Today’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 14; 1 Chronicles 15; Psalm 132; Matthew 18
Scripture: Matthew 18:1-4
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Observation: I am always amazed at the really stupid questions that the Disciples asked. Their questions reveal how often they truly miss the point of what Jesus was trying to teach them. Case in point: the scripture above where the Disciples are apparently having a debate about which of them is going to be Jesus' second in command when they finally take over from the Romans. "Who is the greatest in the kingdom?" is their question. Jesus uses the opportunity to set them straight. "It's not about 'the greatest in heaven' -- it's about getting into heaven and to get in you have to be humble." I'm sure this was a shock to the Disciples, especially since Jesus didn't use any of them as the example but chose a small child to make His point. They were jockeying for position and Jesus essentially told them that if they continued their prideful pursuits, they wouldn't even get in!
Application: "Become like a child," Jesus tell us. Humble - teachable - eager to learn - unpretentious - uncomplicated. These traits are the opposite of the sophisticated assertive bluster that our culture promotes (i.e. Donald Trump). We must approach God with simplicity and openness. To sit at His feet and listen to what He says -- and to love Him: these are the ways that Jesus calls us to come.
Prayer: Lord, I want to come to You as a child. I want to be able to receive all that You have for me, and I know that I have so much in me that gets in the way of that. Help me to put my stuff aside and humbly seek Your face. Show us how to "change and become like little children" so we may experience all of You.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
4 comments:
This truth stood out to me in the reading today also. I think God desires humility in His children above all other qualities. Other qualities can be taught if we are humble but you can't teach a know-it-all anything! Our society tends to think of humility as weakness but God values it as the greatest strength. I also want to be like a child who is willing to learn from anyone.
I've spent a lot of time teaching children particularly preschoolers. The one thing that I always encourage people who are interested in teaching this age is that a teacher of a young child can almost do no wrong. What I mean by that is that whatever you teach to a young child, they believe. They will even later argue the fact that you are write to thier parent or friend. Once a 3- to 5-year old believes an idea, it's fact, and the whole world better follow it or "the'll be in trouble." I too want to be like that--open to all that God wants me to do and how he wants me to change.
That sounds a lot more legalistic than I intended it to sound. I am meaning an openess and willingness to listen to God, believe what he say, and not hesitate to carry out what he wants. Setting aside my strong will.
(sorry for the type-o "write" should be "right.")
In God's eyes, sin is sin; but if I had to guess which one he hates most, that would be pride. As I said before, pride does not allow us to have a close relationship with God and I really believe God hates it when we are apart from him. And in reference to forgiveness, Jesus said to forgive our brothers "seventy seven times" to mean infinity. How can 77 times mean infinity? Answer: Forgiveness is not for the other person's benefits, but for our benefit. Besides, once the offenders figures out that no matter what they do you will forgive them every time, I can almost bet that the number of offenses won't even reach 7 times.
CM
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