Who is the greatest?
by Neil Bergmann
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Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3).
Read Matthew 18:1–9
The Gospel of Matthew was written maybe 50 years after Jesus’ death, and it is a careful blending of available written records and oral traditions of the time. Like the other gospels, it is intended to be a witness to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and a summary of his teaching. The middle part of Matthew that we are looking at this week frames some of Jesus’ miracles, parables, and teachings in the context of his final journey from Galilee to Jerusalem.
Today’s reading sees Jesus teaching about greatness: ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ As is often the case, Jesus turns conventional wisdom on its head. Jesus doesn’t claim greatness for himself or nominate kings, priests or prophets as exemplars. Instead, he offers a child as the role model of greatness. Jesus tells the disciples that in order to be great in the kingdom, they must be humble like this child.
Humility is different from humiliation. Humility is the proper posture when we approach God and deal with others. It is the same as meekness. Humiliation is God’s punishment for pride. The story in Luke 14:7–11 about not taking the place of honour at a banquet can be summarised as ‘be humble so that you are not humiliated’.
Lent is a time when we emphasise our humility, look at ourselves and see all that needs fixing. It is also when we acknowledge that we cannot fix these shortcomings ourselves and rely totally on God’s healing and forgiveness. Injustice, oppression and persecution in the world are the result of the pride, greed and arrogance of people and nations. Instead, humility in the kingdom of heaven encourages justice, peace and equity.
God of humility, help me to be humble like Jesus. Take away my pride, greed, arrogance and self-deception. Fill me with your Spirit of love so I may learn to live in your kingdom of heaven, here on Earth. Amen.
Neil Bergmann worships at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Rochedale, Queensland. In addition to professional qualifications in engineering, he has coursework and research master’s degrees in theology, and he has just started a PhD at Australian Catholic University on the topic of catholicity and ecumenism.
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