One of the curious phrases Jesus uses in scripture is “little ones.” He usually says it when referring to children and the poor. Essentially those who have no power and cannot protect themselves.
Each time, the phrase is used to name those people his disciples are called to emulate or protect. Jesus says we are to be like children and that if someone were to harm any such “little one” then it would be better for them to be thrown into the sea.
For us, this might be another way to access the first/last dynamic. You know, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
As we aren’t called to be the strongest, we also know that God particularly loves the weakest.
In this way, there seems to be a truth for us in knowing the humility of Jesus. And in this sense, to actively cultivate weakness. Not, for example, to make ourselves sick, but to grow our relationships with the “little ones” of our world. That we might love them, or if we are them, that we might be loved.
If we take Jesus seriously, it is hard to deny that the guidance leads us toward being weak rather than strong, toward being the proverbial lover, not the fighter. And to be the one who comes in last rather than first. Because coming in first in the world is the reward here. The people who need the love the most are the ones who get the least of it.
At a time when prominent politicians have tried to cast empathy as sin and strength as righteousness, Jesus’s guidance, to care for the least of these is all the more potent and rebellious.