Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

Our text for today’s meditation is the Gospel reading.

¹At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" ²And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them ³and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, ⁶but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. ⁷"Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! ⁸And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. ⁹And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. ¹⁰"See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. ¹²What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? ¹³And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. ¹⁴So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. ¹⁵"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. ¹⁶But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. ¹⁷If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. ¹⁸Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."

Imagine you are in the hospital the day after giving birth to your first child. What an exciting time. You are lying in your room when the nurse wheels in your baby bundled like a package in blankets and topped with a cap to keep him warm. Everyone in the room automatically smiles and starts to ohh and ahh. The father strains his neck to see the baby’s face as he passes by. The nurse reaches down and gently picks up the baby and places him in your open warm arms. You look down and draw the baby close to your chest and your first response is to kiss him on the forehead and at the same time you find yourself taking a big whiff. You smell the unmistakable smell of a newborn baby, what a wonderful smell, there is nothing like it. It is a combination of baby powder and well, for lack of a better description, it smells like baby. You feel him relax as he hears your heartbeat against your chest. Everything is right with the world and guess what, it’s all about the child. A little while later you realize this child is completely dependent on you for everything. He can’t feed himself, change himself, take care of himself, protect himself, provide for himself, or even communicate for himself; you must do all of these things for this child. This child is completely humble; he is needy, dependent, and reliant on you for everything including their life and for at least the next eighteen years it will be all about the child.

This kind of humbleness, dependency, and realization that we are reliant on someone else for our life is what Jesus was demonstrating to His disciples. But He wasn’t talking about our physical dependency here on earth but our dependency on Christ for our life, our eternal life, our salvation. The one that humbles himself like the newborn baby which is needy and dependant on God is the "Greatest in the kingdom of heaven." This is what Jesus was explaining to the disciples. Again, the disciples where thinking of an earthly kingdom where rank and stature seem to mean something. Just like last week’s lesson it feels upside down to us, the greatest are the needy dependent ones not the strong, boastful, conceited ones. Jesus is trying to tell them His ministry, His purpose, and His function is all about the child. He wants the disciples to understand that they are dependent on God’s mercy for forgiveness of their sins. He wants the disciples to realize that humility means confessing their inability to do anything at all to become worthy before God and earn salvation, their eternal life with God. He wants them to realize they need Him, Jesus, and what He has done and is about to do for them. He humbled Himself and came down to earth in the form of a humble, needy, dependent child for the "Greatest in the kingdom" those that are like a child, humble, needy, and dependent on God. He humbly fulfilled the law which they could not. He humbly resisted temptation for 40 days in the wilderness when He could have boastfully defeated the devil. He will humble Himself before the High Priest Caiaphas and the council. He will humble Himself before Pontius Pilate. He will humble himself by allowing Himself to be crucified not just as a criminal but the worst of criminals by being hung between two other criminals. The center spot is reserved for the most offensive criminals. He will humble Himself in death in a borrowed tomb. He will even humble Himself as He proclaims victory over sin and the devil by descending into hell, He is God He could proclaim

victory anywhere! But He won’t; He will go down to hell to the devil to proclaim His victory. He will humble Himself for the child, the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, the humble, needy, dependent Christian; it’s all about the child. We have the benefit of being on this side of the Gospel where we see that He did all these things humbly so we can confess that we are unable to do anything to become worthy before God to earn our salvation. We can realize that we are dependent on God for forgiveness of our sins and our life. We are needy and to God it’s all about the child.

Let’s read verses 5 through 7 again. ⁵"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, ⁶but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. ⁷"Woe to the world for temptations to sin!" For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! Notice that the focus is on the child. It’s all about the child. We should be concerned for our fellow Christians. We do not want to be the one that causes one of these children, a humble, needy, dependant Christian, to sin. The alternative is pretty drastic; Jesus says it would be better to drown with a milestone tied around your neck than to suffer the eternal damnation for causing a "child" to sin. "Woe to the one by whom temptations come," we should not cause our fellow Christians to sin by tempting them. How could we tempt someone else? We could set a bad example that may encourage bad behavior in others. Others may have the line between right and wrong blurry and your actions may cause them to cross the line. Drinking in front of an alcoholic or encouraging them to drink could cause them to relapse and fall into sin. "Woe to you" has eternal consequences. Jesus even talks about maiming yourself if parts of your body cause you to sin. You can take this literally but is it really the parts that cause you to sin? Cutting off parts of your body will not eliminate temptation and sin. Jesus is telling us to do whatever it takes to avoid sin and temptation.

Verse 10 ¹⁰"See that you do not despise one of these little ones, " tells us not to despise one of these little ones; again He means cause to sin. Notice again the focus is all about the child? In Verse 12 through 14, "¹²What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? ¹³And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. ¹⁴So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." Jesus tells us to search for the wonderers. Those that have stopped participating in the fellowship of believers should become the focus until they are found and brought back into the protection of being in the flock of believers. Does a wolf go after the flock or one that has strayed off? The farther away from the flock the more likely they will become a victim. The same is true with the devil. The farther from the fellowship of believers the easier you are to tempt. Jesus is urging us to make it all about the child and bring them back.

Verse 15 and beyond describes how someone should be led back. Notice again the focus is on the child. It is all about the child. In love, He wants His children led back to a saving relationship with Him. It’s all about the child. We cannot watch one of our brothers and sisters commit spiritual suicide, such as someone leaving their spouse to live with another person, or living in a sexual relationship without being married, or even persistent neglect of the fellowship of worship and communing. We are responsible to our brothers and sisters to warn them about their sinfulness. In the Old Testament lesson, Ezekiel 33 verse 8, "⁸If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand." Notice if you do not warn them to turn from their wicked way the blood of the wicked is on your hand. Your salvation is at stake here as well. Out of love for the child and in love you should talk to them and show them their sin and lead them back to repentance. If after many loving attempts at many levels the person is unrepentant it is our responsibility to bind their sin out of concern for the erring not the issue. Here we are talking about the use of the key that binds sins and closes heaven to the unrepentant as a last resort, which is known as excommunication. Even here where you have closed the kingdom of heaven to a person, it’s all about the child, this is a drastic measure to show the "Child" that through their actions they have left the faith and are outside the community of faith. The purpose is always to bring them to repentance not to "kick them out of the church" we want them to realize they are needy and dependant on God for their salvation and forgiveness and they should repent at which point they are rejoicingly welcomed back into the fellowship of believers, back into the flock. Our Father rejoices over a sinner who repents and returns to the fold and we should as well. It’s all about the child.

As you can see, Jesus wants us to realize we are as needy as the newborn child and we should humbly accept that just as the child is powerless to do anything for himself we are powerless to earn our salvation. Just as the child is dependent on his parents for everything, Jesus wants us to realize we are dependent on God for our forgiveness and our life. Just as the mother realized all was right with the world when she was holding her humble, needy, dependent child; God has made everything right in this world through Jesus’ death and resurrection and he holds us close to himself, His humble, needy, dependent children. With that same love He has for us we are to love each other and be responsible to each other as brothers and sisters of the faith. It’s all about the child!

Amen