Luke 18:15-17
Jesus Loves Nobodies

People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

New International Version

Those of us who grew up in Sunday School classes too many decades ago remember singing loudly and joyfully the song "Jesus Loves the Little Children". We treasure the compassion Jesus expressed as he scooped the little ones to his lap--of course Jesus loved children, and he spent his precious time to express that love.

Everyone is expected to love children in our time, and anyone who does not is labeled a "scrooge". Cultures were different two millennia ago, and an expressed love for children was not a common virtue among adult men. The wealthy and powerful had servants to attend to the myriad of children. For the poor, children might one day become cheap labor. Children were of little consequence; a child was a "nobody". So was a woman, especially a widow. A slave was an economic asset, also a nobody. In Israel, Gentiles were nobodies. Rabbis should only focus on the "somebodies", and never on children, women, slaves, or foreigners.

We don't get the same surprise as did Jesus' contemporaries upon hearing how Jesus blessed the children, worked miracles for widows and foreigners, and had heart-to-heart talks with women. Jesus ignored and even violated the Hebrew traditions handed down through the generations. These were no mere social standards and manners--these traditions were rooted in the books of Moses! To the Jewish traditionalist, there was a hierarchy of how human life was to be valued, but Jesus chose to value the nobodies at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Jesus taught us that it is easier for a nobody to get into heaven than it is for a somebody. The somebodies have many earthly rewards, which may include wealth, fame, and attention. Everybody enjoys being admired, praised, even adored by other people, and our craving for the affirmation of others will divert us from seeking God's approval. Nobodies are ignored by people, but never ignored by Jesus.

Jesus taught us that each nobody is a precious being, not a classification or a label. "Adulteress!" the Pharisees screamed, and Jesus saw the woman who was ready to be changed inside. "Samaritan!" the disciples gasped, and Jesus saw the woman's pattern of destructive behavior that was ready to be broken. "Foreigner!" the faithful Jews exclaimed, and Jesus saw a greater measure of faith in God in the soul of a Caananite woman. "Blasphemer!" the crowds cried, but Jesus rose from the dead.

Jesus taught us that God is among the nobodies. It is impossible to miss the nobodies in Matthew 25:31-46, for when we show love to the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick, or the imprisoned, we have given our love to God.

Jesus taught us to aspire to be a nobody. We are to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. Mark 8:35 continues this teaching with the warning that the only way to save our lives is to lose our lives for Jesus's sake. Anything that might qualify us as a somebody can also separate us from God. We must think and act like a nobody, casting off those things that would tempt us to think as if we were somebody.

When we stop thinking like aspiring somebodies, we stop thinking about other people in terms of how they can help us, and we start thinking about them as individual dwelling places for God. We stop thinking of possessions as achievements and measures of success, and we start thinking about them as a means to the mission to which we have been called. We stop thinking of our own importance and worth, and we start thinking of how God gives us immeasurable value, for Jesus loves nobodies!