Little Children and True Greatness

Reading: Matthew 18.1-14

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All of us have noticed how the Moon seems large at the horizon, but looks smaller as it rises in the sky. Some of us have heard the earlier theories about refraction through more of the atmosphere at the horizon giving an enlarged image. But it is not so! Careful measurement has shown that the optical angle at which we view the Moon from the Earth is the same at the horizon as high in the sky. It only appears bigger at the horizon because of other objects with which we can compare it.

Quite a number of people in society have the ambition to rise to the top. Some make it well, others seem smaller, meaner, the higher they rise! Perhaps it is that the higher up the ladder they climb the fewer there are alongside for comparison. Or is it that their smallness is real, not just apparent?

In any case, what rises to the top? Cream? Scum? Slag? A lot of people are determined to rise one way or another!

Who is the Greatest?

The disciples of Jesus were not free of this sort of ambition. To a certain extent the call to follow Jesus was what we would call their “lucky break” – an opportunity to rise which had not been available to any of them up to this point in their lives. And it is not simply in today’s reading that the question of their personal greatness is raised. We find it continuing on as part of their great misunderstanding of what the mission of Jesus and the Kingdom of God are all about.

So Jesus calls a child, stands him in the middle and says, “I assure you that unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.”

What a stunning, shocking statement! Here we are, the ones who have heard his call and are following him, the ones to whom he has been at some pains to explain the mysteries of the Kingdom, the ones he sent out two-by-two with the message of the Kingdom – and, yes, we saw people healed on that occasion – at our own hands.

And now Jesus is saying that we mightn’t even make it! Here we thought we were becoming wise ones, superior in the things of the Kingdom, deserving of some of the best places!

The greatest in the Kingdom of heaven is the one who humbles himself and becomes like this child.”

Paul, in his hymn of love, says that, as a adult, he “has no more use for childish ways” (1 Cor. 13.11). But Jesus is talking about childlikeness, not childishness.

I think of a grand-daughter in the early stages of walking. Sometimes, when the adults were expecting her to practise her new skill, she would stand still, holding her hands up – she wanted to be picked up! That’s normal behaviour for a one-year-old, but if that expectation is still there in ten years’ time, we would call it “childish” behaviour – and a cause for some concern.

But there are “childlike” qualities we should never outgrow. Inabilities should go, but humility remain. Crying in self-pity should go, but sensitivity remain. Demands on others should go, but trust remain...

We become Christians by trusting Jesus as our Saviour and Lord. We continue the Christian life with humility and trust.

A Welcome or a Cause of Stumbling

Verse 5 is best taken with the verses that follow. “Whoever welcomes in my name. one such child as this, welcomes me.”

Jesus, we notice, has a direct and graphic view of Hell. He speaks of something worse than mere annihilation. When he speaks of cutting off hand or foot or eye, he isn’t actually commending physical self-mutilation – though there are those in church history who have done so. Rather, he is warning of the serious consequences of hell-fire. In practice, there may be, for us, commitments, relationships, favoured literature or TV programmes, organisations or activities, attitudes and actions... that are incompatible with our commitment to Christ. These must go – it is a serious matter that they do.

If children have the essential Kingdom qualities of humility and trust, how are you going to treat them? Welcome them in my name? or cause them to lose their faith in me?

The Lost Sheep

Here he tells it against the backdrop of his concern for the little ones. “Don’t despise them,” he says. He hasn’t just said that true greatness depends on being like little children – as if they were just a good illustration to make a point – these children themselves are important. Don’t despise them – “their angels in heaven, I tell you, are always in the presence of my Father in heaven.”

In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of the lost sheep in the context of an audience which includes both Pharisees and tax-collectors – and follows it with the stories of the lost coin and the lost son.

One writer comments, “Persons of no apparent influence or importance are important to God and are under his constant care, and they will be important to anyone who follows Jesus and shares his mind. They have direct access to God; angels in heaven individually represent each of these little ones... That these angels have direct access to God (see his face) means that God always knows the plight of his little ones, cares for them, and will vindicate them if they are despised or ill-treated. This reference to such angels expresses God’s constant awareness of the needs of all his people, and his prompt action to protect and bless them when they need his help” (Filson p.200).

The Psalmist wrote about the Lord,

The Lord is my shepherd;
I have everything I need.
He lets me rest in fields of green grass
and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water.
He gives me new strength.
He guides me in the right paths, as he has promised.
Even if I go through the deepest darkness
I will not be afraid, Lord,
for you are with me.
Your shepherd’s rod and staff protect me.
You prepare a banquet for me, where all my enemies can see me;
you welcome me as an honoured guest and fill my cup to the brim.
I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life;
and your house will be my home as long as I live. (Ps. 23, GNB)

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, who is willing to die for the sheep...” (Jn 10.l1). The Father doesn’t want any of these little ones to be lost. As they grow, they will have their own choices to make, but you take good care of them!

Somehow, in the pressure to make a name for ourselves, to please ourselves, to do our own thing, we get lost – separated from God. Therein lies danger, not just for ourselves, but for the little ones too.

Someone has expressed it in a poem like this –

It was a sheep – not a lamb, that strayed away,
In the parable Jesus told:
A grown-up sheep that had gone astray
From the ninety and nine in the fold.
Out in the meadows, out in the cold,
'Twas a sheep the good Shepherd sought.
Back to the flock and into the fold,
'Twas a sheep the good Shepherd brought.

And why for the sheep, should we earnestly long,
And so earnestly hope and pray?
Because there is danger, if they go wrong,
They will lead the young lambs away.
For the lambs follow the sheep, you know,
Wherever the sheep may stray;
If the sheep go wrong, it will not be long
Till the lambs are as wrong as they.

So with the sheep we earnestly plead,
For the sake of the lambs today.
If the lambs are lost, what a terrible cost,
Some sheep may have to pay!

It’s time to reconnect with God! to “seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near” (Is. 55.6, KJV)! to humble ourselves and trust Jesus as our Saviour and Lord! not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the little ones and all the coming generations too!

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© Peter J Blackburn, Buderim Uniting Church, 21 April 1996

Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Good News Bible, © American Bible Society, 1992.