The Greatest

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 18:1-6, 10.

            There’s an old saying that nothing is constant except change.  And it is a very old saying--there are references to that saying going back five hundred years before the birth of Christ.  And we all know it’s true.  Whether we’re talking about the world, about the church, or about our personal lives, it’s still true.  The one thing you can always count on is that no matter what’s happening now, things will change.

            When we read the Bible, that’s something we need to keep in mind.  The Lord does not change, of course.  The letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  And for the most part, human nature has not changed a whole lot, either.  But the society in which we live has changed.  Living in north-central South Dakota in the twenty-first century A. D. is quite a bit different from living in Jerusalem back when Jesus was on earth.

            That’s something we need to think about as we look at Jesus’ statement that, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to become like little children.  I don’t really think little kids have changed much in two thousand years--kids are kids pretty much the world over.  But the way we look at kids in our society is a lot different from the way kids we looked at in Jesus’ time.

            Today, we talk a lot about how important kids are.  You’ll hear people talk all the time about how “children are our most important resource”.  “Children are our future.”  “We are raising up the next generation of leaders.”  And so on.  It’s become a cliché that when politicians want to get approval for their pet project, they’ll say they’re doing it “for the children”.  Now, I’ll grant that a lot of times our society is a lot better at paying lip service to the importance of children than it is about actually doing things for the children.  But the point remains.  In theory, at least, our current society places a high value on children.

            That’s not how it was in Jesus’ time.  Children were not particularly valued when Jesus was on earth.  Having children was considered important.  In fact, if a married woman did not have children she was considered to have been cursed by God somehow.  But the children themselves were not considered very valuable.  And certainly, no one cared what they thought  or how they felt.  Children were to be seen and not heard, and it was okay if they were not seen all that often.  When they got big enough and old enough to do some work, then they might have some value.  But when they were little, children had very little value or status.  They were just another mouth to feed.

            So in our reading for today, when Jesus talked about how important children are, he was not making a bland, politically correct statement.  He was making a radical statement.  And when Jesus said that to enter the kingdom of heaven we have to become like little children, he specifically had the low status of children in mind.  That’s why he said, in verse four, “Whoever takes a humble place, becoming like this child--is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  One of the ways in which we need to become like little children is to be humble.  One of the ways in which we need to become like little children is to be willing to accept a low status in society.

            The people he was talking to did not want to hear that.  Even the disciples did not want to hear that.  Remember how this conversation starts.  The disciples come to Jesus and ask him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  They’re thinking about how they can become great. 

That was a common theme among the disciples.  They wanted to become great.  In Mark Nine we read about the disciples having an argument among themselves about who is the greatest.  In Matthew Twenty, James and John ask Jesus if they can sit at his right and his left when he comes into his kingdom.  The disciples definitely had ambition.  They wanted to be considered great.

And Jesus keeps responding the same way--if you want to be great, you’ve got to be humble.  You’ve got to accept a low status.  Here’s his response to James and John:  “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.”

Jesus lived that, of course.  But the disciples, not so much.  We’re not told what the disciples’ response was when Jesus said this.  But I can’t think they liked hearing it very much.  I mean, think of it from their point of view.  Here I am, following the great Messiah, the Savior of the world.  And I’m not just following him, I’m one of his closest friends.  I’m one of the people he relies on.  I’m pretty hot stuff here.  And I’m supposed to be a servant?  Worse yet, a slave?  I don’t think so.

Think about what being a servant, or a slave, means.  That was about the lowest status a person could have at that time.  If you were a slave, nobody cared about you.  You were property.  You were like an ox, except the ox was stronger.  Your first duty--your only duty--was to obey the master.  You did whatever he wanted.  What you thought about it, how you felt about it, was all irrelevant.  Nobody cared.  Everyone else came ahead of you.  The master obviously came ahead of you.  So did his family.  So did his friends.  So did pretty much everyone else.  As a slave, you were at the bottom of the organizational chart.  Everyone else came first.  You came last.

That’s what Jesus said you and I need to do if we want to be great in the kingdom of heaven.  We need to put everyone else first.  We need to let everyone else come ahead of us.  We need to put aside our thoughts and feelings.  We need to not think about whether anyone appreciates what we do.  We need to not think about getting any credit for what we do.  We need to just do it.  We need to serve other people, all the time, and not think about ourselves at all.

That’s a pretty tough standard, you know?  I know I don’t meet that standard.  The disciples did not meet that standard.  I don’t know very many people who do.  To completely put others ahead of ourselves in everything?  To not care at all whether anyone appreciates or even notices what we did?  To completely put our own thoughts and feelings and desires?  How do we do that?  In Jesus’ time, little kids did do that, mainly because they did not have a choice. But how do you and I, as twenty-first century American adults, do it?  

Well, I guess if I had the answer I’d be doing it.  I don’t know if anyone ever does it perfectly and completely.  But at the same time, we need to be careful not to use that as an excuse.  Because even if we cannot be perfect, we still need to do the best we can. 

How?  Well, this may sound like a cliché, but I think we do it with God’s help, and the way we get God’s help is through prayer.  Because--I don’t know about you--but I cannot do this on my own.  I would never be able to.  I might be able to do it for a while, I might be able to put others ahead of myself on occasion, but I would never be able to do it all the time.  My own ego, my own selfishness, my own laziness, all that stuff and more would eventually get in the way.  And what’s more, I’d probably eventually start to resent doing all those things and not getting any thanks for it.

The only way I can consistently and willingly put others ahead of myself, without getting in my own way, is with God’s help.  And even then, it’s not easy, because I’m constantly fighting God.  God tries to help me, and I say no, I’ll do it on my own.  God says don’t think about yourself, and I say well, somebody’s got to.  God says you focus on others and I’ll take care of you and I say no, God, I’ll take care of myself.  You focus on others.  God says you’ll get your reward in heaven and I say, yeah, well, I can’t eat heaven.  I need a reward now.

I cannot do it on my own.  I need God’s help.  And thank God, God never gives up on me.  No matter how hard I fight God, no matter how hard I try to do things my way, God never gives up on me.  God keeps nudging me, encouraging me, showing me how much happier I’d be if I did things God’s way.  And sometimes--not nearly often enough, but sometimes--I’m smart enough to listen.

If we want to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to accept being people of low status.  Little kids in Jesus’ time had no choice but to accept that.  You and I do have a choice.  We can do what most of society would do--blow our own horn, pat ourselves on the back, and make sure everyone knows how great and important we are.  Or, we can willingly accept a low status, put others ahead of ourselves, and be among the great who enter the kingdom of heaven.

It’s not easy.  But with God’s help, we can do it.  Maybe not perfectly, because only God is perfect.  But as well as we can.  And we know that as long as we keep trying, God will appreciate it.  And God will never give up on us.