Daily Bible Reading 14th August 2026 // Luke 9:46-56
46 An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. 47 But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side 48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among all of you is the one who is great.”
49 John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.” 50 But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.”
51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village.
If there were any doubt as to the moral state of the disciples, these verses would certainly dispel it. It is quite something, in view of the events and circumstances leading up to this point - the confession at Caesarea, the Transfiguration of Christ, the casting out of the demon at the foot of the mount, all calculated to impress upon them a sense of awe and solemnity - to see these much-favoured disciples quarrelling among themselves as to which should be greatest. That they should vie with one another, and jockey for position at this point, is surely a sorry commentary on the state of their hearts and the clearest kind of indication as to why they could not cast the demon out. They were, verily, far from being the right kind of people to be casting demons out of any one. There was no kind of greatness about any of them (46), but they had ideas and ambitions about the matter, and our Lord's teaching in these verses is designed to be an answer to them. The point, therefore, about the 'child' illustration (47, 48) is that the way to real greatness is by becoming like a little child - i.e. unless there is this 'coming down', this 'stooping low', this denial of self, this 'dying' process, there can be no entering into the kingdom at all. The other two incidents in this passage are of a piece with the first, for they betray the bigoted and illiberal spirit the disciples expressed and just how far they were from the spirit of Christ. It is impressive, is it not, how chance attitudes serve to expose a whole position and betray a basic and fundamental lack!