Wandering Sheep

Staying with the idea of the lost sheep of Israel, I want look at Matthew 18. Everyone tries to position themselves to be in a place of power and influence. We see it in our government, we see it in our families and we see it in the church. So it is not unusual to see it among Jesus' disciples.

Jesus' disciples ask him this question, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" I am not sure what answer they were really looking for, but I think they were surprised by the eventual answer. Maybe they looked at the religious system with all its prestige and thought that was normal. Those closes to Jesus would be considered the greatest. Maybe they were jockeying for position amongst themselves.

Regardless of what they were looking for Jesus called to a child and had him stand among the disciples. Jesus then said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

I don't believe this story is about children.

Place yourself in that childs position. The child comes and stands among thirteen adult men. It would be a pretty intimidating position. Mature men standing over a small child. And Jesus then says, you need to be like this child. You need to put yourself in a place of humility, not thinking to highly of yourself.

When a child is standing in a crowd of adults, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle. When I take Seth, my soon to be nine year old to a Cavs game, it has to be intimidating walking through the crowd. He can not see over everybody, people can not see him very well and it is hard for him to discern where we are headed. When we are at that game, Seth, Cole or Eli get the greatest attention in my kingdom.

In the church, we sometimes carry an attitude about us. We see ourselves as spiritually mature, having this great knowledge. When a person who is not as mature as us, physically and spiritually, we often times stand over them like the twelve who stood over this child. We get caught up in our mature conversations, talking about the business of the church. As we talk, we show our biblical knowledge, posturing for the highest position, because that is what it is all about. Sometimes this posturing has to do with the longevity of being a member of this particular institution.

I mean, that's what it is all about isn't it?