With chapter 18 of Matthew's Gospel we move into the discourse half of Book IV. It runs from 13:53 to 18:35 and the Old Testament quotation which identifies its theme is 15.8: "This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." So the book is about the People of God, their doctrine, their worship and their life. In contrast to the false doctrine, worship and life of Israel as Jesus found it, we are here taught the true worship, the true doctrine and the true life of the New Israel, the Church He came to build (as we learn from 16:18, a passage embedded in the very heart of the narrative section).
The teaching in ch. 18 therefore is teaching for Church Members. Jesus here unfolds how Christians are to live together in the fellowship of the Church - locally, denominationally, inter-denominationally, and globally. This chapter is all about our relationships with one another as Christians, and the qualities of character (born of the New Life Christ brings to birth in us) which govern those relationships.
The qualities the fellowship must display are spelled out:
1. 1 - 4 Humility
2. 5 - 7 Responsibility
3. 8 - 10 Self-renunciation
4. 11 - 14 Mutual Care
5. 15 - 18 Discipline
6. 19 - 20 Fellowship and Prayer
7. 21 - 35 Forgiveness
The Lord begins with humility because it is necessary to the achievement of all the others. It is the base on which all the others rise. Without humility, we cannot even begin to be Christian in our relationships together.
v. 1 The phrase 'at that time' is an editorial phrase Matthew uses consistently throughout his gospel to indicate that what follows is on the same theme as what has gone before. Even though he is moving out of a narrative section into a discourse section, Matthew wants us to understand that there is no change of theme. The narrative section has just ended on the theme "How to live so as not to cause offence." That is the theme still: how to live together in the church so we do not cause our brothers and sisters to stumble on the path of discipleship we are all treading together.
Overall, the burden of teaching Jesus gives in the teaching half of Book IV is:
Christians live together by the Rule of Grace
Only as we live by grace shall we not 'offend' each other. If we do not, we shall; and then our testimony is finished; we are no better in the New Israel than the Jews were in the Old of whom Jesus said, "This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." We shall be frauds.
How shall we avoid this hypocrisy? How shall we so live as to shame the world and inspire it to seek a better way? How shall we be truly 'great people'? That is the big question, and that is why this section opens with it. "It is a thing the disciples themselves once asked," Matthew tells us.
The answer Jesus gave was: "Be a child"!
Astonishing! It is the last thing in the world we would think of. It was always the first thing Jesus thought of. It was a favourite theme of His. We have met it already in Matthew's gospel:
5: 3 The blessed are the poor in spirit.
10:16 Disciples go out into the world like sheep among wolves.
10:42 Disciples are His 'little ones.'
11:25 They are babes, in fact ... babes to whom God reveals what the
'wise' in this world never see.
"Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child shall not enter it," He said. (Mark 10:15) The disciples finally learned the lesson, though it took them - as it takes most of us - a long time to do so. Peter will say: "Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that in due time He may exalt you." (I Peter 5:5)
What are the qualities that belong to this child-likeness, which in the mind of Jesus is so basic in a Christian? The answer should be obvious to us if, in imagination, we put ourselves in the same situation Jesus put the disciples in: Calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them. And He said, "Unless you turn, and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
The key to what Jesus meant is the word 'turn.' The Greek word is straphete, from the verb strefw which means 'to twist, to make a change of substance, to turn oneself wholly around, to change one's course of principle and conduct.' Here are some examples of its use elsewhere:
Matt. 5:39 If anyone strikes you on
the right cheek, turn to him the other also. That is a radical change
of attitude from the one with which we normally react to an insult
(on the right cheek = a 'back-hander').
Matt. 27:3 When Judas saw that He was condemned, he repented
(turned).
It is the same reflexive form of the verb as in the Septuagint of
Isa. 38:8, "the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it
had declined." That is a total reversal in the course of nature.
Rev. 11:6 The Two Witnesses have power over the waters to turn
them into blood. That is a drastic transformation too.
Matt. 16:23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me,
Satan." That was a complete reversal of the attitude in which Jesus
had addressed him two minutes earlier.
Acts 13:46 Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, and said, 'It
was necessary that the Word of God should be spoken first to you.
Since you thrust it from you, judging yourselves unworthy of eternal
life, we turn to the Gentiles." That was a complete change of
direction in their ministry; they set their sights on a wholly
different group.
Bearing in mind these uses of the word, and the real-life situation in which Jesus used it - with them all staring at a child He had placed in the centre of the ring - a few qualities may be suggested as the ones He wanted us most to recognise in a child. *
First and foremost, it surely means
1. A willingness to be called into question ... without protest.
You can tell a child he is wrong - a small toddler, that is - and he does not get into a huff with you. He is quite open to be told he is wrong, and shown how to do it right. We spend a lot of time telling small toddlers that; it is one of the commonest features of our relationship with them. Later on, they will learn to sulk; but when they are very small, they do not. They just look up at you with wide eyes, and take it in without protest.
