What do you want from me?

Question: What do you want from me?
Questioner: Jesus.

Setting: Wednesday night Bible class. 5 high school students and 5 college students sit in a sparsely decorated classroom. The high school students come from extremely low socioeconomic class, the college students all attend a private Christian university. The high school students are at church because the college students pick them up and bring them each week. The college students are freshly bathed, adequately fed, and there as "mentors." The high school students often scramble for meals in their homes and wear the exact same outfit every Wednesday. The discussion leader asks the group to imagine being with Jesus face to face when he asks,

"What do you want from me?"

Answer: A college student, on the verge of graduation and preparing to embark on a 2-year-long missions internship in an unnamed South American country (ahem) ponders the question. Of all the things she could ask Jesus for, she can't seem to narrow it down to just one. Finally, in admitted selfishness, she shares with her small discussion group consisting of 2 high school students and one other college student. "I would want Jesus to tell me it was all going to be okay, that I would be safe, my family would be healthy, my life would pan out in a normal course with no tragedy or bumps in the road."

After the college student's response, a high school student prepares her answer. "Surely her response will be parallel to mine," thinks the college student, "as she faces so much more instability in her daily life."

Then, contradictory to her typically loud and abrasive nature, the high school student timidly says "You know how in the Bible it says that Jesus baptized his disciples? I would want him to baptize me."

"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:1-4