Chapter # 9 Paragraph # 5 Study # 4
May 23, 2023
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: "Greatness" in the Kingdom is dependent upon seeking to put "the least of My brethren" (
Matthew 25:40) at ease in his/her circumstances.
Introduction: In our study last week we considered the essential nature of God's Kingdom: it is a kingdom of people who put "ministry toward one another" among the highest elements of Kingdom characteristics. It is interesting to me that the very idea of seeking "greatness" in the eyes of men is a very bad idea. Even the notion of seeking greatness in God's eyes needs a great fence of caution around it. The question is one of just why "being great" is a goal at all.
In our study this evening we are going to look into Jesus' use of a "child" to attempt to persuade The Twelve of the need to "focus" upon the needs of people without any consideration of their "apparent status".
- I. Jesus' Use Of A Child: The Larger Picture.
- A. The use is in the context of "Kingdom ambitions" and the conflict they generate.
- B. This setting is critical to the outcomes sought.
- 1. Jesus makes the "receiving of a child upon (the basis of) His name" equivalent to "receiving God the Father".
- a. This "receiving" upon the basis of Jesus' name is deliberately made a "motive" issue.
- b. This is likely best understood in the light of 9:42 as it relates to the ease with which "faith" is undercut.
- c. This is directily linked to the overall principle that in the Kingdom everyone is considered to be so tied to The Father that anything done to anyone is as if the thing done was done to to Him (Matthew 25:40).
- 2. The consequences of "Kingdom ambitions" that are oppositional to "Kingdom principles" are going to be extremely great in a negative sense.
- II. Jesus' Use Of A Child: The Details.
- A. At issue is the contention between the disciples because of their "self-importance".
- B. The use of a "child".
- 1. 5:39-42 uses this term (paidion) to describe a twelve-year-old girl.
- 2. In 7:28-30 Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman both use the term in their analogies of Jesus' miracles in comparison to "food for the children".
- 3. 9:24 uses the term elastically because the demon-possessed son is a "child" but he has been possessed since "childhood" (9:21).
- 4. 9:36-37 is our current text.
- 5. 10:13-15 is the "peak" of the chiastic structure of 9:1-11:11 so that, not only does a person need to welcome the children, but to also become as a child.
- C.. The concept of "receiving" as it is used here.
- 1. Initially Mark used "lambano" to describe Jesus "taking" a child and "standing" it (neuter gender simply because the word for "child" is neuter gender) in the midst of The Twelve and Himself and "having taken it into His arms" He said to them... .
- a. "lambano" in Mark has varied nuances of meaning (in one context it means to "take" a wife to one's bed; in another it means "to seize"; in another it means "to embrace as one's own"; and in yet another it simply means "to take into one's hand). In this text it simply means that Jesus "took the child from where it was and caused it to stand beside Him in the midst of Himself and The Twelve. [In John 1:12, it is this kind of "receiving" that results in becoming "a teknon of God".]
- b. In this text/context, however, what He says about "receiving" a child "upon My name" is not "lambano".
- 2. The word translated "receive" is "decomai" and it is used by Mark in three texts (6:11; 9:37; and 10:15).
- a. In 6:11, the disciples are to "shake off the dust on their sandals" as a testimony against those who do not "receive" them and their message. This is no small issue as the "testimony" will show up in "court" before the Great White Throne when it is set up in heaven (Revelation 20:11). This use in this context is in contrast to "welcome"; it carries a certain level of antagonism in it.
- b. In 10:15, if the Kingdom is not "received" in the same manner that a child "receives" it, the guilty party will not be allowed to enter into it.
- c. And in our current text, the illustration of "receiving" is given by Jesus when He takes the child into His arms (as He also does in 10:16).
- d. Jesus declared a very far-reaching reality when He tied both the "receiving upon My name" and the "receiving" as ultimately addressing one's attitude toward The One Who sent Jesus.
- 3. The word translated "taking in His arms" is only used two times (9:36; 10:16). These two instances are critical to both Kingdom "entrance" and Kingdom "participation". It is this more emotional sense that distinguishes the two words above. Vine says "lambano" is a tad less effusive (my words, not his) than "decomai".
- III. The Point: The Values Of The Kingdom Are Upon People; NOT "Important People".
