Thursday, November 20, 2008
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Like a Little Child
I'm not sure if you are aware of it or not, but today is the United Nations International Day of the Child. This is a day where we are encouraged to focus on the rights and welfare of children around the world. That is certainly important and needful in all places in the world, but I thought that we were supposed to focus on that every day! I guess I feel the same way about Mother's Day and Father's Day and the fact that we should think about Jesus more often than just at Christmas and Easter too! Why restrict our love and attention to one day out of the year?
So, I encourage you to show love and attention to a child today, but also tomorrow and the next day. Maybe your own and maybe just a child that you know. While we are at it, don't stop with children, why not do the same for our friends, spouses, co-workers, parents, and any one else that we meet today and tomorrow and beyond that? Finally, love God today and every day until we are together forever — and then it will be even better! When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind," but went on to say that there was a second equally important command, in Leviticus 19:18: "Love your neighbor [whether man, woman, or child] as yourself."
This Pharisee had asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was and Jesus said it was to love God and others. The disciples at one point asked Jesus a similar "greatest" question, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" (Matthew 18:1), a question that they asked on more than one occasion, probably because they were concerned with being first or best. Jesus called a little child and had him stand in the middle of the circle of disciples 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. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me" (Matthew 18:3-5).
What I love about this is all of the stuff that Jesus does not say. Unlike so many sermons I have heard on this passage, Jesus does not explain what he means. He keeps it simple. And we should too. Yes, there is the fact that children love without reservation and are forgiving to a fault and tend not to hold grudges and have a great capacity for faith. Those things are all true, but if Jesus had wanted to highlight any of that, don't we think that he would have, either immediately when he was making his point or later in a more detailed explanation to his disciples? No, he simply invites a child to come and stand in the middle. And the child comes.
What was Jesus saying. He invited this child to come. And he came. Unless we become like that, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven, which is to say, the reign of God. If you are a believer, Jesus invited you to come in some way, and you came. That is the way, the only way to come into the kingdom of heaven. As a response to an invitation from God. But it would appear that this is not just a one time event, Jesus wants to let all of his disciples know that he will continue to invite them further into the kingdom of heaven, further into the reign of God, but unless we change and become like little children who simply come because they have been invited, we will not enter. It is all about humility it would seem. Is that not what Jesus says? Whoever humbles himself like this child — and yes, he was still talking about the one that he invited into the circle and who came — is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
I wonder whether or not in our very adult quest to distinguish ourselves in the faith and the kingdom of heaven, we have like the Pharisees of Jesus' day, overcomplicated things and made it difficult not only for ourselves but for everyone to enter the kingdom. The kingdom of God is not like that. It is more simple than we think. Jesus says come and we come. Jesus says here and we take. Jesus says what do you want, ask. Simple. That is the way that he welcomes us into his kingdom and his reign and control. And it is the way that we are to welcome others as well. Simply.
Oh, and by the way, when God came into the world to show us the way, how was it that he came? You guessed it, as a little child! And, even as he grew and matured, and to the very end of his life, how was it that he continued to view himself? You guessed it, not as an adult first of all, but as the son of a Father!
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