March 6, 2013
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 18:1-9
OBSERVATIONS
1. If you want to be great, become small. If you want to be a leader, become a servant. God measures spiritual stature by how love we are willing to go. It’s called descending into greatness or downward mobility.
2. When I grew up, children were meant to be seen, not heard. It was an adult world, and there were special places or rooms where kids were sent. Same in Jesus’ day. But Jesus defies this pattern, He brings the child center stage and says that the child is the guest of honour, the center of God’s attention. Let the adults be seen and not heard, it’s children’s time!
3. God’s world order is a place where people are child-like in the best sense of the word: humble, obedient, innocent, respectful, dependent. In God’s world, everyone seeks to serve, therefore everyone is served!
4. We honour the big, the famous, the successful, the strong; God honours the little people, the child-like, the humble.
5. How we treat the little ones (not only children, but the weak and vulnerable) is how we treat Jesus and God. if we ignore them, we ignore God; if we use or abuse them, we use or abuse God; if we give them scraps and call it charity, we are giving God scraps (Matthew 25:31-46).
6. Jesus reiterates the seriousness of sin (selfishness), for ourselves and for others. If by our selfish, heartless actions others are hurt, we better be prepared for God’s judgment. God hates whatever behaviour hurts or undermines others, and will do whatever it takes to deal with it. Jesus is calling for repentance here, but He is also issuing a warning: repent or else.
7. The fire of hell. Whatever it is, it is not good. It is not God’s revenge, but our reward, the natural consequence of rejecting God and others. I am convinced that there will be a final judgment, and I am convinced that those that end up condemned will be getting exactly what they lived for. God’s mercy is wide open, but those whose hearts remain closed to God, and others, will end up getting what they want: eternity without God!
What do you notice in this passage?
APPLICATION
Look around, how many people are suffering in this present world system? How many children are starving? How many girls are selling their bodies to survive? How many innocent people are being robbed or persecuted? How many families struggle to get by? How many children are suffering while families break apart, tossed and torn between their parents? How many people suffer alone in silence, with physical or mental health issues? How many are bullied? How many raped?
God’s heart breaks for such as these, does ours? does mine?
God created each one of us (and me) for a good purpose, to build a kingdom of love and service, caring for others and being cared for; God will not allow this kingdom to be populated with those who do not love, care, or serve. He gives us plenty of time to change, but if we do not, we will not inherit this kingdom.
Am I contributing to the healing of this world, or to the hell?
Am I focused on making a difference for good, using my God-given resources to help and bless others?
Or am I focused on living the good life, enjoying God’s blessings for myself instead of sharing them with others?
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, I want the kind of world You want, a world of child-like love and wonder. Break my heart for the many who suffer, and use me to help and bless them.
Jesus follower
trying to find His way
It is cold outside, yet I feel it in my bones that spring is here. I need to get out this week, and hang my maple syrup pails. Yet this feeling and action has nothing to do with today’s verses. They are just a reminder that each year, we can look forward to new life, and the wonderful creation that we are placed in.
Jesus talks here about heaven being a future place. He also talks about rewards (being great) and punishments (millstones, eternal fire). One statement that is made is that evil and sin are inevitable “such thing must come”. The verses about entering the kingdom without an arm that causes you to sin is repeated from the sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. I guess this is important if it is mentioned twice. I wonder if the practice to remove a hand for a thief in some cultures is based on this teaching?
It is hard for me to live this life either for good or for evil based on the evidence we have for the afterlife. There is enough differing views of heaven and hell, and what it takes to get in to either one that makes me look elsewhere on how to live my life. Perhaps I have come to believe that the kingdom of heaven is now here. No, it is not perfect, but it is what we make it. We are to live in this kingdom as children. But not just any children, but God’s kids. This gives us great power and opportunities to act as God’s children and to show love and compassion to those who need our care. I can start by loving others, and helping where I see a need.
I pray that I can live like a child of God. I pray that I can trust like a child. I pray that I can learn to play and have fun like a child.