Preached 12/27/09

Faith like a Child

Matthew 18:1-14

by Dr. Scott Berthiaume

            Sometime in my 17th year of life I realized that something profound had happened to me. I was no longer the same person I had been before, and I had a definite feeling in my stomach that there was NO turning back. I had better get used to it and make the best of my new situation. For the first time in my life, I couldn't remember a single day when I wasn't completely and totally BUSY. During the course of the last two or so years, my interests had blossomed and multiplied, and those interests had turned into lots of activities. And not just to me. I had friends who were going through the same dramatic blossoming process, and our paths would intersect from time to time causing yet another exponential increase of things to do. No longer did my parents have to make sure I woke up in the morning for school or prepare my breakfast before I left for school. I was a multitasker, able to perform simultaneously one task while thinking of several more and even talking at the same time. Out of bed at 6:00 am, then off to school to take classes in six different subjects as different as anatomy, choir, and math, then in the afternoon I was off to work in the local Beef and Brew restaurant, to chop 50 heads of lettuce, make salad dressings, shell shrimp, and prepare the prime rib. On my way home, I would stop by the local burger joint and wait for my friend, Dave, who would be closing up the store, and I further stimulated my brain with a game of Pac Man as I reminisced with Dave who was sweeping up the dining room. I would further push my new mental processing to the limit as Dave and I convoyed to our neighborhood together, fiddling with my cassette player to adjust the volume, while I commanded my 1972 Volkswagen beetle down the highway.

            This realization of my busy life was magnified by the fact that it began so suddenly. Go back just four years earlier and my interests were much narrower, and I had all the time I wanted to pursue them. At twelve, I was interested in just four things: My skis, my ski poles, my ski boots and my ski bindings. If I had those four things in proper condition, everything else in life seemed to work just fine. I was on top of the latest equipment with my latest issue of Ski magazine, and my favorite place to visit was the ski shop. I waxed my own skis (yellow for wet snow, red for medium, and blue for dry-cold powder), kept my edges filed, and adjusted my own bindings. Of course, a lot of other things were occurring in my life besides those four essential things, but I don't remember being bothered by them. Someone else spent their money to purchase my equipment, someone else transported me to the slopes, my mother would prepare my lunch, and my step father worked to provide me with medical coverage. When I returned home after a hard day’s work of skiing, someone else prepared a warm fire in the stove, cooked dinner and laundered my clothes. Like I said, if had those four things in proper condition everything else seemed to work just fine.

            Going back in time even more, I can remember when my personal interests were in their truly nascent state, if they even existed at all. At age five for example, time was not just limitless, time had no meaning at all. Everything was a surprise, precisely because I had no idea what year I was in, or for that matter, what month, what day, or even what minute. Time had no meaning, and that's what made life so incredibly exciting. My birthday was drawing near, not because the calendar said so, but because someone else told me so, and on the day when it finally arrived, it came as the most incredible surprise precisely because it was spontaneous. Of course, I knew that I liked birthday parties, but what could be better than not knowing exactly when it's time to celebrate your birthday?! Christmas, Easter, Independence Day, they all had this certain uniqueness about them.

            Likewise, my concept of physical was drastically different from what it is today. When my mom took me to kinder garden for my very first day, the walk from the parking lot to the classroom seemed to me to be nearly a mile. Not only that, but I recall how all of the bushes were taller than me, and how I had to reach up above my shoulder to open the classroom door. Just like with time, I had no understanding of space beyond the ends of our California suburban street. One time, I ventured from beyond that street for about three blocks, and I can still remember the thrill of being in a new place all by myself, three blocks away from home where I don't know the neighbors, or where the barking dogs are hiding.

            As a five year old, if I ever thought of places that were really far away, like Kansas, New York, France, or even the moon, they were all the same to me. They were places beyond my reach and only vaguely interpretable by my limited experience in life. Kansas, the home of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, was probably one of the more exotic places in my perception. The moon wasn't bad either, since you needed a spaceship to get there.

