To emphasize His own vision of leadership, Jesus give His disciples the example of paying attention to a child. In ancient cultures, children were the least important of people. People had children to serve them and provide financial security in their elder years. And they had many children because the mortality rate for children under 16 was around 50%. Childhood was a precarious time in the ancient world. To serve someone as lowly as a child took an act of extreme humility. It is not they only time in the Gospel of St. Mark where the disciples are taken aback by Jesus’ insistence that loving, protective concern for children is a key pillar in His social programme. The received notions of hierarchy and power are reversed. The first becomes the last – a person with no status at all is suddenly given top priority. The disciples have seen the mighty power of Jesus at work and they believe He is the Christ, and yet here He is emphasizing His concern for little children, who are on the lowest rank of the social ladder, devoid of status, power and rights. The disciples must stop quibbling over who is the most important among them, because old hierarchical ideas are no longer important. Jesus uses the small child as a benchmark of leadership. Whoever welcomes one like a child welcomes Christ himself. The main priority now is to put themselves at the service of others.
Yet isn’t it too easy to sweep the concerns of children and other vulnerable people off our agendas? Who today is the “child†of whom Jesus spoke? Whom are Christians supposed to serve? The follower of Jesus is called to respect the rights of all children and this means helping those internationally who are denied water, food, adequate shelter and peace. It also means discerning who are the vulnerable young people in our own society – perhaps those from low-income homes or those denied the education and the employment that they would like to choose in life. And the Christian is called to show hospitality and respect to all those who have low social status: the social outcast, the sinner, those who are sick and vulnerable. It takes wisdom and a generosity of heart to discern how one can serve these different groups. Jesus makes clear that leadership should mean serving everybody, not just an elite, and esteeming those that society regards as unimportant. Like the disciples we are very success-oriented, and we measure success in terms of comparing ourselves with others. Jesus challenges us today to develop childlike qualities of energy, trust, hope, and a love of cooperating with one another. Whether we are 9 years old or 99, the message of Jesus also challenges us all to become young at heart and to love and to nurture our young people.