St. James' Church Bushypark Galway

To be First with God

To be first is a desire in many of us; first in class, first in sport, the favourite in the family, the favourite in the class; to be thought highly of, to be acclaimed. And that was the way with the disciples when they argued about which of them was the greatest.

Maybe they argued about who was Jesus’ favourite, or who was the leader of the group, or who wanted to be seen as the closest to him by those who looked up to Jesus. We like honour and praise, we like prestige and to be looked up to, but the eyes of Jesus fell on a child when he wanted to say something about who was the greatest.

When they all wondered how to be popular in the eyes of God, Jesus took a little child, and told us that when you welcome a child, you welcome God.

To be first in the eyes of God is to be first in service, for the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.