            Children have a certain take on life that is drastically different from our own as adults. First, children like repetition, and they are fiercely focused, and have an almost undying amount for energy to focus on one or two things that really interest them. And when they latch on to something, they want to repeat it over and over again. Cars, dolls, coloring, swinging, singing, jump rope, whatever it may be that gains a child's attention, once they have it in their possession, it is a cause for sheer delight and the they want to do it again, and again, and again. G. K. Chesterson in his book Orthodoxy writes, "Children always say, “do it again”, and the grown-up person does it again...until he is nearly dead. You see, grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony."

            Second, children love to hear tales: boys and girls like fairy tales, but babies like just plain old “reality” tales."A child of seven is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door and saw a dragon, but a three year old is excited by just being told that Tommy opened the door." My one year old nephew can get more fun from playing with the measuring cups, or a few plastic bowls, then you could ever imagine. We love to learnnew things, but in a sense children love to learn real things more than we adults do. To us it's "old hat", "we've learned that already", but to the child, it's the most incredible discovery ever known to humankind, and they, themselves discovered it! What kind of joy that must be!

            Third, children like familiar things. A special blanket, a stuffed animal, a doll, or even an old shirt can be the most coveted object to a child, not because it is soft or colorful, but because it's familiar and doesn't change. Far from being just a helpful tool or a beautiful piece of art, the child's object is uniquely valuable to him from its texture to its smell, not because of what it IS, or what it does, but because from their perspective, it's part of them. C.S. Lewis writes, "A child will love an old crusty gardener who has hardly taken notice of it, but will shrink from the visitor who is trying to win its regard. Why? Because the old gardener has always been there."

            Fourth, the most obvious thing that comes to mind about children is that they like to play, really play. In fact, our own English verb “play” sounds funny if we use it to refer to anything, but children.“I saw my neighbor playing in the yard.”“I usually play for an hour before dinner.” “The doctor will be here shortly. He’s playing right now, but he should be done soon.” When we do use the word "play" in the intransitive as adults, it really means the opposite of work. I took the day off and "played.” But when children play, they are actually working really hard. They're building forts in the back yard, their baking cakes with their Easy Bake oven, their building skyscrapers with their Legos, or they're dressing up for party with their dolls. When they've finished, they're bushed and have the appetite to prove it.

Exegesis Matthew 18:3-10

            Looking at our text today in Matthew 18, we read of Jesus telling his disciples, that unless they "change" and "become" like children, they will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. How are we supposed to become children, especially now that we're adults? Let’s look at what not to do. To begin, Jesus is first and foremost redefining the disciple’s view about what God expects of them. They have big plans for a future kingdom of God as they see it and they’re certain they will have a place there. The only question in their mind is who will have the most prestigious place. Listen to the same conversation recorded in Luke and Mark’s gospel:

• Luke 9:46 An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest.

• Luke 9:47 But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side

• Mark 9:33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you discussing on the way?"

• Mark 9:34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

            Now, the fact of the matter is in a very literal sense the disciples (and all of us who trust in Christ for that matter) are children when it comes to things beyond our experience. An infant is delighted with the here and now, and young children can enjoy fairy tales, but not before they have some understanding of the world in which they live. The disciples in Matthew 18, made a false assumption that they knew what the kingdom of God was about, and therefore, that they would have a particular role in it. Jesus is simply and clearly telling them that the kingdom they think they know, and the kingdom he is describing is totally different. And how could they really know, unless Jesus himself tells them about it, what it’s like, and the way things operate in God’s kingdom.

And that’s just what he proceeds to do. To enter the Kingdom of Heaven, to be recognized as someone great in God’s eyes is achieved through humility and a willingness to serve, not by personal interest and self-advancement. Christ is clearly condemning the disciples' assumption that by their mere association to Him, they have some special reward coming. Truth be told, if they were really learning from him, they should understand this already.

