Matthew 18:1-20

Notes from a sermon on September 4, 2011

Since this chapter has several seemingly discrete sections, suitable for tearing apart in Bible class and expanding into marketable workshops on shepherding, reconciliation, and other good Christian endeavors, it seemed to me this weekend that taken all together these sections might be bound into a little booklet called Martha Stewart's Living in the Church.  It might go something like this:

I imagined Martha behind her butcher-block counter, with her denim shirt on, her smile, her hair gently falling in a wave over part of her face, saying, "Now today I'm going to show you the best way to cut off your hand when it offends you.  First, you'll want to get one of my super-absorbent bath towels from my Martha Stewart Collection, because it's likely to get quite messy.  Then, I like to use a serrated knife rather than a cleaver because there will be quite a lot of bone and sinew to go through . . . "

And so on, through chapters on How Not to Offend Little Ones, Best Clothes to Wear While Out Looking for the Lost One, Four Simple Steps Toward Reconciliation, and so on.

Because isn't that how this chapter from Matthew's Gospel is usually dismembered - uhhh, discussed?

But start with the question the disciples asked - "Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?" - and Jesus' immediate answer - to bring a child into their midst as a focal point for his entire response - and where does that take us?

On the way home from my recent India trip I had a 15-hour airplane flight from Abu Dhabi to New York, on an aisle seat of a 4-seat row in which the other three seats were occupied by a mom with her two daughters - ages 3 and 5 years old.  Everyone I've told this to has agreed that I was probably the right guy to have in the 4th seat, because I was amused, distracted and entertained greatly the entire time, and helped once in a while, too.  And I had the opportunity to think about these children in relation to this text.

As adults we have spent a lifetime building up all kinds of walls, barriers, defenses, protective perimeters, and keep-out mechanisms that children just don't have.  That's why it's so hard for adults to go after a lost sheep, for instance - an adult would have to gear up in some way, to make sure that everything is safe for himself before he sets out.  A child would just say "Oh look, a sheep!  Let me go pet it!"  And off they would go, heedless of the risks.  That's why adults need processes and procedures for reconciliation, because those procedures and processes help to break down our own defenses and perimeters as we're making our way gingerly toward the person who has something against us.  Children don't have those defenses yet, so it's much easier for them.

Now did you ever think of Jesus in this way, too?  As an adult who never claimed for himself all the adult defenses that the rest of us have? 

As the One who said, "I could ask my Father to send legions of angels rushing to my defense right now" - but He didn't. 

As the One who looked at not one, but many lost sheep and didn't hesitate to count the cost or to gear up, but just came to get them, to get us. 

As the One who said to us all, "I would rather have nails driven through my hands than that you should be hurt by sin any more.  I would rather have spikes driven through my feet than that you should bear the burden of damnation any more.  I would rather have a crown of thorns thrust into my own head, and the blood run down into my own eyes, than see any of you in hell, ever."

As the One who came to reconcile us all to Himself,  whether one on one, or on the cross displayed to the whole world, dealing with all of us just as He would deal with the tax collectors and sinners, eating with them, visiting their tax tables, letting the prostitutes cry tears of joy and thanksgiving over His feet and wiping them with their hair, and allowing all the "righteous" people to ridicule him - just so He and the Father and the Spirit and the angels in heaven could rejoice over one who repents?

No defenses, walls, or barriers on His part, just love for those who need His love so badly.  That's what makes Him the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.  And so I wonder if "being transformed into the likeness of Christ" includes putting aside our barriers and our defenses that we have worked a lifetime to erect, becoming more and more like children in this way so that we simply love one another as Jesus has loved us.

I know, "easier said than done."  But please don't blow it off with that trite comment and walk away.  Pray that the Holy Spirit will move you to surrender to Him and that through the mighty working of His power He will be transforming you more and more into one of those children who is like Jesus.