Luke 9:46-48 :

There arose an argument among them about which of them was the greatest. Jesus, perceiving the reasoning of their hearts, took a little child, and set him by his side, and said to them, “Whoever receives this little child in my name receives me. Whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For whoever is least among you all, this one will be great.”

Notice that Jesus could perceive “the reasoning in their hearts.” This is not something that we can do as humans, although some believe they can. I tend to believe that those people who say they can, are trying to excuse the judgmental nature of their flesh as they attempt to show superiority over others. Only Jesus can really perceive our hearts and we should learn to be humble and take the position of a servant like He does.

This truth that Jesus provides is very simple on the outside. He claims that if you want to be great, then you should serve the most needy people. Children are very needy because they cannot possibly live on their own. They depend on more mature people to help them to survive. Jesus says that the greatest people will be those who take care of the poorest people.

When a couple decides to have a family, they are obviously doing a very good thing because they are choosing to take care of a future generation when that generation is vulnerable. Our parents performed a great service to us when they took care of us when we were weak and unable to care for ourselves. Taking care of children is difficult and it takes a lot of energy from you. Some people decide that having a career is more important but Jesus states that taking care of children is the work of those who are truly important because when you do it in Jesus name you are actually taking care of Jesus.

The poorest children in the world are those who are so dependent that they cannot yet be born. They could be considered the very least of the least. What a tragedy it is when people decide to kill these children. When you take care of this child, you will be taking care of Jesus. It is logical to extrapolate that if you don’t take care of the child but kill it instead, that it is as if, in God’s eyes, you were to kill Jesus Himself. As I have said before, we are all responsible for Jesus death because we have all sinned and have been forgiven by God through that death. If we wouldn’t have sinned Jesus wouldn’t have had to die, but it was God’s plan to save us all; even those who murder.

I heard the President of the United States say that he would not like an unwanted pregnancy to ruin a young person’s life but there is an even younger person involved in the case of abortion. Why not teach the older to take responsibility for the younger instead? How could encouraging a young person to commit murder for convenience help their future or anyone’s for that matter? Even the President of the United States is dependent on the forgiveness of God, just like we are.

Jesus makes it clear that if we want to be important, we need to serve those who are seen by others as unimportant and God will notice.