Text: Matthew 18:1-4; Luke 18:15-17
Children of the Heavenly Father
Pat asked me to prepare a message for today about three months ago! Talk about advanced planning! Interestingly enough, almost immediately I thought of the words of Jesus, "Unless you become like a child, you cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." I knew I wanted to speak about that. I've often wondered what Jesus meant by this and I thought if I speak about it I'll have to do some research, some thinking and some praying about it. So here we are, let's turn to these words: There are two different occasions when He says something like this: Matthew 18: 1-4 (also found in Mark and Luke) - "Who is greatest?" Luke 18:15-17 (also found in Mathew and Mark) - bringing children to Him. These are familiar words to us I think. But I find them difficult words. You see, he doesn't say, "if you don't accept the Kingdom of God in the spirit of a child it will be more difficult to enter it, or you won't get the most out of it, or you won't fully appreciate it." No, if you don't become like a little child you will not enter the kingdom. There is no other way says Jesus. What did He mean? First of all, let me make a few comments on the Kingdom of God or, as it is also known particularly in Mathew's gospel, the Kingdom of Heaven. Books have been written on this topic and many discussions and debates have taken place with no clear consensus on what it means and what it is. It clearly is not an easy and simple concept. If it were simple, I think Jesus would have explained it in simple terms. Instead, Jesus used illustrations to try to explain to us what this place or this concept is. "Look, there is a sower, the Kingdom of Heaven is like that." "There are labourers in a vineyard - the Kingdom of Heaven is like that." "See that woman, looking for a lost coin? The Kingdom of Heaven is like that." "The Kingdom is like this great feast, it is like a landowner who went away and left the estate in the care of others." Picture after picture is painted to try to give us an idea of what it is like. Sometimes he says the Kingdom is here, sometimes he says the Kingdom is coming, he tells us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come". In Luke 17:21 Jesus says: "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, "Here it is, or there it is," because the kingdom of God is within you." So what are we to make of this concept of a Kingdom that is here now and yet coming, that is within us and yet outside of us, something to search for like a treasure hidden in a field, that is able to be experienced in this world yet very much a part of the world to come? It seems to be something of this world and from another world, the world of the spirit. Words in this world cannot adequately describe things in the spiritual world so we will always be seeing through a glass dimly as Paul so eloquently puts it. But I think it is clear that it has a lot to do with our thoughts and our attitude. Clearly it has to do with a relationship with God and with others around us. So perhaps we can think of it as a state of mind, a state of being, an awareness of a spiritual world, a closeness to God. And in these passages we can get some idea what our frame of mind must be like to enter into this Kingdom. Now let's look at the scenes. Jesus is teaching, telling parables and travelling around the countryside. Somewhere along the way, mothers bring their children to him for a blessing. Luke refers to them as infants and it may be that these were 1 year olds that were being brought for a blessing from the rabbi. This seems to have been the custom in Palestine. Mark talks of "young children" and Mathew "little children". It probably doesn't matter a great deal but it is clear we're not talking about teenagers here. We're likely talking about preschoolers. Jesus is not too busy or too preoccupied with His message to the adults. He takes time out to be with the children, He calls them to him, and at the same time He takes the opportunity to give those with him another object lesson. He blesses the children as the mothers desire and also indicates how important they are and why he takes the time to attend to them. "Unless you accept the kingdom in the spirit of one of them," he says, "you will not enter it!" In the second incident, the disciples have been arguing about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. They come to Jesus and ask him, "Who is the greatest?" Again he sees a perfect illustration and calls a child to him. "Unless you become like this little child," he says, "you cannot enter the Kingdom of God." "Unless you humble yourself like a child such as this, you cannot enter it!" I'd like to make three points. All good sermons have three points. Come to think of it, even bad sermons have three points but let's not go there. First of all, perhaps Jesus had in mind some good qualities that children have that so often disappear as we grow older. Obviously we can't be sure which qualities they are but I think we can guess. We can be sure that he did not mean we must be childish although that is what we so often are - especially in the church. Now children have all kinds of qualities of course, some are desirable and others are not. Some desirable ones are likely openness, trustfulness, sense of wonder, obedience, and ability to forgive. I'm sure you can think of stories and situations where children are outstanding examples of what we should be like. I remember when Heather was a small girl, she played with some friends in Winnipeg where we lived. She pointed out two boys as they were walking toward our house and said they were John and Wayne, her new friends. One of them was from Jamaica and had very dark brown skin, the other was Caucasian. I asked Heather, "Which one is Wayne?" She said: "The one with the red jacket." Not the white guy, or the dark guy - she was oblivious to skin colour at that young age - "The one with the red jacket!" Undoubtedly you can think of experiences where you've seen the sense of wonder in children as they look at something too marvellous for words. A caterpillar, animals in the zoo, a magician, a puppet show. Or of experiences where children speak clearly and honestly the truth of something you would rather keep quiet. I remember Bonnie walking around as a young girl in the Honolulu airport. Someone spoke to her and as usual asked, "And how old are you?" Bonnie said, "I am 6." Then added: "That's my mother over there - she is 37!" Or those times when the hurt or the pain caused by someone - often the parent - is quickly forgotten and forgiven and the relationship is like it was again. You get up in the morning still upset over an incident with your child but the child runs up to you and gives you a big hug. Forgiven and forgotten. Children have some great qualities that we do well to emulate. Some scholars think that Jesus didn't want to suggest a list of specific qualities at all. He did not mean that children are outstanding examples of some virtue. Rather they say, Jesus meant that arrogant men and women can only enter the kingdom of heaven if they possess humility. And they can only possess this humility if they are prepared to be insignificant as little children were