Matthew 18:1-14

Matthew 18:1-14

The band of disciples is moving toward Jerusalem and Jesus begins teaching about life in the community of faith. This chapter is critical in understanding how to live in community. The command in 17:25-26 about relationship to the King brings up questions about status in the Kingdom. Understanding this passage is only possible if we understand what it means to “become like children”. We have romanticized and sentimentalized “children” and have projected on them virtues that are not consistent with reality. As often as a child is loving, trusting and affectionate he/she is also stubborn, dishonest, and rebellious. In first century Jewish culture children were people with no status. They did not figure into the authority structure at all. They were not part of the power structure or the power struggle. If this passage is about life in the Kingdom then children represent the insignificant member of that community of faith. Jesus here is speaking about protecting the “little people” in the church.

The battle of ecclesiastical position has always been a part of every religious order. Jesus is saying that care of the ecclesiastical “nobodies” is the priority of the church. A quick drowning is better than causing an “insignificant” believer to stumble. Better for the church, better for the insignificant believer, and better for the one who would cause it to happen.

This is completely opposite of what the world deems in terms of leadership. The world is all about growing and advancing their cause. Step on the insignificant people, use them like a wrung on a ladder. Jesus sets this approach on its head. Jesus calls us to set aside our privilege and advantage, the way He did in the incarnation. Become like the insignificant ones, without the ability to push our own agenda or plan for power. How much of the church’s efforts are about appealing to the bright and the beautiful, the favored and preferred, because we believe that the “little people”, the insignificant ones, can’t help us grow our church?

"Lord, give me Your heart for the least people in my world. Help me treat them with the kind of respect I would for You. AMEN"