Reading: Matthew 18:1-5; 19:13-14
The Gospel stories about Jesus and his disciples do not romanticize or idealize his disciples as much as we sometimes do. When you read the Gospels without the rose-coloured glasses that we sometimes wear in church, you see the disciples as real people who don’t always get it right. In fact, often get it wrong.
Why Jesus put up with, or even picked
them in the first place, is a bit of a mystery.
But then, why he picks us and puts up with us, is often just as much a
mystery. It’s one of the mysteries of
God that we are best just to be grateful for.
We read in 18:1-5:
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Sounds like something we might ask?)
He called a child ... (and we have to remember that children in Jesus’ day had no standing really in society, and no rights. They were the property of their parents. They were expected to stay in the background where they belonged. They had no voice or power of any kind.)
So … he called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”
Well, Jesus made his point. And in the next chapter we see how well it stuck, in 19:13-14:
Then – a little further on – little children were being brought to him that he might lay his hands on them in blessing, and pray for them. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them, but Jesus indignantly said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” And he laid his hands on them to bless them and pray for them, and went on his way.
Reflection
“Welcome the little children, for it is to them and those who welcome them, that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”
This week, in our in-person worship, we welcomed the youngest son of one of our families into the church and into family of God, in baptism. It was easy. Fun. Familiar. And everyone was one their best behaviour.
But what about in the real world?
I wonder, what do you do … what do you say when a four-year child of your neighbour, who normally greets you with a happy “Hi Bwian,” one day bursts happily out of the back door of his house, sees you working in your back yard, and delightedly hollers out, “Hi Poopoo Bwian!”? And laughs his head off with delight at his own marvelous wit?
Do you – as you may be tempted by the rebel child within yourself, join him in the game and greet him with a similar title? Probably not with his mother standing just fifteen feet away, working in her garden, and overhearing the whole of whatever conversation will ensue.
So, thinking quickly and letting the rational part of take over, do you take this moment to try to chide the child on his poor manners and instruct him in social etiquette – no matter how sternly or gently you phrase it, speaking down to him as someone to be corrected and fixed by you? Taking the side, you might think, of the parent standing nearby.
Third thought: do you just ignore what you’ve heard? Take the easy way out, not acknowledge what you’ve heard, and not speak with or to the child at all? Just carry on with your own business in your own backyard, and let someone else – let mom, deal with this?
Or – maybe you get to this point, do you walk over to the four-year-old happily waiting for a response, lean on the face to be close to him, and try to find the words to tell him you feel sad to be called – you know what – because you don’t think you are. And can you and he make a deal to try not to call one another that in the future?
In other words … welcome him in. Welcome him into conversation together. Open the door – not just of your backyard, but of your heart – and welcome him in to see a little more fully who you are inside, how you feel in your heart at that moment, and what’s important to you in this relationship. Speaking not down or even just to him, but straight across and with him – inviting friendship with him, increasing awareness of how you each feel by telling him honestly how you feel, inviting respect for one another’s feelings, and maybe together being able to agree on how to treat one another well.
It’s amazing what a child can draw us into. What a child can draw out of us and the kind of people they can help us become, when we choose to be welcoming – which really means opening the door and inviting in. More than just a passing “Hi! How are you?” it kind of means, “Well, there you are – come in.” It means opening the door of your home, your heart, your life, so the other can come for a while, have a look around at what’s in there, and get to know you better.
It doesn’t always happen that way, of course. We hear too much in the news about how children are treated, and when we’re honest, also know too much about ourselves, to think we’re always that good, creative, and self-opening in our responses to little children. With their innocence, powerlessness, irrationality and difference from how we prefer to be as adults and grown-ups, as big people in control, they can bring out and reveal the worst in us as well as the best. I don’t even have to name any of the ways in which we have seen this happen over and over again.
But Jesus, as aware as he is of the worst in us, never fails to invite us also to know and to show the best. Because the best is in us – it’s breathed into us at our creation and birth, and maybe only just needs encouragement to come out, affirmation when it does, and remembering what it is to help it keep being shown again and again.
So, to rephrase in a Gospel way what was just said above, it really is amazing how children, in their innocence, powerlessness, irrationality and difference from how we are as adults and grown-ups, as big people in control, can bring out the best in us, as well as the worst.
Probably no one in our time, for instance, will forget the name and the story of Alan Kurdi, the 3-yrear-old Syrian boy found on a Mediterranean shore, whose picture was seen around the world in a matter of minutes, and within hours and days sparked and ignited a global commitment to help find safe places for Syrian refugees to live.
No one in Canada – at least in our time, will forget the number 215. No matter how many more unmarked graves are found, the number 215 will be the one we remember. The thought of 215 little lives lost, and the displays across the country 215 pairs of little shoes will continue to prick our conscience for some, and drive at least some a few more steps in the journey towards truth and reconciliation with the First Nations, with others, and with our own past.
It really is amazing how children, in their innocence, powerlessness, irrationality and difference from how we are as adults and grown-ups, as big people in control -- and maybe especially when they are radically different from us, can bring out the best in us, as well as the worst. Maybe and hopefully, the best in us instead of the worst.
Jesus says, “Welcome the little children. It is to them and to those who welcome them – it is in their connection and relationship together of welcome, that the kingdom of God is.”
Questions for Consideration and Reflection
What children have you welcomed in some way – either big or little, into your home, your heart, or your life? How have they changed you for the better?
Give thanks to God for them and for their effect on you … as well as for any good you might have done them.
Knowing that in Jesus’ time as well as ours, little children are just the tip of an iceberg of all kinds of people in the world -- adult and young, who are powerless, overlooked, pushed aside, expected to stay quiet and subservient in the background, who else around you today, is powerless … or overlooked … or pushed aside … or expected to stay quiet in the background … that you might feel called to welcome in some way into your heart, your home, your round of activities, your range of concerns, your life?
Give thanks to God for them … and answer the
call.
May God be with you, and may God be between you and them, as you do.
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