Friday, September 10, 2010
The disciples asked Jesus, "Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
He called a little child and set him in their midst, and said, "Unless you change, and become like little children, there is no way for you to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such little child in my name, receives me. But whoever leads astray one of these little ones who believe on me, he would be better off if a huge stone were hung on his neck and he were sunk in the sea."
Christ takes the opportunity to make three statements, using a child as the center of his teaching. First, he states that we must become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven in the first place. Our personal faith is to be simple and direct, with total trust and humility. He had previously said that "many who are last, will be first", meaning people who occupy a low status in society will be found high in righteousness. Here, he extends that lesson to our pride and self-importance. Our vanity and self-importance, faults we all have, must be discarded. To find God, we must find humility.
He then answers the question asked ("Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven"): The person who humbles himself the most. This always gives me great pause. It isn't the person with the most clever interpretation of the Bible, or the person who prevails in an argument about church politics, or the person with the most angry or trenchant criticism of modern-day evils. It is the person with the most humility. God is not impressed by our worldly successes. What he wants is a simple, true faith.
Finally, Christ turns his attention away from using the child as a metaphor, and has something to say about actual children. He condemns people who lead children astray and blesses those who "receive" them. A person who leads a child away from his belief in God, and into sin, would be better off in the middle of the ocean with a millstone tied to his neck.
Language note: "Receive" is an old-fashioned word, not really used much in modern English except in very formal or special contexts. Mostly, it is now used in the noun form, "reception", like a wedding reception, a reception after a performance or ceremony, etc. It mean to welcome and interact personally with someone, to treat them like an important human being, especially when there is some reason we might not do so: We are the center of attention in a large group or in public, we have very high social status, we are at home or in some other personal space, etc.
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