Matthew 18:2-5
My little granddaughter Maddie, is the perfect child. I
don’t mean perfectly well behaved. I mean perfectly well rounded in all the
characteristics of being a child, you know how they say, “When she is good, she
is very, very good, but when she is bad…” But mostly, she is a real cutey!
For one thing, she loves to help out around the house. It makes her feel important. I have found that the simplest little thing that I could easily have done myself brings her great joy to help with. So one day I picked up a hair band, light as a feather, and instead of putting it away myself, I asked Maddie to help me. She was glad to help. She stepped right up and took that hairband and was happy to put it where I showed her it should go. It doesn’t work the same if I just tell her to clean up.
She already likes to set the table for dinner. She can pull the silverware drawer open all by herself and get the forks we need. One fork for each trip to the table until there is one by each plate. Just don’t try to help her help you. You can’t show her a better way or she will think you are taking the whole thing away from her.
She is really good at jumping to conclusions. She is smart and thinking all the time. So if she thinks her mom is taking her out to the park, and then mom goes upstairs to get one more thing, it looks to Maddie like Mom changed her mind about going out and Maddie screams, “No! We havta go out!”
Lately I had a brainstorm that I think might help us to teach her about obedience. I asked her to help me raise her. Maddie can you help me? “Uh huh.” Ok here is what I need help with. There are times when you just need to do what I tell you to do and don’t argue. Can you help me with that? “Uh-huh.” We’ll see if she really understood.
Anyway, my point is, we need to think carefully about what Jesus means when he says that we must become like a little child. In 1 Cor. 13:11, Paul says, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” Is he contradicting Jesus? Of course not.
First of all, it is important to note that Jesus is not telling us that it is okay to be childish. In fact, Luke’s gospel (9:46-47) tells us that an “argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him.” So when Jesus introduced a child into his circle of friends, it was in order to break up a pretty childish debate among the disciples over who was the greatest. Jesus didn’t approve of bickering or selfishness or gossip any more than any of the other writers of scripture. For that matter, I believe that it would be safe to assume that God Himself does not approve of such immaturity among those who claim to follow His lead.
The key here is Jesus saying that we must be willing to change and humble ourselves. In other words, “become like a child.” This, I believe, is the key to the direction in which Christ is pointing. After all, a child, in Jesus’ day, had no status or legal standing. Why do you think Jesus had to tell his disciples, “Let the little children come to me, and hinder them not.” He put a way higher value on the children than anyone else around him did. Even today, a child remains the most helpless of human beings.
Here then, is how to be humble as a child. Children know they are not in charge of the household or even their own schedule. They might emotionally want to be in charge but really they know they are not. They don’t usually think they can do very much. We have to encourage them to try. They accept our guidance and instruction, most of the time, and in the best of their times. But they even accept our guidance and instruction when they don’t really feel like it. They may complain while they do it, but they do it. Or, they may never say thank you for our wisdom, but later we see them living by it. This is a good characteristic for us grown-ups to remember. We are still God’s children. Our heavenly Father knows a whole lot more than we do about the life he has called us to live. He just asks us to trust and obey him, even if we don’t feel like it.
Think of the young lad who gave away his lunch for Jesus to feed 5,000 people. There was no way he thought that what he had would be enough for everyone. I’m sure he figured he had lost his lunch for the cause. Maybe he thought it was Jesus who was hungry. All that is really left to our imagination. What we do know is that the boy was willing to give it all away. He trusted Jesus.
Perhaps you’ve heard this story before, but I remember one in which a young girl had a serious blood disease. She would die without a transfusion and they found that her little six year old brother was a good match. So they tried to explain to him how he could help them save his sister’s life by letting them take his blood.
His eyes grew wide, and then teared up, but he didn’t say anything until finally with a heavy sigh he said, “I’ll do it. If it will save my sister’s life I will do it.”
So they put in the IV and soon his blood was flowing into the transfusion bag. As he lay there watching and thinking, he let the nurse know that he had a question. And he asked her, “How long will it be before I die?”
The nurse said, “Nobody knows that sweety. You’ll be fine.”
But he spoke again and asked, “I mean, how long before you get all my blood? Won’t I be dead then?” Then she remembered how he had said, “If it will save my sister’s life, I’ll do it.” He didn’t understand that they only needed some of his blood. He thought he was going to die for her so she could live! That’s what he agreed to.
Even though it meant he would die, he loved his sister. And he trusted the adults in his life and believed they were only asking him to do what was right. Humble, loving giving, trusting. Good characteristics.
