From the Daily Lectionary for Wednesday in the Third Week after Pentecost
Matthew 18:1-9
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
“If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of stumbling-blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling-block comes!
“If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell of fire.”
We know all too well what the world calls great: wealth, power, education, influence, social status, respect, independence. It was certainly no different in ancient times. We know by now that Matthew is challenging the economic and social order; and he is challenging the aegis of the empire that controls the economic and social order. In the passage just prior to this one, Jesus has proclaimed that the Way of Love will “swallow up” the designs of control and the oppressive marginalization of the empire directed by the elite. And here Jesus offers a way, a predisposition of the faithful, by which the power of the elite may be subverted.
His example, his visual aid, is a child. Now, we live in the age of “child worship,” the age of the “helicopter parent.” The child in our culture is exalted. I’ve heard of parents moving to the town where their child or children are attending college! But not so in the ancient world. Children were considered a burden, especially girls, who couldn’t carry on the family name. Many children were sold into slavery. For Matthew children represent the “least” among us. The fact that a child was present during a religious teaching would be unheard of. So Matthew has Jesus being counter-cultural with his disciples, yet again.
But at the heart of the matter is a scathing critique of the status quo. The kingdom of God, contrary to the empire that rules the world, holds jealously to empathy as a way of life. “Become like a child,” Jesus says. I’ve heard it preached that we are to be open and full of wonder, like a child. But Matthew is saying that our ministry demands that we are in intimate solidarity with the most vulnerable of our world; that God’s saving power is found among the powerless. Jesus could have used other suitable examples: the sick; the aged; those in prison, the poor, the immigrant, the untouchable. We have to become like them in profound and sacrificial empathy in order to bring about God’s empire as opposed to the empires of power that rule the world.
Matthew goes on to warn his audience about their complicity to stumbling blocks that would further alienate the least among us. He is, of course, speaking of structural sin; sin that pervades the systems, the institutions of our common life. We say in our general confession on Sunday, “forgive us for the evil done on our behalf.” That is an acknowledgment that our silence towards injustice and violence and racism, and exclusion, is complicity to the evils of our world. This is a call to challenge the structures that disadvantage the least powerful among us. Not to do so, Jesus tells us, is calamitous, because to fail in our efforts to raise up the marginalized has dire consequences for the community as a whole.
We belong to the Way of Love, brothers and sisters. We are to gather from the margins our least and lost, and bring them to a place of well-being and dignity, just as Jesus welcomed the child among his fellowship. Ours is a life of advocacy for the least among us. The opportunity in our own day and time is so very obvious and unambiguous. Let’s not allow it to pass us by, stumbling blocks notwithstanding.
A Prayer for Social Justice (BCP p. 823)
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart in this land, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
