Luke 9:46-50 presents a situation all to common among Churches and in our society. The disciples were fighting about who was the greatest. It got me thinking about how hypocritical competition is, when it comes to wanting good for society. Jesus came to heal and forgive and set people free, but we turn it into an argument. No wonder young people leave the Church or grow cynical about the political process, as we argue about who is the greatest. Reading this passage made me check my own motivation.
This competitiveness is motivated out of fear, a fear that we will not be enough. Augustine writes in his Confessions Book 2 chapter 5, that we want joy, honor, happiness, but we think that the things that we see, the material goods, these will bring us joy, so we steal, we try and get them. Thinking that if we just have enough, then we will not be afraid anymore. Isn't this just another form of trying to be greatest? If we are the greatest, then we will have honor and friends, and ease, but what we end up with is pain and loneliness. Jesus says real joy and peace are found in becoming the least, even like a child.
The challenge is that we can see the results of great power and wealth and it looks good. We cannot see the joy that God gives, and this is the challenge. To give up what we can see and seek that which is invisible and only possible within, seems crazy. Yet this joy that is beyond the material is a perspective that cannot be found while in the midst of wealth and power. William Stringfellow points out that the powers and principalities of this world (created things that were to serve human beings) dominate human beings. The market for example, made to help provide for human beings, now dominates human beings putting many in poverty. It becomes an "idolatry of death."
The solution, Jesus said, was to become like a little child. To realize we are dependent upon the creator and we must look up to see the joy of Christ. Power, wealth, and popularity, said Henri Nouwen, are not gifts, they are temptations to be overcome.
