The child in the midst.
Note:
I. That our Lord's lesson lay, not in the humanity, but in the childhood of the child. The disciples had been disputing who should be the greatest, and the Lord wanted to show them that such a dispute had nothing to do with the way things went in His kingdom. Therefore, as a specimen of His subjects, He took a child and set him before them. It was not, it could not, be in virtue of his humanity, it was in virtue of his childhood that this child was thus shown as representing a subject of the Kingdom. It was not to show the scope, but the nature of the Kingdom. He told them they could not enter into the Kingdom save by becoming little children by humbling themselves, for the idea of ruling was excluded where childlikeness was the one essential quality. It was to be no more who should rule, but who should serve; no more who should look down on his fellows from the conquered heights of authority even of sacred authority but who should look up, honouring humanity and ministering unto it, so that humanity itself might be persuaded of its own honour as a temple of the living God.
II. This lesson led to the enunciation of a yet higher truth, upon which it was founded, and from which indeed it sprung. Nothing is required of man that is not first in God. It is because God is perfect that we are required to be perfect; and it is for the revelation of God to all the human souls, that they may be saved by knowing Him, and so becoming like Him, that this child is thus chosen, and set before them in the gospel. It is the recognition of the childhood as Divine, that will show the disciple how vain is the strife after relative place or honour in the great Kingdom.
III. To receive a child in the name of God is to receive God Himself. How to receive Him? As alone He can be received by knowing Him as He is. Here is the argument of highest import, founded upon the teaching of our Master in the utterance before us. God is represented in Jesus, for that God is like Jesus; Jesus is represented in the child, for that Jesus is like the child. Therefore God is represented in the child, for that He is like the child. God is childlike. In the true vision of this fact lies the receiving of God in the child.
G. Macdonald, Unspoken Sermons,p. 1.
References: Mark 9:33-37. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 200. Mark 9:33-50. Expositor,1st series, vol. xi., p. 79; A. Maclaren, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament,p. 37. Mark 9:35-37. D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospel,p. 157. Mark 9:36. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Waterside Mission Sermons,2nd series, No. 11.Mark 9:36; Mark 9:37. J. Keble, Sermons for Saints' Day,p. 77. Mark 9:38. H. P. Liddon, University Sermons,2nd series, p. 165.