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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus
and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
He called a little child to Him, and placed
the child among them. And He said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and
become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore,
whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in My name welcomes Me.”
“If anyone causes one of these little
ones—those who believe in Me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a
large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the
sea.”
“See
that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their
angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven.”
Matthew 18:1-6, 10-11
They came to Capernaum. When He was in the house,
He asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet
because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and
said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of
all.”
He took a little child whom He placed among
them. Taking the child in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of
these little children in My name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me does not
welcome Me but the One who sent Me.”
“If anyone causes one of
these little ones—those who believe in Me—to stumble, it would be better for
them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into
the sea.”
Mark 9:33-37, 42
An argument started among the disciples as
to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a
little child and had him stand beside Him. Then He said to them, “Whoever
welcomes this little child in My name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me
welcomes the One who sent Me. For it is the one who is least among you all who
is the greatest.”
Luke 9:46-48
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
For the past five years or so, my wife and
I have taught four and five year olds at our church, a class we have
affectionately referred to as “Pee Wee Church” through the years.
Our journey teaching the little ones began
with a plea from the Youth Sunday School Director who was in dire need of
teachers. The initial deal was that one weekend a month was needed at least
until more volunteer teachers could be recruited and trained. Given that I had
been a Bible teacher at the teen and adult level for 20 years and my wife had
been a lifelong elementary school educator and administrator, we were a good
fit for what we first thought would be a short term fill. As I mentioned, here
we are more than five years later, covering two Sundays a month and really
enjoying our time spent with the preschoolers.
I could mention many reasons why this age
group is so fun to work with but I will stick to points that I believe will fit
in well with today’s devotion as we look at excerpts from three of the four
Gospels and find that Jesus had a definite affinity for children as well. More
on that in a minute.
Going back to our “Pee Wee” class, I’ve
been amazed since the very beginning of working with children as to how
knowledgeable they are when it comes to the Lord and His relationship with
them. In fact, as I teach, I have learned to never go in assuming the children
don’t know anything but rather discover what they know and then teach around
it. These kids are so much smarter than when I was their age and sometimes I
don’t think we give kids enough credit for just how intelligent they are.
That leads me to another thing I admire
about the kids. They are smart but they aren’t one bit arrogant about it. In
fact, they almost seem surprised when they are complimented for being smart and
it’s that humility that is refreshing. You come away wishing they would always
stay that way but something happens to us as we grow older. We seem to lose our
way, to include our innocence and modesty when we become adults. More on that a
little later too.
One more things about children that is
amazing to me.
They are incredibly trusting, almost to a
fault. When we are teaching them spiritual truths through the stories of the
Bible, we don’t have to deal with children trying to question or even
contradict us. They accept everything we tell them with such an incredible
faith that we only find in children it seems. And therein is the great
responsibility we have as teachers to bring them the absolute truth for given
the impressionable nature of the children, one could easily lead them astray
and they would follow out of a naïve trust.
Now don’t think these are matters confined
to present day times by any means. For I believe we see many of these matters
bubble up to the surface in today’s scripture passages from Matthew, Mark, and
Luke. For study purposes, we will look at Matthew’s account again here:
At
that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven?”
He
called a little child to Him, and placed the child among them. And He said: “Truly
I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never
enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of
this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one
such child in My name welcomes Me.”
“If
anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in Me—to stumble, it
would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and
to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
“See that you do not despise one of these
little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of
My Father in heaven.” Matthew 18:1-6, 10-11
As this passage opens, we find the
disciples coming to Jesus with a question regarding the ranking of people in
heaven’s kingdom. Perhaps the disciples were interested in knowing what it
would take to be number one or maybe they even believed they already ranked in
at least the top twelve and were seeking some kind of validation from their
Master. In another place in the Gospels, we know that at least two of the
disciples, James and John, even debated as to which one would sit at Jesus’
left or right side, as if they had somehow earned a greater place of prominence
than their peers (Matthew 20:20-24). It was quite an arrogant, self assuming
attitude to have and as we see from Jesus’ response, one He was not in favor of
so He did what He usually did. He taught His disciples a lesson using an
illustration.
He
called a little child to Him, and placed the child among them. And He said: “Truly
I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never
enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of
this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one
such child in My name welcomes Me.”
“If
anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in Me—to stumble, it
would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and
to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
“See
that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their
angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven.”
The disciples were not behaving in a way
that was favored in the kingdom of heaven for arrogance, conceit, and egotism
were not qualities God favored and they certainly weren’t qualities Jesus
embodied. Rather, Jesus would go down in history as the greatest role model for
humility who had ever lived. It was true in His day and it will be true
forever.
Jesus called His disciples (and us as well)
to become more childlike in the life attitudes we adopt and exhibit. Go back to
my discussion about the children my wife and I work with. Those children are so
smart but not one bit boastful about it. They don’t see themselves as better
than another child (except for a few occasions from time to time) but rather
see another child as like them, a peer they would like to get to know and play
with. A child doesn’t try and outrank the other children but rather fall into
ranks with them. Such is their sense of innocent meekness and willingness to
assume a more lowly position. Jesus wants all those who follow Him to do the same
in the way we live our lives, to assume the last place in line and be the
servant of all if we want to achieve some semblance of favor within heaven’s
kingdom.
As for the impressionable nature of
children, we find Jesus issuing a stern warning for anyone who would despise or
take advantage of a little one’s innocence to exploit them in some way. Deep
woe would follow for anyone who caused any child who believes in Jesus with
that youthful trusting faith to stumble. Through His words, we see how much
Jesus values children and advocates for their well being.
Finally, Jesus tells His disciples of the
reward that comes in welcoming and caring for the children who are so dear to
His heart. For anyone who would receive and assist a child would be also receiving
Jesus in as well as His Father God who had sent Him from heaven to earth. In
other words, to enter into the company of children and allow yourself to
respect and adopt the beautiful qualities that are within them is akin to being
in the very company of the Savior and our very Maker, the One who created all
things to include us, helping us grow from being children to the adult servants
we are today.
Let us continue to serve boldly in the
Spirit of the Lord and, while doing so, give special attention to the little
children Jesus cherishes.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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