15th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 18) – September 10th, 2023
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: Matthew 18:1–20
“Strengthening the Faith of Others”
Theme: Greatness in the kingdom of God is found in receiving God’s grace rather than in working for it.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
One thing I find interesting in our day as compared with the ancient world is our treatment of one’s own children. We are a lot nicer towards them now. There is a lot more depth to what Jesus says to the people of his time when he says, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (3). You see, the Greco-Roman world did not glamorize children or childhood. They did not see it as some pure, noble, and innocent state of being. In fact, they would treat children quite brutally, not only if they were born with defects, but also if they misbehaved.
Even the ancient Israelites who believed in protecting children from birth onwards, contrary to the Greco-Romans, did not idolize childhood. The general mindset in most of history is that children were among the least of society. They were a drain on the family assets. They couldn’t be raised quickly enough and then married off if you were a girl or put to work laboring in the family business if you were a boy. You started working for the family doing whatever you could as early as you could, especially with the daily chores. There was no luxury of prolonged childhood, no opportunity to cling to your immaturity late into your teens, much less into your early twenties, no time to “find yourself,” whatever that means, and no time to dream about “Oh the places you’ll go.”
So when the disciples ask Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (1), they were certainly not expecting Jesus to tell them to become like children. But that’s precisely the object lesson that Jesus gives them for greatness in the kingdom of heaven—a little child. What Jesus is telling them—and us—is that greatness in the kingdom of God is found in receiving God’s grace rather than in working for it.
The thing about children is that they receive all things from their parents. They are great at receiving things freely given. The joy of a child on their birthday or at Christmas when they receive gifts is something great to behold. Even in our family, I wrapped a present for Brianna for our anniversary and set it out on one of our side tables in our living room. I could just see the excitement rise as the girls saw “a present! for me?” “No, not for you, for mommy” I had to tell them.
Children receive much more than presents from their parents. They receive clothes, food, shoes, a home, and everything else from us. Yes, if you only look materially, they are a drain on your assets. But that’s a very reductionistic way to view children, as if material things were all that mattered. So Jesus flips around this worldly way of viewing things and commends it for our understanding of God and His Kingdom. We are all children of God, receivers of his grace. The very thing that the Greco-Romans despised in children is the very thing that Jesus turns around.
Salvation must be received by grace, not earned by your works. You must recognize yourself as a non-contributor in the Kingdom of God. You need to recognize yourself as helpless. You need to recognize that you need someone else to save you. This is what it means to be humble, and to humble oneself like a child.
And, Jesus goes on to say that this view of ourselves as a child impacts how we see children in this life. After all, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me” (5). There is always a connection between what God has done for us and how we treat others based. If God sees us as children who receive everything by grace, then we should treat children as those whom God has given to us to care for and strengthen their faith and knowledge in Christ.
In fact, Jesus has some strong language about failure in this aspect. “Whoever causes one of these little great ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (6). Teaching a child to sin sets them to see sin as a good thing that they should aspire to. That sinful foundation, rather than the foundation of faith, is worse than anything else.
Don’t be mistaken: the temptations are sure to come, but Jesus pronounces woe to the one by whom the temptations come. Woe to the one who thinks greatness in my kingdom can be earned through work. Woe to the one who thinks the most vulnerable, the most undignified, the most needy, the most helpless, the most lonely, the most depressed, the most grief-stricken, the most defenseless, the most at-risk, the most aged, the most young, the most suffering, woe to the one who thinks that these are not the greatest, woe to the one who does not receive them as if they are God incarnate. Woe to the one who tempts them to think that they aren’t worthy of love and compassion and service, and an ear to hear their stories, and a hand to help them to the bathroom, and a mouth to sing them hymns, and the time it takes to show them just how great they really are.
“See that you do not despise these littlest ones in the kingdom” (10), whether they be little by size or age or ability or capacity, for so highly does the Father regard them that in heaven their angels are always before Him, always making their needs known, always identifying enemies by whom temptations of false greatness come.
Or what did you think, Jesus asks? That the ninety-nine sheep who never went astray are somehow greater to the Father than the one little sheep who did? Only in the eyes of the world’s ambition, only in the books of the world’s measurable success, would it make sense to cut your losses and let that straying sheep go. But in the eyes of the Father, in the will of He who is love, that one who went astray is the greatest, for the Father wills that none of these little great ones, these greatest least ones, should perish.
And so dear friends, if you want to understand the words of Jesus that follow, words often known simply as Matthew 18, words of love that come from the same God who wills that no one should perish, then you must see in your brother who has sinned against you the very greatest in the kingdom of heaven, the sheep who has gone astray, the little one who believes in Jesus and is protected by the threat of a millstone necklace, the child who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven, the child whose reception means the reception of Jesus Christ himself. If your brother sins against you, go and treat him as the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, telling him his fault by speaking the Law in love, that you might gain him back.
For that is greatness in the way of Jesus, that is greatness in the way of the Bethlehem child, that is greatness in the way of the cross. As we see most clearly in the suffering and death of our Savior, greatness in the way of the Christ is the greatness of humility. To receive a child, you have to bend down, reach down, and get down off your adult pedestals of power, possession and prestige—all the way down to your knees, down to the least, down to humility. Just the way Jesus did for you.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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