There are other children in the Bible who show us what it means to become like a child. Isaac stands as a good example of a trusting son. The story of him with his father Abraham in Genesis 22:1-14 is often used to illustrate the amazing faith and surrender of Abraham, but Isaac plays an important role here as well. He asks questions, such as, “here is the wood and here is the fire, but where is the lamb?” And when Abraham assures him that, “God will provide the lamb.” Isaac just keeps walking with his father. When Abraham tells him to get on the altar, we read nothing of Isaac’s questioning or rebellion or second guessing. He just trusts and obeys.
The boy Samuel is a good example of what it means to be open and honest. In 1 Samuel 3, we see a boy who is faced with a major decision. Does he tell the truth to the man on whom he is totally dependent, or does he lie and try to smooth things over as best he can? Children, are often so much more able to be open and honest. They can’t yet understand the long term consequences so they don’t usually plot and scheme to try to cover up and smooth things over.
There was no way for Samuel to know exactly how Eli would react to being told that God was planning on wiping out him and his sons, although he did know it was bad news and that it could hurt Eli’s feelings. Brave Samuel rose to the task however. He told an adult authority figure the truth and God honored him for it. What if Samuel had run and hid instead?
Children often speak the truth because they have not learned yet that not everyone wants to hear it. Once when my oldest sin was just a toddler we were walking somewhere, I think across the parking lot to do some shopping. We crossed paths with a man smoking and my little boy blurted out, “Eww, that stinks!” Little Johnny and his family were having Sunday dinner at his Grandmother's house. Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When Little Johnny received his plate, he started eating right away.
"Johnny! Please wait until we say our prayer." said his mother.
"I don't need to," the boy replied.
"Of course, you do." his mother insisted. "We always say a prayer before eating at our house."
"That's at our house." Johnny explained. "But this is Grandma's house and she knows how to cook!"
Children are eager to learn. They know they don’t know it all. Could there be any better example of someone eager to learn than Solomon? Now I know that he wasn’t really a child when he became king, but in 1 Kings 3:4-12, he says that he is a child when it comes to knowledge and understanding. He recognizes his ignorance and helplessness in the face of a very daunting task, trying to fill his father’s shoes and hold the twelve tribes of Israel together as a nation. Solomon said, “I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?” May we always, like Solomon, remember how much we have yet to learn, and always ask God for wisdom, the way a child likes to learn.
Children are eager to please the people around them. They usually want to do what is right. Joash in 2 Kings 11 & 12 comes to mind as an example of a child who was eager to please. Why wouldn’t he be? He had a lot to be grateful for! His grandmother had killed the rest of his family. That’s not what he was grateful for. He was grateful for protection! He was hidden in the temple in the care of the priests and one nurse. Every day served as a reminder of just how fortunate he was to even be alive. Joash was seven years old when he began to reign. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
Joash truly was a child and faced with the task of leading men. He was totally dependent on the priest Jehoiada for the wisdom and knowledge that he had not yet obtained by the age of seven. He gave his name to a lot of good projects. The temple was repaired and, as long as Jehoiada was his influence, the people of Judah were led on a right path and seemed to be happy to be doing so.
Most children are fairly adaptable. They can bend and flex to adjust to new situations over which they often have no control. Joseph is a good example of someone possessing the kind of adaptability that enabled him to rise to the top no matter the situation. You know the story, sold into slavery, he becomes the head of the house, betrayed by a woman and sent to jail, he becomes the chief steward of the prison, forgotten by all he had helped, nevertheless the day came when he rose to become the second in command to Pharaoh, with God’s blessing!
In all these situations, Joseph was faced with a choice. He could have been embittered and angry which could have led him to be inflexible and uncooperative and probably died as a result. But instead he chose to let his good character shine forth. In every situation, he was rewarded because he was willing to adapt and adjust to the new circumstances that the Lord put in his path.
“Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This is a matter of salvation. The characteristics we have been talking about are usually going to result in good behavior, but the salvation point is this. Pride will cause you to think you know enough about God that you don’t have to read the Bible anymore. Pride will cause you to be stubborn about your own views in a matter. It also leads to hedging the truth about yourself with a mask of outward appearances. Pride will cause you to think that you are all grown up and can take care of yourself, as in be good enough to get to heaven without depending on Jesus.
Always be open to his instruction, willing to obey, trusting in his wisdom, hopeful enough about the future to stay positive and adaptable in every situation, depending upon the Holy Spirit to lead you. Trust him now, today, discipleship is a life long journey of learning and growing. See yourself as a child who still has far to go, a lot to learn, and in need of a supportive family.
Trust in Jesus to get you through life the way a little child trusts in his father to get him across a busy street. Then, when it comes to crossing the river Jordan, to use the old metaphor about facing death, you are not going to make it if you go it alone like a strong, worldly mature adult would naturally want to do. Put your hand in the hand of the man who can save you. Become like a child whose Father is God.
