Matthew 18:1-6 1At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2And after calling a child to himself, he put him in their midst 3and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5And whoever welcomes a child such as this in my name welcomes me.
Perhaps the disciples are starting to think bigger after the significant revelations of Jesus’ character in chapters 16 and 17. They were becoming more convinced that there was something about Jesus and that indeed he was the promised Messiah. But their big thoughts led were fed by their selfish and worldly thinking prompting the question of verse 1. They were jockeying for position and attention in unhealthy and fleshly competition (see Mark 9:34). The way the world thinks about what is important is not what is of value in God’s kingdom. Jesus uses their question for another teaching moment.
The kingdom of heaven is the opposite of how a lot of people view the kingdoms of heaven. To illustrate this, Jesus calls a child into the middle of the disciples and uses this child as an illustration to answer the disciples’ question. The illustration has solemnity to it as something to note and pay attention to. In comparisons like this (called a simile), we are invited to find the intended overlap between a child and the kingdom. The key idea is to become childlike, which Jesus describes in verse 4 as humility. Kingdom citizens must turn (straphēte), meaning to change. Spiritually, this change is part of repenting and believing, which require humility.
Adults become self-sufficient in order to survive and thrive in the world. Those who remain childlike become victims of others. In the world’s value system, it is the survival of the fittest. People have to fight for their rights and work hard in a competitive environment to find jobs, homes, schools, houses, and just about everything else. Whoever can pay more, shout louder, push harder, or stand taller gets the privileges, which can include things a simple as food and clothes or as complex as careers and positions. This competition becomes engrained in us from our earliest days. We bring this self-centeredness into our relationship with God. Our self focus is feed by the brokenness of sin, which then corrupts further our thinking and behavior.
Humility requires acknowledging a power greater than ourselves. In the Greek construction, Jesus stresses the absolute necessity of humility in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. He is the great example of humility with his journey to the cross (Philippians 2:8). He showed humility by taking up his cross. The cross-style life finds its core value and strength in humility. Not only is humility required to enter the kingdom, it is also the key indicator of greatness (verse 4). This greatness should not be interpreted from a worldly perspective of position closer to God’s throne (who can sit on the right or left; 20:23) but as who can become more like Jesus. Our greatest goal is to become like him.
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