A LITTLE CHILD IN THE MIDST
Gary M Chellberg
Mark 9: 33-37
I have been thinking a little bit about the fact that, Lord willing, there will be a little child set in the midst shortly in this locality; I was thinking of the importance of each one of us in relation to a little child. I was struck earlier in the week with the fact that the Lord takes the little child and sets it in the midst. If you can imagine a circle of brethren, which is what this is a picture of, the Lord is in the very centre of that. I was struck that it does not say that He just picked up this little child, or took a little child - the other accounts give different information - but rather He sets it in their midst. I was struck with the fact that the child is in the exact same relationship to every person in that room. The twelve disciples and the Lord were all equidistant from the little child. It shows that what He was doing by this act was to affect each one in that circle in the same way, with the same importance. He is using this as an example to help them to understand their relationship with the Lord, and how they are to behave in relation to Him. That is something that each one of us, brothers and sisters, need to be exercised about.
The disciples had been arguing on the way who was greatest; that is a common argument in any circle of society in the world we live in. It has even entered into the religious world, and it is sad and sobering to see that. I have heard of some pastors asking one another, ‘How many have you saved? And how many have you saved?’ and so on. That whole idea takes away from the glory of the Lord. Here, the Lord brings them back to the very basics, by bringing this little child and setting it in the midst. He says, in another account, “for the kingdom of the heavens is of such”, Matt 19: 14. Everything of what the Lord was trying to accomplish, and demonstrate, and show in the world was to be marked by this character. It is not a question of who is the biggest and the greatest, the smartest and the fastest, and all these things. The Lord is saying, ‘I want to take you back to what is important’. He uses this very simple way for each one of us to understand. He takes this little child into His arms and says to them, “Whosoever shall receive one of such little children in my name, receives me”, and then, “him who sent me”. If we want to take on any features of Christ, it has to be in that relationship. It is not in relation to what I have done.
We may say, Lord willing, when this little child is added to our locality, that it will not be a question of what I teach this little child, or that I do this or that. Rather, it is that each one of us has a responsibility to bring this little one into nearness to Christ, and from that place they will take on His features. That is really the important point of this; we become what Jesus was looking for when we learn this lesson. And that should be the exercise of each one of us here locally. We prepare for this natural event in different ways - some have painted rooms, bought clothing, car seats etc. These are practical preparations, but they are not the most important form of preparation; this is. The Lord Jesus takes this little child into His arms in this account, and He brings out this wonderful teaching that He is trying to get across to His disciples. They had been missing the point; they had been looking at what they had done, up to this point. John says, ‘Well, some other people were casting out demons and this is bad; you know, it is competition’ (v 38), but the Lord takes it back to the very basics and says that this is what is important. It is not who is first or greatest; it is all about Him. ‘It is me, Jesus,’ is basically what He says.
As we all prepare spiritually for this event, as to what we can pass on, it is not just to the little one to be born, it has to do with every young believer - first of all in our locality, and others we break bread with, and then, in the bigger sense of the word, all in the Christian fellowship, all of God’s people. We should always have an exercise to be prepared to bring out features of Him, of the Lord Jesus. That is where the blessing comes in. When He returns He will find persons like this. In the account in Matthew 19: 14: “for the kingdom of the heavens is of such”. He connects it with the highest power and authority. This little child is to be connected with that kind of authority, the same authority that the Lord Jesus speaks of in the end of Matthew where He says, “All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth”, Matt 28: 18. I have always liked that statement that He uses: “All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth”. There is no asterisk, no footnote; it is total power, total authority. That is the kingdom of the heaven. It is the area where God is supreme. Here in this setting they were trying to give themselves a place in their pride. Whatever they were arguing and reasoning about, the Lord obviously knew about it, and when He questions them, it immediately affects their conscience because they were in the presence of One who was infinitely greater than them. As they come into contact with that, all of a sudden, their reasoning becomes very weak. How could you say who is greater? The One who was the greatest was in the midst of them. He does not come in and say, ‘Well let me show you what I know’. What I like about this is that He goes back to the very basics of what the kingdom of the heavens is, and the features that are to come out: simplicity, dependence, lovableness. There are many things that could be said about this little child. The Lord brings the child in and He says, ‘This is what I am talking about; this is what I am trying to further and develop’, and He challenges the disciples in this way.
Then it says, “Whosoever shall receive me, does not receive me, but him who sent me”. The Lord takes it all the way back to the Father. If we receive Him then we receive the Father and then, you could say, we have everything. He brings us into the fullest blessing that He had in mind to speak to these disciples about. He says, ‘If you receive me, you have received Him that has sent me’. It is a wonderful thing that this whole incident opens up, and I just thought in our own minds that we could make practical application of this. In the preparation locally that is going on there is another side to it that is the most important, the spiritual side. You can have all the practical preparations in the world but they are not going to be any good if we cannot bring another person to Christ, and help them to take on the features of this heavenly kingdom, and receive the blessing of not just Him, but of “him who sent me”. There is that side of it. We look at the world and its leaders as they try to combat the current pandemic, and you see the chaos, confusion and the breakdown of what they are doing because they are operating according to the mind of man; we all know where that is going to go. This scripture is the contrast to that. The Lord is saying, ‘You need to prepare; the whole kingdom is going to consist of people like this and this is what you need to be exercised about, not who is greatest and who is this and who is that’. He does not even comment on their argument; He knew what they were thinking about and arguing about.
It is interesting in Genesis that Joseph, as a type of the Lord, has the same problem. He says to his brothers, “Do not quarrel on the way”, Gen 45: 24. You can see the whole scenario opening up. The brothers would say, ‘Well, you did this, and you did that,’ and argue among themselves. Joseph has to step in, as a type of the Lord, saying, ‘No, we do not have time for that; there is something far greater that is coming in and about to be revealed’, and that is, this kingdom which is being established, and which will never end. That is what is important and that is what we need to exercise ourselves with, and be preparing for. As we do that, it is important to remember this feature in the midst of the circle. It is not just family, not just relatives, or the new relationships - it is other localities, we all enter into this, it is in the midst. It is in relation to each one of us. It is important for each one of us to learn this lesson, as it were, and I would encourage us to do this, and also I would encourage us to read the context a little further. I see the importance of it, and I would like to encourage each one of us in this - to prepare, for His Name’s sake.
Word in a Ministry Meeting, Wheaton
12th March 2020