Jump Start # 1087

Matthew 18:2-4 “And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, ‘Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of Heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.’”

  We can learn a lot from children. God knew that. Children are used as illustrations and examples throughout the Bible. Our passage today is yet another example of this.

The background, the disciples asked Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom. This wouldn’t be the only time that question was in their minds. Later, they would argue about who they thought was the greatest among them. We are obsessed with rankings. The best movies of all time…the greatest athletes of the decade…the ten best places to put your money…the safest cars to buy…the happiest cities to live in…the best restaurants…the best diets…the best sellers list…on and on and on these things go. We love lists. We can be obsessed with who and what we think are the best. The disciples were in that mode of thinking. Who is the greatest in the kingdom?

Let’s explore their question for a moment. They asked Jesus this question. “Who then is the greatest,” implies in their mind, that there is going to be one answer. One person would be ecstatic and eleven others would be depressed. What purpose would there be in having such an answer? The “I’m better than you are” club is not the stuff that Jesus is made of. Arrogance feeds that question. Peter may have thought, ‘It has to be me. I’m one of the special three He always invites. I answer His questions the most. I speak up the most. It has to be me. I was one of the first one’s He picked to be an apostle. It has to be me.” Then there is John. “He loves me more than the rest.” Then Andrew, “Yet, I’m the one who He can count on. I’m the one who is always bringing people to Him. Remember the feeding of the 5,000. I was the one who found the boy with the food. It has to be me.” The air would have gotten pretty thick and stale with all the self promotion that their question could lead to. So they ask Jesus. Settle this for us. Tell us who is the greatest. If Jesus had given a name, what then? Would that person get to walk first in line behind Jesus? Would that person sit next to Jesus when they ate? Then there is lowly Bartholomew. We don’t hear much about him. He may have had the Eeyore complex.

Jesus answered their question. It wasn’t what they were expecting. He didn’t give a name. He invited a child to come to Him. We don’t know who the child was. Using the innocent child as an example, Jesus told the disciples that the greatest is one who is humble like this child. The way up in God’s kingdom, is down. Self promotion, arrogance, pride, stepping on others to get to the top is a sure way to the basement in God’s book. That’s not how it was to be. Jesus wanted His disciples, Jesus wants you and I, to be humble, like a child.

There are things about children that bother us and we are not to copy. Kids can complain and whine. Not good. Kids can fuss at each other. Not good. Kids can cry a lot. Not good. But kids can be humble—and Jesus saw that and wanted that in His people. Humbleness.

This was first demonstrated by Jesus. Humble, to allow Himself to be interrupted. Humble, to be asked questions. Humble, to spend time with outcasts like Zaccheus. Humble to go to places like Samaria. Humble to be touched by a widow who was burying her only son. Humble to notice what a poor woman put in the treasury. Jesus didn’t travel like the President or the Queen of England. He wasn’t surrounded by a group of body guards that kept everyone at bay. When the woman with the issue of blood touched Him from behind, He didn’t scold her. He blessed her. People felt like they could come to Jesus. They felt welcomed by Jesus. Jesus wasn’t bossy. Jesus wasn’t demanding. He didn’t act like a Rock Star. No one could say that Jesus was arrogant. No one walked home disappointed saying, “He didn’t have time for me,” or, “I wasn’t important enough for Him.” Not Jesus. You may get that impression from the CEO of your company. We get that impression from politicians, who sadly are supposed to represent us, but seem more interested in representing those who have money. Not Jesus. He makes time. He hears your prayers. He cares about you.

Mr. McGee was someone that impressed our family years ago. He was our kids grade school principle. Every day, he was at the side walk greeting the kids coming into school. He’d wave, shake their hands, high five them. He knew their names and called them out. He called our house one day to say that one of our kids, who was in kindergarten had been in to see him. I thought, “Oh, no.” He was happy to report that at that young age my child was reading a book to him. A kindergartener was reading a book to the principle? True humbleness. To this day, my kids speak with great affection of Mr. McGee. He was special. What was beneath all of it was humbleness.

Be humble like a child. Here are some things:

• Don’t be too busy for others. Allow people to interrupt your schedule because they seek your input. Your presence at the hospital, the funeral home, and other places is valuable. Don’t put off the important things. Skipping golf, a movie, or a game because someone needs you is much more important. Your choice shows that. It shows you think more of them than those other things.

• Don’t be too big to learn from others. This is sometimes hard for us preachers. We can believe that we have a corner on knowing the most about the Bible. Wrong. We can think that the sweet widow or the young college kid really doesn’t know much. They do. I’ve learned tons from others. It’s good to hush and listen. The humble heart learns and grows from others.

• Don’t be too full of your self to apologize. Drop the excuses. Don’t justify your fumbles in life. Admit them. Apologize. Be humble. You are not perfect. Stuff society in a box. It tries to present the perfect body, the perfect marriage, the perfect lifestyle, the perfect happiness, the perfect family. And the definition of what is perfect keeps changing and it never includes Jesus. Quit reading those dumb magazines that drive that kind of thinking. It’s shallow and IMPERFECT. We sin. We let others down. We don’t feel like doing what we ought to. We get selfish. That’s us. That’s the way we are and we must work on being like Jesus. When we are wrong, admit it. Flat out. This is hard for guys. We don’t like saying the words, “I was wrong.” Something in our wiring wants us to fight that. We never admit we don’t know what direction we ought to be driving. We never admit that we can’t put something together. We never admit…that’s the problem. Be humble. A child will ask for help. Be humble. A child, with tears coming down his cheek, will say he’s sorry. Be humble.

• Don’t think of yourself as being too good or too important to talk to outcasts, or to do lowly jobs. I have seen important engineers, who run multi million dollar projects, cleaning the toilets at the church house. I’ve seen elders, stoop down and talk with small children. They smile and make a big deal out of the child. Don’t think that the preacher has more faith than the janitor. Not so. Don’t think that elders are more spiritual than the deacons. Not so. Don’t develop a pecking order. Don’t make a list of most important. It bothers me that the preacher’s name is one the sign out front, the stationary and everywhere. It seems that we promote the preacher. Being a preacher, this bothers me. We are given special parking at the hospital. I never use it. My visit is not more important than the rest of the church that visits. My name is not greater than anyone else’s. We can feed the arrogance of the preacher by the treating him better than the rest. He’s not. There are men in the congregation where I’m at who are much better preachers than I am. I just happen to be the one that gets paid for it. There are several who understand the Bible better than I do. I just happen to be the one who is called upon to teach. The congregation I am a part of has been around for over 100 years. It was around and doing well long before I got there and it will continue on well long after I am gone. Until we grasp humbleness we never get to where God wants us to be. We are servants of Christ. We do all that we can. We give our best. It is not a competition nor a striving for praise. We want God’s kingdom to grow.

Be like a child. It’s hard. The disciples struggled with this for a long time. We do the same. Looking to Jesus is the key. Being thankful that God includes us is important. Take your eyes off of self and put them on Jesus.

Roger