Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’
John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’ But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward. -- Mark 9: 33-41
"Mommy, you love me best, don't you?"
One thing about being an only (or near-only) child is that the question is sort of moot; it is only when there are two or more children in a family would this question come up. And, of course, parents must carefully answer because sooner or later one kid will say to another, "Mom loves me best cuz she said so." The other child will, of course, come back with something along the lines of, "You're a liar 'cuz she told me she loved ME best." When faced with two upset children, each demanding that the parent reassert the assertion made only to them that she really does love this one better than that one, it would be better to have been Solomon. At least he didn't have a vested interest in one over another other than to ascertain the truth. Whatever this mother says will color the lives of two children possibly for the rest of their lives -- as well as shore up or sink the relationship between them.
Jesus had adults to contend with, and took the presence of a child to make his point. Yes, children can be selfish little beasts, thinking only of their own comfort and happiness, but yet their innocence can lead them into trouble. There is a time to put away childish scuffles over who is more loved than whom and begin to look for the best in and for others, even the most innocent.
The same sort of thing happened with the disciples running to Jesus, "That man over there is doing what we are doing. Make him stop!" Again, it is the desire to be the best, the one, the most loved, honored, talented. For poor fishermen from Galilee, the power to do healings and demon-casting is probably far more power than they ever thought of having, and when someone else other than their teacher has it and shares it out, then that's a threat to them. They react predictably. Again Jesus uses the more innocent to make his point. "If someone does something good in my name, then that person cannot speak evil of me. Let them act, for it is a good thing."
The soundbyte I hear from this is "...Whoever is not against us is for us." How true that rings in these days when nation opposes nation, clan opposes clan, church opposes church, even members of a communion oppose other members of that same communion, even family member against family member. Who is greater? Who is more right? Who is doing God's will? Who does God love best?
I wish I could rest comfortably in the "God loves me best because...." God loves me, of that I have no doubt, but God loves an awful lot of other people too and deservedly so, even undeservedly so. Still, offering a bottle of cold water in the heat of summer, encouraging someone whose spirits and hope are flagging, doing things that need doing but that others don't seem to want to do, all can be deeds of power if done in the right spirit and with Jesus' injunction in mind.
God loves me -- even if not best. I don't need "best" when it comes to that.
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