Seeing Through the Eyes of the Excluded

In Mark's Gospel, the disciples are arguing about who among them is the greatest.  In response, Jesus places before them a little child, and tells them that in order to be first, we must seek to be the last, and the servant of all.

As a starting point, since Jesus is using a little child as an illustration, we first must understand the perception and role of children in the ancient Near East.  Here, we encounter an enormous disconnect with our own cultural understanding of children.  We place a high value upon children and have a largely positive understanding of children.  We associate positive values like innocence, faith, and purity with children.

The ancient Near East had a very different understanding of children.  Children were seen in a very negative light.  In particular, children were kept out of significant public and private events.  Children were seen as the outcast, who was, at best, excluded, and at worst, used as a scapegoat when things went wrong.  The only time, in fact, that children were noticed was when they were punished publicly for doing something wrong. 
We can think of lots of contemporary equivalents to this ancient perception of children; those who are excluded as outcasts and scapegoated for anything that goes wrong. 

The disciples would have been shocked when Jesus brought a child into the conversation about who was the greatest.  They would have been even more shocked when Jesus told them that whoever welcomes a child welcomes him, and the One who sent him.  Jesus is, literally, telling his listeners that the greatest among them will see the presence of God in the excluded and the outcast.  Accordingly, the excluded and outcast can no longer be excluded and outcast if we perceive the presence of God within them.  Jesus' statements have enormous implications for how we must reorder not only our cultural understandings of the excluded and outcasts, but our collective political and social relationships.

The Church, at best, gives the outcast a bag of groceries and wishes them well.  The Church is called to do much more than that.  The Church is called to stand in the place of the outcast, and to see the very presence of God in the outcast.