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ADVANCING TO THE STATE OF BLESSED CHILDHOOD
Colossians 3:1-11 / Matthew 18:1-4
February 15, 2008
It
is a familiar and beloved passage that is before us this morning in
Matthew�s gospel � one of our favorites, many of us would claim. This passage brings forth many sentimental and warm feelings as we read it. For, it sets us to thinking about all that is pure and good and magical about childhood.
Indeed, many a sermon on this text has led us back to the childhood years and tugged at our nostalgic heart strings. Many
a sermon has tried to get us to think of the innocence, delight and
simplicity of the childhood years, and to super-impose those ideals on
Christian discipleship. I have to confess that I have wandered down this path before myself with a sermon or two. But I have come to see the error of my way and mean not to repeat it this morning. For, this is no warm and cuddly passage when it is heard aright. It is a challenging and frightening passage � one that reminds us of the high demand involved in following Jesus Christ.
The
fact of the matter is that the disciples don�t know what all they are
unleashing when they ask the question, �who is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven?� For, they do not see the sickness that lies within. We can see their disease. We have evidence of it throughout the gospel narratives. We
know that at least some of the disciples thought of the kingdom in
purely earthly terms; and that these very same disciples were also
obsessed with position and prestige in the kingdom according to earthly
terms. With this question, whether or not
they are consciously aware of it, they seem to be fishing either for
the recipe for executive promotion or for immediate elevation to a
position of power and respect in the coming kingdom. What they get instead is a stern rebuke from the Lord about the state of their faith, and a fierce call to grow up.
�Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.�
All is not well with you, Jesus is saying to them first of all. Something is most definitely wrong with you, Jesus is saying to them. The disciples have supposed that they are in � that they are in good standing with the Lord. They take it for granted that the kingdom is theirs. �Who is the greatest in the kingdom?� is grounded in the arrogance of presumption. They assume that they are in. They just want to know which one of them will have the highest position of honor in the coming kingdom. Jesus bursts that bubble immediately. Unless you change the way you are right now, you will never even enter the kingdom, he tells them.
Now, this is as much a shock to us as it was to them. We have assumed about the disciples what they have assumed about themselves � that they are alright as they are. Oh, we know they�re not perfect. But surely they are good enough. Surely they are in. I mean, these are Jesus� disciples for crying out loud! These are the men who said �yes� at the very start when Jesus came calling! These are the people who lived with Jesus, and ate with Jesus, and learned from Jesus, and served alongside Jesus! How could they not be in good standing with the Lord?
For Jesus to say this shakes us up. It upsets all our nice little theological doctrines about sin and salvation and security. How could they be in danger of not entering the kingdom of heaven?
Let me say here that I can�t solve the dilemma finally. Further, let me say that I don�t want to solve it. These are the words of the Lord Christ. And the Son of God is not to be trifled with. And Jesus was always using such words to upset settled and comfortable dogma. Remember some of those words with me for a moment.
- We
talk all the time about the grace of the gospel � how we are forgiven
our sins not on account of anything we have done, or can do, but simply
because God has chosen to forgive us. Our forgiveness is unconditional, we say. But
then there is Jesus, in various places in the gospels, telling us that
if we don�t forgive others their sins, God will not forgive us our sins. (It�s there in the last verses of chapter 18 in Matthew�s gospel.)
- He is the �prince of peace,� we love to say as we ponder his teachings of love and reconciliation. But then Jesus says he didn�t come to bring peace but a sword � that he didn�t come to unite but to divide.
- He is the good son, the �family first guy� if ever there was one, we assume. But Jesus disowned familial relationship in favor of faithful following. When, for instance, he was told that his family was looking for him once, Jesus replied: Who are my mother and siblings but those who do the will of God? And
further, with very strong language, Jesus said that those who did not
put him above family were not worthy of following him (the disciples
must �hate� father, mother and siblings for his sake; the good son
could not delay in following Jesus for the sake of burying his dead
father � Jesus told him to �let the dead bury the dead�)
There are these words. And then there are these others that hit home with what we are talking about this morning. We assume that those who do the works of God, who minister alongside the savior, are his favored ones. We assume the disciples are in. But then there are these hard words that suggest otherwise.
�Not
everyone who says, �Lord, Lord� will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On
that day many will say to me, �Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your
name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in
your name?� Then I will declare to them, �I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.��
Let the one who wants to tame Jesus� words in the passage before us proceed with extreme caution, if he dare proceed at all. I can�t and won�t solve the dilemma. Salvation is God�s business. And he doesn�t have to square anything with our human doctrines.
Now, let me go on to say one thing I think we can safely take from Jesus words here. Whatever else he is saying, he is most definitely saying to these disciples that they are not finished products. They are not complete in the faith. They are still in need of conversion. They
have assumed that they have come to the point where they may inquire
about which one of them will be the greatest in the kingdom. But the fact of the matter is that they are still dealing with the elementary matters of the faith.
Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven in the first place.
In sum, whatever else Jesus is doing here, he is doing this. He is rebuking the disciples for thinking they have arrived. He is saying that they are, rather, in need of much further conversion. He is also naming the sin they need to repent of. It is the sin of self possession.
