Watch Out for Arrogance! (Getting to Know Jesus One Chapter at a Time, Part 21)

Matthew 18
[I've been taking far too long to complete this series. The premise is simple: To look at Jesus with "fresh eyes," using Eugene Peterson's The Message paraphrase to do so. The link above is to the New Revised Standard Version translation.]

Seventeen years ago, my wife and the people of my former parish pulled off a surprise birthday party for me. It consisted of a "roast," during which my friend Ron Claussen told us about a conversation that supposedly happened between a member of our congregation and me. Ron reported that I asked the woman, "How many really great people do you think there are in the world today?" The woman replied, "Probably one fewer than you think there are."

From little kids on playgrounds to grown-up heads of government, we human beings care about who's best, biggest, strongest, richest, most influential, and greatest. It's been that way since Adam and Eve allowed themselves to fall into sin by believing the serpent who told them that they could "be like God."

As Matthew 18 begins (Matthew 18:1-11), Jesus' key disciples ask Him, "Who gets the highest rank in heaven?"

Jesus gives them an object lesson in response. He places a child among them and says, "...unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a good look at the kingdom, let alone get in."

I love Peterson's rendering of this passage because I think it gets at the true essence of what Jesus told the disciples. Most of our English translations, perfectly fine and faithful to Jesus' words, can unintentionally take us down the worm hole of sentimentality if we're not careful.

Most of those translations, like the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) will tell us things like, "unless you change and become like this child..." That's fine except that we have such idealized stereotypes of children. We tend to buy into the notion that children are selfless innocents, sinless tabula rasas on which a nasty world has written things like selfishness.

Not true! Anyone who's ever had a child knows that kids come fully equipped with self-will, with an almost feverish intent to get their own ways. We are born in the condition of sin sin (Psalm 51). It's this condition, one of enmity to God and to others, that leads us to commit sins. As I often tell people, "Plumbers plumb. Teachers teach. Sinners sin."

Jesus isn't idealizing children here. He's saying that if we're going to learn about following Him into His Kingdom, we need to start fresh. We need to be pliant and teachable. We need to be as trusting as kids tend to be unless, as Erik Erikson taught us, an early experience has made trust difficult for them.

A child is also powerless. No matter how willful children may be, they know that they're surrounded by people who are bigger than them. They live in a state of enforced humilty, so to speak. Jesus says that way before we get to any questions about who's going to be great in God's Kingdom, we should be concerned about getting into it in the first place. And the only ones who will get in, He says, are the humble.

To me, being humble means several things:

• Acknowledging that God is God and I'm not.
• Acknowledging that while my sinful condition make me unacceptable to God, I can entrust myself to Christ and not only will God begin to transform me from the insider out, He'll also welcome me into the Kingdom.
• Putting Christ first and learning to be a servant of God and neighbor.

This latter point should not be seen as odious! When we know that we have God's stamp of approval through Christ, God frees us from the anxiety that lays behind our concerns over who is best, biggest, strongest, richest, most influential, or greatest.

• Jesus frees us from anxiety.
• Jesus frees us to be our best selves.
• Jesus frees us to love God and others, no matter what the risks.
• Jesus frees us to fight injustice against others.
• And He does all this by promising us a forever future with God.

In Matthew 18:8-10, Jesus tells us to recognize how precious the free gifts He offers to those with faith in Him really are. We need to be willing to flush anything that obstructs our relationship with God. Why? Because through that relationship, we get life. To cut ourselves off from God is to commit suicide.

Jesus also warns us to do nothing that will prevent others from enjoying a relationship with God. This is a sobering warning, I think.

In Matthew 18:12-14, Jesus discusses just how valuable every person is in His eyes and how important it is for those of us who are God's emissaries in the world--that's every Christ-Follower according to First Peter 2:9-10 and Second Corinthians 5:18-20--to make every effort to share Him with others. Jesus here is talking about the need to reach "simple believers": folks who believe but perhaps because of the misbehavior, inattention, or arrogance of other believers have wandered away from Him and the fellowship of His Church.

This leads naturally enough to a famous passage of Scripture, Matthew 18:15-20, where Jesus gives a template for conflict resolution among believers. I say "naturally enough" because often believers stray from the fellowship of other Christians precisely because of unresolved conflicts.

The focus of Jesus' method of conflict resolution is to not tell others when we have a beef with someone, but to discuss things directly with those with whom we have our conflicts. Accountability is also built into the process. The result toward which Jesus' process leads is mutual forgiveness--the Greek New Testament word is aphieme, meaning release.

After hearing this story, the disciples, led by Peter, are looking for loopholes that will get them out of this forgiving stuff. I love the way Peterson renders what comes next. At the beginning of the next section, "Peter got up the nerve to ask, 'Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister [here Peter is talking about a fellow Christ-Follower] who hurts me? Seven?'"

Peter probably thought that he was being magnanimous here. Many first-century Judean rabbis taught that believers needn't forgive others more than seven times, seven being thought of as "the perfect number."

But Jesus tells him, "Try seventy times seven." Jesus doesn't mean we're to cut off forgiving at 490. He's trying to show that believers who have been graciously forgiven by God should be as lavish in their forgiveness of others.

It's here that Jesus tells one of His most powerful parables, one that I won't obstruct by getting interpreting it here. Like all great stories, it stands on its own without needing a preacher to get in your way.

As a believer in Christ, I am a recovering sinner. Arrogance is still bred in my bone. But thank God that through Christ, I have forgiveness and I'm beginning to learn what it means to follow Him.