Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 18 (a)] September 9, 2020
Matthew 18:1-20
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven. 5 Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but 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! 8 And 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. 9 And 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. 11 12 What 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? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So 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. 16 But 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. 17 If 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. 18 Truly, 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. 19 Again 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. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
In the Name of Jesus.
To be as a child before the Lord.
A child—lowly, unable to provide for self, dependent. To stand before the Lord in childlike need, this, is to be great in the kingdom of Heaven.
The man who puts himself forth as a great leader of the Church, the great motivator of Christians, the visionary constructing great programs and edifices for the Church, the coach assembling great teams of Christians to change the world, we hear none of that from Jesus. Matthew 18:2:
And calling to him a child, Jesus put him in the midst of [the disciples] and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.”
A child in the midst of men. Among men who could fend for themselves—one, a bureaucrat with government power to collect taxes; others, fishermen who ran their own businesses; another, seemingly a revolutionary politician. All of them, able to stand on their own.
In their midst, Jesus places a little child. Needy, dependent, vulnerable.
“Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven,”
says Jesus.
To stand before the Lord as a child. To stand before the Lord as one only to be given to. To stand before him not with hands clenched high as fists to show strength and defiance, not hands extended out flat to keep at a distance, not even hands put out to give a firm handshake indicating confidence, but with hands cupped as a child’s to receive gifts. To stand before the Lord as one only to be given to, this is to be greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.
To show how this works in the Church, Jesus gives two illustrations.
The first, a man with a hundred sheep. One is lost. The man leaves the ninety-nine to search out the stray. That stray sheep is the one he’s concentrated on, until he finds it. Finding it, he rejoices. Matthew 18:13:
“When he finds [the lost sheep],” [said Jesus,] “truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”
The lost sheep is as a child, a little one whom the Father does not want to perish. The greatest in the kingdom of Heaven? It’s the little child. It’s the lost sheep. Jesus gives us to see the lost one as the one in need, dependent and vulnerable, the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.
After the lost sheep, Jesus gives another picture. This one shocks us. It’s your brother who sins against you.
Now it gets hard. Are we to see the fellow Christian who has sinned against us as the needy one, as one dependent like a little child? Like a lost sheep? As the one to whom to give gifts?
For the one who despises the child receiving gifts from Jesus, it would be better to have a millstone tied around the neck and be thrown into the sea. We are to see the weak one as the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.
We are to see the lost sheep, vulnerable and unable to help self, as the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven, over whom the Father rejoices at the return.
Your brother who sins against you? What is the Father’s will for him?
The Father’s will is for the sinner to be restored, for the sinner to be given gifts, for him to receive grace and mercy from the Lord as a child holding out hands to receive gifts from the father.
How far will the Father go to give his gifts to the one who has sinned against you? Matthew 18:14:
[Jesus said,] “It is not the will of my Father who is in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish. 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. But 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. If 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.”
To the one who has sinned against you, the Father will give the gift of restoration by first giving you go to him and speak to him in the desire to bring him the Lord’s gift of forgiveness.
And now we can step back for a minute and look at how these verses are sometimes labeled. These verses of Matthew 18:15-18 are sometimes labeled as “Church Discipline.” They are sometimes put forth as a rule book for how we are to straighten out someone who has sinned, and if they don’t follow the rules, then we must kick them out of the Church.
That is one way of reading it.
That’s the Law way of reading it. That’s the way of reading it where we don’t really even need the cross, for what we end up doing is making sure the sinner has followed the rules of repentance correctly.
But in these verses, Jesus is doing something more startling than that.
He’s showing us what it means to treat the sinner as a child in need of gifts from the Father. He’s teaching the Church what it means to see the sinner not as someone to straighten out with the coercion of the Law, but as someone to search out, as a shepherd searching for a lost lamb, for the purpose of restoration, for mercy and grace.
So, Jesus begins verse 14 not with something such as, “And now let me tell you the rules of Church Discipline,” nor, “Listen to my instructions on how to keep the Church clean,” rather, he begins with,
“It is not the will of my Father who is in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between him and you alone.”
[Matthew 18:14]
Why are you going to your brother to tell him his fault? In order to treat him with the kindness with which you would treat a little child whom the Father in Heaven does not want to perish.
If your bother is unable to hear the kindness of the Gospel of forgiveness from your lips, then what should you do to help this one who needs gifts from the Father?
Jesus says,
“Take one or two others with you, that the charge may be established.”
By the way, in our translation before us, it says “that every charge may be established.” But that’s not the way it reads in the Greek. In the Greek, Jesus says, “Take one or two others along with you, that every word may be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses.”
What are these words to be established?
They are the words of God the Father not wanting even the littlest child to perish [Matthew 18:14]. The words of Jesus saying that “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.” [Matthew 18:4] They are the words a shepherd rescuing the strayed sheep, so that upon the return of that sheep, the Father in Heaven rejoices.
When you go to your brother, if he doesn’t listen to the kindness of the Gospel from your mouth, don’t give up. Your lost brother is worth more than that to the Father. Take one or two others with you, that from their mouths the lost one will hear the testimony of the Gospel of the Father who desires no one to perish.
And if one who has sinned doesn’t listen to the testimony from the mouths of the one or two others?
“Take it to the Church,” says Jesus.
Let the whole Church be concerned with the well-being and salvation of the one who is the least; let the whole Church give testimony of the Father who desires no child to perish, who desires no sheep to be lost, who takes the most needy sinner, the sinner with arms open to receive mercy, and names that one as the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.
If the sinner won’t listen to that testimony of forgiveness, if the sinner insists on remaining outside the gift of repentance, if the sinner demands to justify himself by his own works, if the grace of the Gospel is refused and not heard from the fellow Christian nor from even the Church, then, says Jesus, let him be to you as a Gentile and tax-collector.
For by refusing the Gospel, by rejecting the grace of Jesus, by insisting on self-justification, he is excluding himself from the Church.
But that is never the desire of Jesus for the sinner. Not the desire of Jesus for you and me and our children.
Jesus’ desire is to gather the sinner to himself as a father gathering a little child, to gather the sinner to himself as a shepherd searching out a lost sheep.
Jesus’ desire is to bestow gifts upon the sinner, to forgive the sinner, and make us his own.
In the Name of Jesus.