Matthew 18:1-14.
When the disciples ask who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says whoever is humble like a child.
He says that we need to become like children to even enter heaven, that woe awaits us if we cause children who believe in him to sin, that we had better cut off our body parts if they lead us to sin, that we should not look down on children, and that the Father is unwilling to lose any of them.
Because I have taught thousands of children over thirty years, I have trouble with the idea that children are humble.
The words that spring to my mind about children are selfish, demanding, whining, lying, sneaky, ungrateful and disobedient.
They are also fun, loving, playful, imaginative, kind, generous, high-spirited, open-minded, curious and quick to laugh.
They are completely inconsistent.
But Jesus calls them humble, so humble they must be.
Not only that, but he wants me to become humble like them in order to get into heaven.
Humble means not proud or arrogant. This in fact fits with most kids.
Until adolescence, it’s rare to find a kid who’s proud or arrogant.
It’s just not who they are.
It’s very much who I am, though, just like the disciples who wanted to be ranked by Jesus.
Jesus tells me that what I most desire#8212;to get into the kingdom of heaven#8212;will only happen if I do the impossible#8212;become as humble as a child.
It’s like being born again or going through the eye of a needle. I just can’t do it.
I recognize pride in me. I can hear it in my praise of myself, in taking credit for what I didn’t do. I repent but I can’t seem to stop my pride rising up again.
God’s love and care for humble children convicts me of my pride and makes me feel like an outsider wanting to get in but unable to do so except by his grace and my faith in his life-giving death and resurrection.
My inability to truly help myself is what makes me humble.
Even a moment of that humility helps me steady myself and keeps me going.
Lord, keep me mindful of my pride and its impediment to your grace. Give me the humility of a child. Change me, I pray.
