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Being Child-like Brings Blessings

Matthew 18:3

Often Jesus’ sayings are quite counter-intuitive.  They seem to make little sense or no sense to us.  Today’s quotation certainly falls into this category.  Here it is with a few verses for context:

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’  He called a little child and had him stand among them.  And he said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  For, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”  (Matthew 18:1-4 NIV)

Some things are radically different between Jesus’ 1st Century Hebrew culture and our 21st Century Western one, but some things are the same.  One of those is the conventional wisdom that strong, acquisitive, influential, upwardly-mobile people are the ones who will help us most both by association and by emulation.  Thus it is no surprise to find Jesus’ disciples having a little internal power struggle as they argued about greatness in the kingdom of heaven.  Judging by Jesus’ response to them, they seem to have been particularly concerned about their own pecking order in the kingdom.  

Jesus shorts out their cerebral circuits by telling them that unless they change and become like little children, they won’t even get into the kingdom of heaven, let alone have a place of prominence.  They needed to be child-like, not childish.  Picking up on that distinction, what was Jesus encouraging in His followers?

Children have remarkable trust, they will jump into their parents’ arms and enjoy all sorts of vigorous play as long as they feel safe with one who loves them.  Children are happy to be dependant.  They like to do what they are able to, but are not ashamed to ask for help when they reach the limits of their strength or ability.  Children are emotionally honest.  They don’t pretend to feel one way, when they feel another.  Children like to please those they love, enjoying the pleasure of those who care for them.  Children are highly relational.  Especially in the early stages, they define themselves by their family relationships rather than their possessions, address, abilities and the like.  These are just some of the endearing qualities of children.

In this declaration of truth, Jesus encouraged His followers to take a long step away from the usual path to power.  We pride ourselves in maturing beyond childhood, but as we consider Jesus’ words, it seems we leave some very valuable things behind.  In our rush to grow-up, let us keep in mind that we will always be children of our heavenly Father.