LIKE A CHILD

Matthew 18:3 “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

A young seminarian was excited about preaching his first sermon in his home church. After three years in seminary, he felt adequately prepared, and when he was introduced to the congregation, he walked boldly to the pulpit, his head high radiating self-confidence. But he stumbled reading the Scriptures and then lost his train of thought halfway through the message. He began to panic, so he did the safest thing: He quickly ended the message, prayed, and walked dejectedly from the pulpit, his head down, his self-assurance gone. Later, one of the godly elders whispered to the embarrassed young man, “If you had gone up to the pulpit the way you came down, you might have come down the way you went up.”

Exactly what did Christ mean that with a view to entering the kingdom of heaven the disciples must become like little children? Jesus was saying that in a child we see the characteristics that should mark the men and women of the Kingdom. There are many lovely characteristics in a child – the power to wonder, the power to forgive and forget, innocence, simplicity, frankness, obedience, etc. All these things may have been in the mind of Jesus, but there are three great qualities that make the child the symbol of those who are citizens of the kingdom.

There is the child’s humility. This is the main emphasis of the whole passage. A child does not wish to push himself forward neither does he wish for prominence. It is only as the child grows up and gets involved in a competitive world that his instinctive humility is left behind. The follower of Christ must learn to humble himself before the Lord so that God can lift him up. Much like the seminarian in the opening story, we will often stumble if we are lack child-like humility.

There is the child’s dependence. Dependence is natural to a child; he never thinks that he can face life by himself. He is perfectly content to depend on those who love him and care for him. If men and women would turn to God and place their dependence on Him, they will enter a world of peace and strength, a world of joy.

There is the child’s trust. Just as the child is dependent on his parents or guardians, so he trusts them to meet his needs. Children cannot provide their own food, clothing and shelter, yet they never doubt that they will be clothed and fed, and that there will be comfort, warmth and shelter when they come home.

Jesus demanded that the disciples turn, that is, that they change from their worldly ambition and selfishness. Of course they could not do it in their own strength – they had to pray the kind of prayer that Jeremiah did when he said, “turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God” (Jeremiah 31:18). Through the Spirit, ongoing change takes place in Christians as we progress in the experience of freedom from sin and become more and more like Jesus. Let us strive to be free from pride, to have the heart of a child, and to trust and depend upon God.