            But humility doesn’t seem like much of a prerequisite, does it? Isn’t humility one of those things that you just decide you are, and then you go on with living your life while remembering that your humble? Isn’t there more to being great than that? Humility is not a word most of us like to hear, and it was a new concept to the disciples as well, but let’s take a closer look at it. The Greek word ταπειν ω which means ‘to be humble, be level’.

Luke 3:5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways,

What is interesting about this word for ‘humility’ is that it is almost always juxtaposed with another word, ὑψ ω ‘to exalt, lift up’. (12/14).

• Matthew 23:12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

• Luke 14:8 "When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him,

• Luke 14:9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to this person,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.

• Luke 14:10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.

• Luke 14:11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Paul, speaking rhetorically to the Corinthian church, uses “humble” and “exalted” together.

·    2 Corinthians 11:7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge?

And in writing to the Philippian church we also says,

·    Philippians 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

·    Philippians 2:9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

·    Philippians 4:12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

·    Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

·    James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

·    1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,

·    1 Peter 5:7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Humility is God’s admonishment to us as His children on this earth. It is the act of our will to place ourselves in God’s hands as our true selves, understanding our real state and letting him exalt us at the proper time. A child of God has to learn this, and practice this in their everyday life. In kingdom terms, a person who exalts himself has about as much going for him as an adult trying to get his own way by crying, or stomping his feet. In terms of the Kingdom, it’s a whole other world out there, the world of “spiritual adults” and things will be set right, so get ready for it now while you can.” I can’t tell you all that the Kingdom of God entails, we simply can’t understand it, we’re children remember! But humility, as repetitive and simple as it might seem, is exactly what Jesus wants us to learn.

Now, there is something implicitly fundamental to what Christ is saying that goes quite beyond anything that has to do with the disciples here. While the disciples are concerned with who will be the greatest in the Kingdom, Jesus seems a whole lot more interested in the children. Why? These children, which most commentators believe to be a metaphor for true Christian believers, are God's instruments in the present Kingdom of God, the one we are exhibiting right now in the here and now. You, I, all of us who have trusted in Christ are extremely important to God and his purposes on this earth, his Kingdom work here and now. Contrary to aspirations of grandeur and prestige, our Lord charges the disciples to be concerned with someone besides themselves, that is the sheep. They're extremely important to him:

·          Matthew 18:6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

·          Matthew 18:10 "See that you do not (look down on) despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

            From the Father's point of view. We have been looking at who we are in terms of eternal things, but let's take a bold glimpse at how the Father views us, his children in this passage of scripture. First of all, he knows each and every "one" of us.

·          Matthew 18:10 says not to look down on "even" one of these little ones. God not only knows us through his spiritual angelic emissaries, he knows how many of us we are.

Second, God is of the here and now, and he cares about our "state" in the here and now.

·          Matthew 18:14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

            Children are incredibly valuable, and vital, but they are also fragile, and we are warned in 18:7 that temptations are a necessary part of life, but they are dangerous and we should take them seriously. The Father's desire is that we enjoy the discovery of life around us, the life he has given us and the creation that surrounds us. He put us here for a purpose, "to glorify him and enjoy him forever" according to the Westminster catechism. That's a life of faith as a child, a faith probably more real than any adult can understand, but at least we know where what to shoot for.

            In closing, I also remember when I was a child and thinking things like, "How nice it would be to be an adult, and have all that free time to not be in school, or to not have to do homework. I would play more baseball, go on trips, have lots of and everything will great. What child hasn’t thought of something like that? And it’s all true in an exaggerated, fantasy-like kind of way. We chuckle and say something like, “that sounds great, son, but for now you better stick to finishing your homework.” God is probably chuckling at us in the same way as we struggle to work out our faith on this planet and live out his principles. So, being childlike isn't easy, it's just real. That's the point for us this morning. Christ is calling us to a real childlike faith, not an ignorant or watered-down faith, but he is calling us to real tales, not fairytales. That starts with trusting him at his word, and his word calls us to a radically different concept of living.