When Jesus instructs us to love our enemies and be a servant to all, doesn’t that just give other people license to take advantage of and even abuse us? I thought Christians were supposed to fight injustice, not acquiesce to it?
In Mark 9:30-37 Jesus recognizes that his disciples are afraid about Jesus’ fate…and their fear has made them insecure…and their insecurity has led to a shallow argument about “Who is the greatest” among them. So Jesus looks to comfort them in their insecurity and he does this by bringing a small child in front of them and giving the little toddler a sincere embrace. What does he mean to teach with this action?
In the original ancient Greek of the Gospels there are three words for power. The first indicates physical energy: strength, health and muscle. The second means dynamism or vigor, like the energetic and vibrant power of a good salesman. But when the Gospels speak of Jesus as "having great power", they use a third word, “exousia,” which is best translated as “vulnerability.” Jesus' real power was rooted in his ability and decision to be vulnerable… like the powerlessness of a child.
Jesus is inviting us to imagine the kind of world it would be if rather than exerting our power through physical strength or verve we embraced our own and others vulnerability and exercised our power not through selling ourselves and our accomplishments but through loving service and being gentle with one another….not by collecting powerful friends but by welcoming the weak and small in the world.
This is a very counter-cultural idea. We are taught to value competition and to glamorize success. One of our most basic assumptions is that we all have an unbridled right to pursue our own self-interest, and that doing so successfully (and often defeating others in the process) is what makes us powerful and secure in our own happiness. If you ask a little boy “What is power?” he will take a strong, stern stance, and puff out his chest with “conquer” in his eyes, right? Jesus is telling us this is NOT the kind of power that is “of God.”
A toddler is someone who entirely lacks any accomplishments, status, or pretensions.
During Jesus’ time children were considered insignificant liabilities because they weren’t productive members of the household and were completely dependent on others. They were the picture of smallness. So when Jesus embraces the little child who represents utter vulnerability he teaching the disciples something about God. He is in effect saying our worthiness has no prerequisites, because this is how God welcomes us too…and THIS is the power of God. We need not vie for power or position, because we are not loved for what we DO but for who we ARE; beloved, unique, treasured children of God.
So, Jesus isn’t asking us to be doe-eyed doormats that other people can take advantage of rather he wants to birth a community where everyone relinquishes the calculating and manipulative tendencies born of fear so that the pecking order and the relationships of superiority and inferiority, are abolished altogether.
Brene Brown says “We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable selves to be deeply seen and known….when we stop judging and offer trust, respect, and kindness to one another. Love is something that we work very hard to grow. “ Jesus taught that this unconditional love and vulnerability is the power of God; the ONLY power that can ever bring about true and lasting change in our troubled world…but, without a doubt, it is some hard, dangerous work, as the cross displays.
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