For one thing, she loves to help out around the house. It makes her feel important. I have found that the simplest little thing that I could easily have done myself brings her great joy to help with. So one day I picked up a hair band, light as a feather, and instead of putting it away myself, I asked Maddie to help me. She was glad to help. She stepped right up and took that hairband and was happy to put it where I showed her it should go. It doesn’t work the same if I just tell her to clean up.
She already likes to set the table for dinner. She can pull the silverware drawer open all by herself and get the forks we need. One fork for each trip to the table until there is one by each plate. Just don’t try to help her help you. You can’t show her a better way or she will think you are taking the whole thing away from her.
She is really good at jumping to conclusions. She is smart and thinking all the time. So if she thinks her mom is taking her out to the park, and then mom goes upstairs to get one more thing, it looks to Maddie like Mom changed her mind about going out and Maddie screams, “No! We havta go out!”
Lately I had a brainstorm that I think might help us to teach her about obedience. I asked her to help me raise her. Maddie can you help me? “Uh huh.” Ok here is what I need help with. There are times when you just need to do what I tell you to do and don’t argue. Can you help me with that? “Uh-huh.” We’ll see if she really understood.
Anyway, my point is, we need to think carefully about what Jesus means when he says that we must become like a little child. In 1 Cor. 13:11, Paul says, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” Is he contradicting Jesus? Of course not.
First of all, it is important to note that Jesus is not telling us that it is okay to be childish. In fact, Luke’s gospel (9:46-47) tells us that an “argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him.” So when Jesus introduced a child into his circle of friends, it was in order to break up a pretty childish debate among the disciples over who was the greatest. Jesus didn’t approve of bickering or selfishness or gossip any more than any of the other writers of scripture. For that matter, I believe that it would be safe to assume that God Himself does not approve of such immaturity among those who claim to follow His lead.
The key here is Jesus saying that we must be willing to change and humble ourselves. In other words, “become like a child.” This, I believe, is the key to the direction in which Christ is pointing. After all, a child, in Jesus’ day, had no status or legal standing. Why do you think Jesus had to tell his disciples, “Let the little children come to me, and hinder them not.” He put a way higher value on the children than anyone else around him did. Even today, a child remains the most helpless of human beings.
Here then, is how to be humble as a child. Children know they are not in charge of the household or even their own schedule. They might emotionally want to be in charge but really they know they are not. They don’t usually think they can do very much. We have to encourage them to try. They accept our guidance and instruction, most of the time, and in the best of their times. But they even accept our guidance and instruction when they don’t really feel like it. They may complain while they do it, but they do it. Or, they may never say thank you for our wisdom, but later we see them living by it. This is a good characteristic for us grown-ups to remember. We are still God’s children. Our heavenly Father knows a whole lot more than we do about the life he has called us to live. He just asks us to trust and obey him, even if we don’t feel like it.
Think of the young lad who gave away his lunch for Jesus to feed 5,000 people. There was no way he thought that what he had would be enough for everyone. I’m sure he figured he had lost his lunch for the cause. Maybe he thought it was Jesus who was hungry. All that is really left to our imagination. What we do know is that the boy was willing to give it all away. He trusted Jesus.
Perhaps you’ve heard this story before, but I remember one in which a young girl had a serious blood disease. She would die without a transfusion and they found that her little six year old brother was a good match. So they tried to explain to him how he could help them save his sister’s life by letting them take his blood.
His eyes grew wide, and then teared up, but he didn’t say anything until finally with a heavy sigh he said, “I’ll do it. If it will save my sister’s life I will do it.”
So they put in the IV and soon his blood was flowing into the transfusion bag. As he lay there watching and thinking, he let the nurse know that he had a question. And he asked her, “How long will it be before I die?”
The nurse said, “Nobody knows that sweety. You’ll be fine.”
But he spoke again and asked, “I mean, how long before you get all my blood? Won’t I be dead then?” Then she remembered how he had said, “If it will save my sister’s life, I’ll do it.” He didn’t understand that they only needed some of his blood. He thought he was going to die for her so she could live! That’s what he agreed to.
Even though it meant he would die, he loved his sister. And he trusted the adults in his life and believed they were only asking him to do what was right. Humble, loving giving, trusting. Good characteristics.
There are other children in the Bible who show us what it means to become like a child. Isaac stands as a good example of a trusting son. The story of him with his father Abraham in Genesis 22:1-14 is often used to illustrate the amazing faith and surrender of Abraham, but Isaac plays an important role here as well. He asks questions, such as, “here is the wood and here is the fire, but where is the lamb?” And when Abraham assures him that, “God will provide the lamb.” Isaac just keeps walking with his father. When Abraham tells him to get on the altar, we read nothing of Isaac’s questioning or rebellion or second guessing. He just trusts and obeys.
