Today's Scripture Reading (January 10, 2024): Matthew 18
The disciples come to
Jesus with a question: Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? But the
question is a little more pointed than even that. It is really "Which one
of us is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" It is like your children
coming to you and asking, "Which of us is your favorite? How would you respond?
Jesus offers a profound critique of their very question. He calls a
child, places the child among them, and tells them that unless they change and
become as little children, they will never even enter the kingdom (18:3). If
they are concerned about their status, they have entirely missed the point.
A child in the ancient world was without status or rights, utterly
dependent on the goodwill of others to care for them. Jesus does not tell the
disciples that they should have faith like a little child as if they could
conjure up this kind of faith independently, but that they needed to become
like little children. Jesus further specifies what this means in the following
verse: "Whoever humbles themselves like this little child is the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:4). It is giving up claims to power
and status and knowing one's total dependence on God counts as greatness in the
kingdom of heaven.
However, that just isn't the answer we are looking for. We don't want to
know that to become the greatest, all we have to do is give up on the idea of
being the greatest. That doesn't even make sense. And, sometimes, that is what
makes the Gospel message so hard.
But Jesus takes it one step further in saying, "Whoever welcomes
one such child in my name welcomes me" (Matthew 18:5). Jesus doesn't just
tell his disciples that they need to become like a child; Jesus humbles himself
in identifying with a little child, one without power or status. This is
neither the first nor the last time in Matthew's Gospel that Jesus identifies
with those who are powerless, needy, and marginalized, and he says that our
response to such persons is, in effect, our response to him.
It is a message that we still need to hear because we still seem to
chase status in Jesus's church. We want to be the ones on center stage who sing
the solos or are considered important among our peers. But Jesus makes it clear:
if you want to be important, be willing to be unimportant. If you want to be
great, forget about status and rights. You are a child in the kingdom of your
father, and everything we need depends on him, not on us. It doesn't make
sense, but then again, many things don't make sense in the upside-down kingdom
of our God.
Tomorrow's Scripture
Reading: Luke 10
No comments:
Post a Comment