who is in charge

After they arrived at Capernaum and settled in a house, Jesus asked his disciples, “What were you discussing out on the road?” But they didn’t answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.” Then he put a little child among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not only me but also my Father who sent me.”(Mark 9:33-37 NLT)

It is hard to imagine a bunch of people who are walking and talking with Jesus, listening to his lessons on humility, seeing his example of self-denial, all these things, and then arguing among themselves over who was more important.

Well, Peter says, I am the leader of this bunch. Wait a minute, interjects Andrew. I am the one who brought you to Jesus in the first place. I have seniority. No, says James. Our mother told us we were in line for the leader position. I will be in charge and John will be second in command. Why should I be second in command, says John? You’re not the boss of me. Judas reminds everyone that Jesus trusted him enough to give him the money so he must have a lot of leadership ability. Nathaniel mentioned his intellectual ability.

A fist fight almost ensued.

When Jesus asked them what they were arguing about, they were afraid to say. To their credit, they were embarrassed.

Well, Master, we were discussing a hierarchical flow chart. No you weren’t, Jesus says. He had probably heard them and was a combination of amused and disgusted.

It was like in the first part of this chapter that his disciples were unable to cast a demon out. Jesus looked at them and said, “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? (Luke 9:41). I talk to you and talk to you and still you do not understand. And now here you are arguing about who is in charge.

So he says, you want to be in charge? Here is how. You become like a little child. In other words, you forget yourself. Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.

Hard lesson to understand. In other words, we don’t need no stinking badges. Jesus is in charge and he is a servant. Philippians 2:7-8 says: he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

If he is a slave, and we serve him, we serve a slave. That makes us slaves of a slave. Servants of a servant. It is like the trustee in charge of a group of prisoners. When it comes down to it, he is still just a prisoner.

We are assistant slaves.

We had trouble with this in our class in seminary. There were eleven of us and at least three wanted desperately to be “in charge.” As it turned out no one was. And that was the best way.

The apostles figured this out after a while. At least I guess they did. I do not believe Jesus would pick people he thought were stupid. He figured they had the mental ability to do it.

Peter seemed to come out as a natural leader, both when Jesus was with them and then later also. But never again was the problem of who was in charge brought up. They knew Jesus was. And that was fine with them.