The boy Samuel is a good example of what it means to be open and honest. In 1 Samuel 3, we see a boy who is faced with a major decision. Does he tell the truth to the man on whom he is totally dependent, or does he lie and try to smooth things over as best he can? Children, are often so much more able to be open and honest. They can’t yet understand the long term consequences so they don’t usually plot and scheme to try to cover up and smooth things over.
There was no way for Samuel to know exactly how Eli would react to being told that God was planning on wiping out him and his sons, although he did know it was bad news and that it could hurt Eli’s feelings. Brave Samuel rose to the task however. He told an adult authority figure the truth and God honored him for it. What if Samuel had run and hid instead?
Children often speak the truth because they have not learned yet that not everyone wants to hear it. Once when my oldest sin was just a toddler we were walking somewhere, I think across the parking lot to do some shopping. We crossed paths with a man smoking and my little boy blurted out, “Eww, that stinks!” Little Johnny and his family were having Sunday dinner at his Grandmother's house. Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When Little Johnny received his plate, he started eating right away.
"Johnny! Please wait until we say our prayer." said his mother.
"I don't need to," the boy replied.
"Of course, you do." his mother insisted. "We always say a prayer before eating at our house."
"That's at our house." Johnny explained. "But this is Grandma's house and she knows how to cook!"
Children are eager to learn. They know they don’t know it all. Could there be any better example of someone eager to learn than Solomon? Now I know that he wasn’t really a child when he became king, but in 1 Kings 3:4-12, he says that he is a child when it comes to knowledge and understanding. He recognizes his ignorance and helplessness in the face of a very daunting task, trying to fill his father’s shoes and hold the twelve tribes of Israel together as a nation. Solomon said, “I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?” May we always, like Solomon, remember how much we have yet to learn, and always ask God for wisdom, the way a child likes to learn.
Children are eager to please the people around them. They usually want to do what is right. Joash in 2 Kings 11 & 12 comes to mind as an example of a child who was eager to please. Why wouldn’t he be? He had a lot to be grateful for! His grandmother had killed the rest of his family. That’s not what he was grateful for. He was grateful for protection! He was hidden in the temple in the care of the priests and one nurse. Every day served as a reminder of just how fortunate he was to even be alive. Joash was seven years old when he began to reign. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
Joash truly was a child and faced with the task of leading men. He was totally dependent on the priest Jehoiada for the wisdom and knowledge that he had not yet obtained by the age of seven. He gave his name to a lot of good projects. The temple was repaired and, as long as Jehoiada was his influence, the people of Judah were led on a right path and seemed to be happy to be doing so.
Most children are fairly adaptable. They can bend and flex to adjust to new situations over which they often have no control. Joseph is a good example of someone possessing the kind of adaptability that enabled him to rise to the top no matter the situation. You know the story, sold into slavery, he becomes the head of the house, betrayed by a woman and sent to jail, he becomes the chief steward of the prison, forgotten by all he had helped, nevertheless the day came when he rose to become the second in command to Pharaoh, with God’s blessing!
In all these situations, Joseph was faced with a choice. He could have been embittered and angry which could have led him to be inflexible and uncooperative and probably died as a result. But instead he chose to let his good character shine forth. In every situation, he was rewarded because he was willing to adapt and adjust to the new circumstances that the Lord put in his path.
“Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This is a matter of salvation. The characteristics we have been talking about are usually going to result in good behavior, but the salvation point is this. Pride will cause you to think you know enough about God that you don’t have to read the Bible anymore. Pride will cause you to be stubborn about your own views in a matter. It also leads to hedging the truth about yourself with a mask of outward appearances. Pride will cause you to think that you are all grown up and can take care of yourself, as in be good enough to get to heaven without depending on Jesus.
Always be open to his instruction, willing to obey, trusting in his wisdom, hopeful enough about the future to stay positive and adaptable in every situation, depending upon the Holy Spirit to lead you. Trust him now, today, discipleship is a life long journey of learning and growing. See yourself as a child who still has far to go, a lot to learn, and in need of a supportive family.
Trust in Jesus to get you through life the way a little child trusts in his father to get him across a busy street. Then, when it comes to crossing the river Jordan, to use the old metaphor about facing death, you are not going to make it if you go it alone like a strong, worldly mature adult would naturally want to do. Put your hand in the hand of the man who can save you. Become like a child whose Father is God.
Comments
Post a Comment