them. Just as the cross scattered them (remember Peter’s denial), so the resurrection gathered them together in the person of Jesus. That would be their strength – the death and the resurrection of Jesus – and that would make all the difference in the world for them.  That is what makes all the difference in the world for us . 

Let us Pray :

Lord, thank you for calling us as you called your disciples and then for inviting us into your most vibrant life of service. 

Amen