Matthew 18:1-7 – Path to Kingdom greatness

In these verses we see Jesus defining the Kingdom’s perspective of greatness. The disciples came to Him wanting to know about greatness in the Kingdom. They asked, “Who then is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?” Like many in the world, they must be thinking of greatness from what they had seen and known of the heroes of old. Apart from faith and hope in God, many of course possessed strong, militant, courageous characteristics. What they probably didn’t expect Jesus to do was to pull out a child and illustrated to them what kingdom greatness looked like.

There are many things that a child would illustrate. Those of us parents know how simple, how trusting, and how sincere a child can be. A child is also very dependent and honest and forthright. He or she doesn’t scheme or mince words, but would just tell it as it is. We all also know that a child is vulnerable, ever so eager to listen, to love and receive love, to learn and to grow. Jesus’ point here is this: to be great in the kingdom, we need such childlike qualities. He invites us to adopt such qualities.  

So what’s the point? As Jesus instructed His disciples then, He now tells us what we must do to attain Kingdom greatness. We must be childlike – simple, honest, sincere and be ready to listen, learn and grow. To adopt all these characteristics calls for humility. Rightly so, humility must be the hall mark of a person pursuing greatness. For pride and arrogance, more than anything, will not only destroy a person but also those close to him.

In verse 5, we can see that Jesus not only wants us to see that developing such qualities was critical to kingdom living, He also wants us to show concern towards children. They are vulnerable and would pick up both good and bad traits, from people they trust. As followers of the Lord, we need to set good examples for them. Jesus shows how detrimental it can be when we stumble one of them. Here He had prescribed such a heavy judgement for one who intentionally stumble a child. It is better to have a mill stone hung around the neck and be cast into the deepest part of the sea, than to be a stumbling block to a child. Here is a serious warning. It behooves us to heed the Lord’s word here, especially those of us who are parents.

We can be sure that Jesus is addressing how we should treat children. As parents we need to heed His call not to stumble our children by the way we conduct our lives. But we know that Jesus is also talking about dealing with people who are vulnerable and needy. People who are watching and learning from our life examples. Let’s be sure to set them godly characteristics to help them to be more and more Christlike!