Je­sus had told his dis­cip­les for the first time about the great suf­fe­ring that was awai­ting him. He would have to go to Je­ru­sa­lem and suf­fer hor­rib­ly in the hands of the el­ders, high priests, and la­wy­ers. He would be kil­led, but on the third day he would rise from the dead. Je­sus’ words made the dis­cip­les sad. It seems stran­ge that, soon af­ter this, the dis­cip­les as­ked Je­sus: ”Who is the gre­a­test in the king­dom of he­a­ven?”

Man is am­bi­ti­ous and con­cei­ted. He would like to be so­met­hing, to show him­self off as bet­ter than the ot­hers. This ten­den­cy was cle­ar­ly vi­sib­le even in the twel­ve dis­cip­les cho­sen by Je­sus. Of them, Pe­ter, Ja­cob, and John were clo­sest to Je­sus. On­ly a short time pre­vi­ous­ly they had been on the Mount of Trans­fi­gu­ra­ti­on to­get­her with Je­sus. But not even that was enough to con­vin­ce the ot­hers that those three would be the gre­a­test and most im­por­tant dis­cip­les. They the­re­fo­re as­ked Je­sus di­rect­ly.

Child as an examp­le

Je­sus ans­we­red the dis­cip­les’ qu­es­ti­on by te­ac­hing them a good and me­mo­rab­le les­son. He cal­led to him­self a child, pla­ced him in the mid­d­le of the dis­cip­les and said: ”I say to you, un­less you are con­ver­ted and be­co­me as lit­t­le child­ren, you will by no me­ans en­ter the king­dom of he­a­ven.”

The dis­cip­les were dis­cus­sing the hig­hest po­si­ti­ons in the king­dom of God and had comp­le­te­ly for­got­ten how a per­son is ab­le to re­main in this king­dom and re­ach he­a­ven one day. We pro­bab­ly al­so suf­fer from si­mi­lar for­get­ful­ness. It is the­re­fo­re ne­ces­sa­ry al­wa­ys to re­mind pe­op­le that the king­dom of God is on­ly for those who walk the nar­row road with the help of God’s grace.

Je­sus does not mean that be­lie­vers should be chil­dish, but that they should have the kind of mind that child­ren have. Child­ren trust and rely on their pa­rents, re­a­di­ly ac­cep­ting the care, love, warmth, and pro­tec­ti­on that they get from their pa­rents and ot­her pe­op­le close to them. Ac­cor­ding to Je­sus, the child is an examp­le of faith even in our time. He said: ”Let the lit­t­le child­ren come to me, and do not for­bid them; for of such is the king­dom of God.” (Mark 10:14).

Child is gre­a­test in the king­dom of he­a­ven

Je­sus con­ti­nu­ed to te­ach: ”Who­e­ver humb­les him­self like a child is gre­a­test in the king­dom of he­a­ven.” To be great in the king­dom of he­a­ven, one must be small and humb­le.

Jews in Je­sus’ time were known to be proud and to make their vir­tu­es pub­lic­ly known. Greek pe­op­le down­right des­pi­sed humb­le­ness. Je­sus was te­ac­hing a comp­le­te­ly new doct­ri­ne: man should not try to be great, but rat­her strive to be small! The child-like mind of adult pe­op­le is a mys­te­ry of God’s king­dom. Even in this mat­ter, God’s thoughts are as much hig­her than hu­man thoughts as the he­a­ven is hig­her than earth.

”Who­e­ver re­cei­ves one lit­t­le child like this in my name re­cei­ves me” (Matt. 18:5). We do not al­wa­ys re­a­li­ze how im­por­tant it is to take care of a lit­t­le child. When we re­cei­ve a child in Je­sus’ name, we the­re­by re­cei­ve the Lord Je­sus, the child­ren’s best friend.

Mil­ls­to­ne judg­ment

The en­ti­ce­ment of an in­no­cent per­son in­to sin is a se­ri­ous mat­ter. Je­sus said: ”Who­e­ver cau­ses one of these lit­t­le ones who be­lie­ve in me to sin, it would be bet­ter for him if a mil­ls­to­ne were hung around his neck, and he were drow­ned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:6). This is to pre­vent such en­ti­ce­ment of child­ren and child-like pe­op­le to stray away from the king­dom of God.

Even now child­ren of God can be safe and se­cu­re. God will take care of his child­ren even at this time, which is full of temp­ta­ti­ons. Each of us has a gu­ar­di­an an­gel that will pro­tect us eve­ry day of our li­ves (Ps. 34:7). We are still pre­ac­hed the gos­pel of the for­gi­ve­ness of all sins from God’s king­dom. Who­e­ver humb­les him­self like a child will be gre­a­test in the king­dom of he­a­ven.

Text: Os­vald Cars­lon

Pub­lis­hed: Sii­o­nin Lä­he­tys­leh­ti 10/2001

Trans­la­ti­on: S.-L. L.

Teks­tis­sä kä­si­tel­lään seu­raa­via raa­ma­tun­koh­tia: Matt. 18:1–6

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä kie­li­liit­tees­sä 11/2013