In the mind of Jesus, a willingness to admit and accept that you are wrong, that you are in the wrong, and to change is one of the things that distinguishes Christians from other folk. People who cannot bear to admit they have been wrong and apologise should seriously question whether they are Christians at all; for it is this quality that enables us to repent: without it we cannot repent; and if we cannot repent we cannot become a Christian at all. In the New Testament it is expected of Christians that they will be able to 'take it' when they are told they are in the wrong. Paul could not have written to the Galatians as he did if he did not expect that of them: "You foolish Galatians ... who has bewitched you?" Paul expected them to take kindly to being addressed like that - they were Christians were they not? They had begun their Christian life with an experience in which they found themselves called radically into question; they should be used to it.
An openness to be called in question is a real part of what humility is.
That is one feature of child-likeness the Lord has in mind. You are teachable.
2. Trust
A small child believes you when you tell him. It takes time for him to distinguish between serious talk and teasing, to recognise when you mean what you say and when you are just 'having him on.' A small child's first instinct is to take what you say to him at face value, and not question it.
At an even deeper level, he depends on you implicitly without even thinking about it. He cannot buy his own food or his own clothes or maintain his own home; but it never occurs to him to doubt that all these things will be provided. As William Barclay put it, "When we are small children, we set out on a journey with no means of paying the fare, and with no idea how we shall get to our journey's end, yet it never enters our head to doubt that our parents will safely bring us there." (William Barclay, 'Gospel of Matthew Vol. 2' [St Andrew Press] p. 194)
That is how we are to be with God. We believe what He tells us and we do as He says.
There is some growing up to be done, of course, in the area of comprehension. One of the difficulties we sometimes face with new believers is the naivety with which they read their Bibles: they can take things literally which clearly should be understood metaphorically - like cutting off your hand if it offends you. But we can go subtly wrong. We learn to interpret commandments intelligently, and that is necessary and good. The trouble is we are tempted then to become casuists, the way the Pharisees did, and twist things around to suit our own convenience and get ourselves off the hook of God's plain requirements. It is a game children learn to play as they grow up, and sadly it is a game Christians too learn to play.
We have to learn to be wise, of course, as Jesus and the apostles all told us; most of us try to be clever instead, and it is a pity. But that does not obscure the point. The point is trust; we are to trust God, the way a toddler trusts grownups; the way the little child did whom Jesus had placed in the circle. Do you see him? He does not know why Jesus called him over and put him there. He just sits where he is put, and looks up at Jesus and the others waiting to be shown what is to happen next. We should be that way with God.
3. Dependence
The third quality, dependence, is so close to trust that it is almost artificial to make a distinction. It is included in what we have said about a child never doubting that everything needed will be provided. But it is worth underlining.
A child does not dream of facing life by himself. He does not reckon to be independent of everybody. He is perfectly content to be dependent on those who love him and care for him.
It is a pity that we lose that quality in our relationship with God - and lose it too in our relationships with each other. We cannot bear, some of us, to 'be beholden.' Or we cannot be content just to be in the team and not be given a solo part to play sometimes. Or we cannot accept that we are dependent on our pastor as a teacher - we always have to know better. Some men cannot bear to be dependent on their wives. (They expect their wives to depend on them, of course!) It may be more blessed to give than it is to receive, but for most of us, to receive is harder.
We should grow up. Or better, in the idiom of Jesus, we should 'grow down,' for that is what learning to be a Christian is: learning to grow down ... toward God, and toward each other. It is the only way to real greatness. Jesus said so: "Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven."
"I am the greatest," boasted Mohammed Ali; and none respected him for it.
"You are the greatest," says the Christian, and we are shy to say it because we think it will demean us. But when we find one who really does say it, we respect him for it. "He's big enough not to be upset when he's not recognised," we say. Yet we find it hard ourselves to be the sort of people we admire!
Mrs Nell Alexander, a highly capable and intelligent woman who became the first woman President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland, was a member of my congregation in Cambridge. It was a point of principle with her that she should quote from the pulpit ministry of her pastor wherever she went on her engagements, not because she had any exaggerated estimate of my worth as a preacher, but because I was 'the Lord's anointed' servant of His Word in her congregation. She had enough standing in her own right not to need to do that; she could speak with sufficient authority of her own. But she felt she had a duty to build up the Ministry of the Word. I do not think it made me big-headed; it did make me careful!
"In honour preferring one another ..."
We need to be apprenticed to the One Who, above all others, can show us the way. He made Himself of no reputation. He can show us, shape us, make us 'great' - He Whose greatness lay in serving, not Himself, but others.
* That is a large part of what Jesus meant
when He spoke to Nicodemus, one of the 'wise' of this world, about
having to be born again: to be born again is to become 'a little
child' for being 'born again' is how you 'enter the Kingdom.' It is a
thousand pities that we miss the connection, because when we do, we
come away with the idea that being born again has nothing to do with
becoming humble. It has everything to do with it.
The term 'child' or 'little one' had become a word for believers long
before the nickname 'Christians' was coined in Antioch, because Jesus
had referred to them that way: as the 'little ones who believe in
Me.' It was a term for believers; John uses it often in his letters -
I John 2:1, 12, 18; 3:1, 2; 4:4; 5:21. In Matthew's Gospel it appears
at 10:42, 18:6, 10, 14
This material is copyright; it may not be quoted, published or reproduced without the author's permission, nor preached without acknowledgment!