in the ancient world. It may be that this is the particular childlike quality he wants to emphasize here, especially in our first reading where the disciples have just been bickering over who is the greatest. That is not to say that in Jesus' mind, children were insignificant. He strikes me as a person who got along very easily with children. I think he loved children and children loved him. Sometimes you see people whom children just naturally take to. They feel comfortable with them and laugh and play freely. I think Jesus was such a person. Children were drawn to him and he encouraged them. But He may have wanted to emphasize their humility associated with the accepted status of children in that day. This is particularly likely if you look at when the incident takes place - the mothers bringing the children to Jesus. This event follows the story of the Pharisee and the publican in all three gospels. It is as if Jesus wants to make an object lesson with the same point He has just made in this parable. It is not a proud list of achievements and comparisons like the Pharisee made in his prayer but the humility of the publican that puts us in the right relationship with God. Not the "who is the greatest" kind of comparisons adults like to make, but the openness, the trust, the simplicity and humility of a child that is mandatory for entry into the Kingdom. Jesus says look at the children, be like them, accept the gift of the Kingdom in the spirit like a child - if you don't, you simply cannot enter the Kingdom. So we need to emulate children in some of their attitudes and some of their virtues but I think in the second place we need to look at how children relate to parents. This is getting closer to describing our relationship with God. In particular, a child is totally dependent on his or her parent. When you walk hand-in-hand with a child in a dark alley for example, you can feel the hand tightening. When there is a strange noise in the dark, you as a parent can feel the fear of the child and can hug the child close to you - protecting him or her. It is the weakness and helplessness of a child that is the point here according to one commentator and I tend to agree with him. When we feel self-sufficient, when we feel sure of ourselves, when we feel we can handle things on our own that is precisely the times we feel furthest away from God because we don't feel we need him. If we could be like a child we would trust God to look after us, to be with us, to comfort us, and to guide us, just like a child who takes that for granted from his or her parent. In all the travelling we did with our children, when they were young, they never asked, "Did you bring your passport?" They didn't even know we needed a passport. They just trusted that whatever needed to be done outside their control, Mom or Dad would look after it. I think Jesus is saying that unless we have that kind of relationship with his Father we really can't know what it is like to be in the Kingdom of God. Can we trust and be dependent on God to that extent? Not that God would keep us from the dark alleys so to speak but that we would know he is with us walking through them and we would depend on him to give us the courage and the strength to go through. Lastly, I think this passage tells us something about the main message of Jesus. Jesus came to share with us the good news that God is like a Father. He is like the best Father we can imagine. This was not a new thought for the Jews. There are several references to God as Father in the Old Testament. Eleven to be exact. But by and large, in the Old Testament, God was depicted as a God who watches every step and if any commandments are broken, the punishment was swift and severe. Oh of course he is shown to be merciful, just, and patient but he is often pictured as an angry God, a God who wonders what he must do with these fickle chosen people of his. Jesus says, that's not how he is. God is like a Father who loves us. He is love. Again and again Jesus refers to his Father in Heaven and says things like, he cares about you, he won't let anything happen to you which ultimately will defeat him, don't worry, your Father knows what you need. In the story of the prodigal son, he paints the best picture of the Father. If your picture of God is not like that Father - waiting for you with open arms, looking out for your return to Him, then you need to look again at this story and adjust your picture of God. "God is like that good Father," Jesus says. In the New Testament there are 170 references to God as father. Only 11 in the Old Testament, 170 in the New Testament. Jesus clearly emphasizes the fatherhood of God. Sometimes we think of God the Father in relation to God the Son, his Father. We talk a lot about God the Father particularly as creator, but it is so often in the light of his greatness, his majesty. Obviously all of those things are true. But in this passage I think Jesus says we need to accept God as our father. We need to be like children, we need to accept God's gift of the kingdom of Heaven in the spirit of a child, God's child. We need to receive the gift of love from a loving father. Otherwise we cannot enter; we cannot experience this gift. In June of this year, I tagged along with Stephanie to a worship conference. One of the sessions I attended was led by Barry Adams, a man, who recently became convinced that we have not emphasized the fatherhood of God enough. He was a pastor and for one of his sermon illustrations he composed a love letter from God to his children, using passages from the Bible. This was so well received that he put it on the web for others to see and after over a million visitors he knew that this message is still very much needed in our world. The web site is now carefully maintained and the love letter has been improved and made available in many other forms and languages. From a sermon illustration this has grown into a ministry for millions of people around the world. I thought this letter says very clearly an important part of what Jesus had in mind when he told us that we must be like a child to accept the gift of the Kingdom of Heaven. And what He had in mind when he said that unless we do accept it in the spirit of a child, we cannot enter into this relationship with his Father. Being in the child-Father relationship with God is being in the Kingdom of God. So I'd like to close by playing the tape of the father's love letter. If you like it and want to send it to others you know, you can go to their website: www.fathersloveletter.com. We need to look at children and return to their simplicity, their trust, their openness, their honesty and their humility. We need to look at children and like them learn to trust and depend on God. Above all, we need to become like children and accept God as our loving father. Because he wants us to be his child.
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Unless you become like a little child, unless you humble yourself like a little child, unless you accept the gift of the Kingdom in the spirit of a little child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Copyright MBC and John de Bruijn - August 2001
May we know that God, the Father of Jesus, is our Father. |