To Whom Are You Looking to Give Glory?
Matthew 18:2-5
He called a small child and had him stand among them. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “unless you become converted and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child—this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one child like this in my name welcomes me."
You've got to change your thinking. You've got to turn from your pride and selfishness. It's better that you cut off your hair and humble yourself, living in the wilderness with no friends and status at all than proudly say,
"I'm ______" (fill in the blank with your particular prideful privilege).
To enter into the kingdom of God, everyone must humbly accept their status as a child respects the authority of their elders. Now, I say that about children fully aware that many children show almost no respect for their elders. That being the case, I'm really speaking more about the child's dependency upon the grace of their parents. Humble or not, they are dependent upon them.
And Jesus isn't suggesting that these disciples aren't Christians when he says, “Except you be converted”. What he's implying is their opinions, and thoughts about the kingdom of God, and how those views impact their actions and attitudes, must be changed. He's trying to get their minds right. Keep in mind these men and women are still of the mind that Jesus is a temporal Prince. They're still expecting the kingdom of God to be somewhat akin to earthly kingdoms. They figured he would have his great officers of the state, as they've seen other monarchs have, and they were of course ambitiously seeking the highest offices. They're imagining a Game of Thrones small council scenario and trying to sort out who gets to be the "King's hand", or who will be "Grand Maester", "Master of Coin", "Master of Laws", "Master of Ships", "Master of Whisperers", and "Lord Commander of the Kingsguard."
I'm pretty sure that Peter would want to be The Hand of The King. Likely Matthew would be Grand Marster, probably not Master of Coin because that job was already given to Judas, but that didn't work out very well. No doubt Andrew would be Master of Ships. John maybe could serve as Master of Whisperers, or Master of Laws. And absolutely Simon the zealot would take the role of Commander of the Kingsguard.
So, this is what's going down among the disciples in their down time. They're pondering their new lives in Christ. And Jesus illustrates how the kingdom of heaven operates differently than the Game of Thrones. Significantly less pornographic people no doubt. And the greatest among them are the least likely to be chosen for a GOT team.
Remember when you were kids?
Try to remember the first time you were involved in a neighborhood game, and you were either choosing sides or among the players being chosen. Could you ever imagine a scenario in which the ones picked first were the humble ones?
Maybe.
Maybe there's a kid in the bunch who is a great player and not completely full of himself. That would be a special kind of kid, and likely would become a great leader someday. But honestly, that sort of humility is hard to find. And frankly I don't think Jesus is necessarily looking for that sort of person. I believe Jesus' governmental administration is made up of people who love God, who are humble and they come from all kinds of backgrounds. And they all have this one thing in common, they hear and obey his voice. And together they serve a one.
John 10:16
“And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold:
them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice;
and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd.”
Jesus has compartmentalized the whole world of mankind into just two categories:
The sheep and the goats.
The saved and the unsaved.
The righteous and the wicked.
The children of God and the children of the devil.
I think the whole point is if you come at this situation with the idea that, "I want to be great in the kingdom of God, so I'll serve God toward that end." You're going to be disappointed in the outcome.
Don't even think about it, is what Jesus is saying. Just love God and serve for the sake of truth and righteousness. The notion of ranking in the world today is kind of like a pyramid. The higher up you go, the fewer there are above you that you must serve. And everyone below must serve everyone above them. And of course, at the top of that pyramid is the capstone which serves no one.
In the kingdom of God, the pyramid is inverted. You could almost say it's converted. Like a pyramid reflected in water. The figure there is entirely reversed. The Son of Man is at the inverted apex. Jesus being the capstone, he comes as a servant, and stands as the foundation of the entire church, he is the very ground upon which it stands. And upon his shoulders everything hangs in the balance. This is seen most clearly in his humbling of himself as King of the universe and becoming human. And furthermore, he humbles his human-self and takes upon himself all the sins of humanity.
Philippians 2:6-7
"Though he was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant. When he was born in human likeness..."
This was his servant leadership role...
2 Corinthians 5:21
"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
...the king who serves his kingdom.
Definitely a different sort of kingdom. Definitely not a GOT-like kingdom. And because he stands at the inverted apex, he upholds everyone above him.
Food for thought and final thought:
If in fact this kingdom is something like this inverted pyramid, the broad masses at the top are those who are the weakest, the least likely to do well, them who just can't seem to succeed without the help of everyone below them. This means that the greatest in the kingdom are those closer to the bottom, those who serve the most above them.
That's a heavy load to think about.
Amen.
#KingdomOfGod #JesusIsKing