As we have said, their question revealed the true condition of their hearts. To put it simply, they want to be big shots in the coming kingdom; which means, they are still very much possessed of self.
That
Jesus is after this sin is made manifest not only by the words he
speaks, but by the prophetic action he takes before speaking them. He calls a child to come and stand in the middle of the group. He wants to make sure the disciples get the point when he tells them they must become like little children. And what a point it is! He is calling them to utter humility and self-denial. He is reminding them that life in the kingdom requires such selflessness. And he could have made this point with no greater prop than a child.
We miss the scandal that stands behind this act. We do because children and childhood have been so sentimentalized and idealized in our age. Children today are all cute and precious and innocent. We
parents and grandparents fawn all over our children today, going to
great lengths to provide for their every need and to make sure that
they don�t take any rough falls. Children and childhood have been elevated to a high and mighty status in our day. So, to hear Jesus� words in our day is no great shock to us. We gladly embrace them! Indeed, many in the world, well into their thirties and forties and fifties, are trying to be like children. Our
great problem today is not that we don�t want to be child-like (as that
is defined today); it is that we don�t want to grow up. We don�t want to ever quit being children.
The child in Jesus� day did not enjoy the status he enjoys in our day. The Jewish people certainly considered children to be a blessing. But they thought of children in much smaller, less sentimental terms than we do today. Children were viewed as having no viable status apart from the family. They belonged to their parents and were to be completely obedient and subservient to them - especially to the father. The father exercised all rights over the children and dictated their lives, including arranging their marriages. There are even places in the Bible which demonstrate that children were handled as so much of the father�s personal property.
For
Jesus to put a child in front of them and tell the disciples to become
like children was, then, for him to call the disciples to be one of the
least of the least in the world at that time. It was a call to utter insignificance. It was a bracing word. It was a most unattractive proposition.
The disciples could not have missed the point, as we so often do in our day. The call was, to put it in other of Jesus� word, a call to deny the self completely.
Jesus was always calling his disciples to self-denial. That he was, I believe, is evidence that this is an essential aspect of the life of faith. And it is, when we think about it � for it is self-possession that gets in the way of faithful Christian living time and again.
What causes us to gossip, or to dominate conversations, or to speak badly of others frequently? Is it not a heart bent on asserting the self over others? What keeps us so often from giving the tithe that belongs to God? Is it not our putting our own wants and whims first? What keeps us from extending ourselves sacrificially on behalf of another? Is it not self-preservation or self-comfort? What causes us to fall to adultery or gluttony or drunkenness or other fleshly sins? Is it not self-indulgence? What lies behind so many of the fights that take place in the home, school, work place or even the church? Is it not a fierce and unrelenting self-promotion? What lies behind the ugly incivility that colors so much of our social engagement in this day? Is it not a rampant self-centeredness?
Consider this one, especially. What keeps us from forgiving those who do us wrong? That
is to say, what makes for divorces, and for long-term ruptures between
parents and children, and for long-simmering feuds between neighbors,
and for lapsed church membership, and for centuries-long conflict
between nations, and for a million other such troubles? Is it not a prideful sense of self that will not give up playing the aggrieved party? It
is no accident that the teaching that follows this teaching about
becoming child-like in this chapter of Matthew�s gospel is a long
teaching on the need to forgive others. Self-possession is at the heart of the entirety of this chapter. It is the selfless one who can, who will, forgive others the wrong they do them. It is the selfless one who cares not a thing about position and prestige and power, but only wants to serve others. It is the selfless one, then, who is like her Lord Jesus.
Killing the self is one of the primary works of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. It was what Jesus was up to with the disciples that day. It is what he is up to with the disciples of this day, too.
How do we disciples in this day hear this passage, then? Hopefully, I have been faithful in helping you to hear it aright. If I have, then there are two places where we are challenged.
First, are we continuing to let God mold and shape and change us? Are we continuing to let the Holy Spirit convert us? Have we forgotten that the life of faith is a life of continual change � of constant conversion? Spiritual arrogance is much easier to fall to than we realize. We spend so much time comparing ourselves to others in this excessively self-conscious day of ours. And
it is so easy to find someone else who seems less spiritually fit than
we are, and to conclude from this sideways gaze that we�re pretty good
Christians. Have we developed such an attitude? Let us remember this morning that the life of faith is a life of never-ending change. Let us remember that our lives here on earth are taken up each and every day with our conversion to the ways of Christ.
Second, let us consider how the Spirit is trying to deal with our self-possession. Notice that I am assuming we all are self-possessed. That may seem an outrageous thing for me to do. But I believe it is true. For,
we in this day are not only dealing with our natural proclivity to
self-possession, we are dealing with a whole culture that is
self-seeking, self-promoting, self-centered, self-absorbed. Ours is one of the most self-possessed generations in all of human history. If you live in this age you can�t help but be tempted to gross self-indulgence of every sort.
So, yes, I assume that all of us need to consider how the Spirit of God is trying to kill the self that is in us. And, much more, we need to let the Spirit have his way with us. uWe all need to hear anew the words of our Lord, and to hear them as he meant them. We all need to turn and become like children more and more.
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