Matthew 18: The Sermon on Little Ones

Introduction

Our lesson today will actually start at the end of Chapter 17 with a story about paying taxes. I find the story humorous, but Jesus uses it to subtly hint at his identity.

The remaining of the less (chapter 18) is another sermon the Lord gives about how to treat fellow brothers & sisters in Christ. As we will see, there will be a heavy emphasis on three things:

Being like little children

How to treat fellow Christians

Seriousness and handling of sin

17:24-27: Who pays taxes?

I think this last story in chapter 17 is a little bit humorous. The gang returns home to Capernaum, and this is the last time we’ll see them there in Matthew’s Gospel.

Since we know that to be found by the IRS is to be human, it’s only natural that the taxmen found Jesus, too.

These tax collectors were specifically trying to collect the two drachma temple tax. A drachma was worth about two-days wages.

The tax itself was based off of Exodus 30:11-16, which required every Israelite man to pay half a shekel (which by the time of Jesus was equivalent to two drachmas). According to the Mishnah (written record of oral teachings during this time) every "levite, Israelite, proselyte, and freed slaves” had to pay the tax, but not “women, slaves, or minors”.

Gentiles and Samaritans were also prohibited from paying it (what a bummer!)

Considering that Jesus treated tax collectors much better than the average person did (remember, a tax collector is writing this Gospel!), I’m sure they were probably a little bit nicer (if not guilty for even asking). Hence, they didn’t say, “Times up, pay your taxes!” but “Does your teacher not pay the tax?”

Maybe they were hoping the answer was no so then they could just go home? They also would have known how powerful Jesus was by this point - few things make people angrier than taxes! - so maybe they were also a little nervous.

That could also explain why they went to Peter instead of Jesus directly. Why I find this scene funny is how I imagine the entire encounter playing out:

I picture Peter outside maybe a little nervous himself. Did he even really know if Jesus paid the tax? What if he got the answer wrong? Would the tax collectors send the Romans on these tax evaders? So I picture him sheepishly saying, “Yes.” Then it says he went inside.

While that conversation is happening outside, I imagine Jesus is inside the house hanging with the other disciples when he says, “Hey guys, want to see me freak Peter out? Watch this.” *Peter walks in, clearly still thinking about the tax collectors outside* “Hey Pete, who pays taxes? The king’s sons, or other people?”

I can only imagine Peter’s face as he’s frantically thinking, “The tax collectors literally just showed up, and now Jesus is asking about taxes? What are the odds??”

Then remembering that Jesus had actually asked him a question he quickly responds, “Uhh others?” (He’s nervous he gave the wrong answer outside, now he’s nervous he got the answer wrong inside!)

I just picture getting a big grin on his face (maybe the other disciples are also laughing at Peter being flustered) before saying, “Yeah that’s right, but let’s not cause any trouble, go catch a fish and pay the taxes for us both.”

Peter goes fishing still trying to figure out exactly what just happened!

This story does have a subtle meaning to it and it relates to the Lord’s identity:

Remember, this is a temple tax. What was the temple? The “home” of the King - God!

Jesus asks a simple question: who do kings tax? Their sons or other people? The answer is obvious: others!

Since Jesus is the Son of God, he is obviously exempt from paying this tax. It’s literally His temple! Hence, “Then the sons are free.”

But this wasn’t something the Lord felt was worth a fight. So he paid the tax, and on top of that he paid Peter’s tax, too. Maybe this was a subtle hint for Peter (and us) that Jesus is willing to pay our debt, as well.

I don’t know anyone who loves paying taxes, but the Lord here demonstrates true humility and servanthood by paying a tax that he technically didn’t have to. He put what he preached into practice. It’s a humility we should also copy in our own lives.

18:1-20: Who’s the greatest? Not who you would expect

This section is a new sermon that we hear from Jesus. Something you’ll notice is that it has several elements from his previous sermons. Every good preacher knows that sometimes people have to hear the same thing a few times for them to really get it!

The sermon comes out of a dispute the disciples were having about “who is the greatest in the kingdom” (Mark and Luke tell us they were arguing about it, Matthew leaves that part out).

The Lord is going to use an object lesson for this sermon: a child. With this sermon Jesus is going to completely flip what the world considers “great” on its head. To say this mentality completely changed human history would be an understatement.

The sermon will then grow into a broader lesson on how the seriousness of sin, how to handle fellow Christians, and ultimately how to address sin inside the church.

Now to the sermon itself...

Jesus answers the disciples by putting a child in their midst. Children then, like now, weren’t taken very seriously. So in some ways this might have felt like an insult. The fact that the kids were even around at all might have felt annoying.

Imagine trying to have a serious conversation with your boss and their kids come in the room and they start playing with the kids while you’re trying to talk to them. It might be unprofessional at best, and flat our rude at worst.

But it’s children that Jesus says we must “turn and become”.

That word for turn means to turn around and go the opposite direction. It’s not transforming into a child, it’s literally turning around and going back to the way we were when we were young.

I think this is very much related to the idea of being “born again”. We may not be able to physically be born again or get younger, but spiritually, we absolutely have to.

Jesus flat out tells us: we have to humble ourselves like children. What does that mean? Well children are typically innocent in what they do! Children often understand simple truths about God and others better than adults do. They are rarely malicious (until taught to do so). They simply love better. This is what Jesus wants us to be like.

Now that Jesus has established that Christians need to be like children, we need to keep this in mind as the sermon progresses. Whenever Jesus talks about a “child” or “children”, he’s talking about believers - you and me!

First, he says that whoever receives “one such child in my name receives me”. I think this applies to how Christians treat each other, and how non-Christians treat Christians.

This is a callback to a similar message Jesus gave in Matthew 10:40–42 ““Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.””

People “receiving” Christians can be very beneficial to them. We don’t always know how God will reward them, but he will.

Treating children well can be difficult. When a fellow brother or sister is genuinely trying to pursue Christ and attain that childlike innocence, it can be tempting to look down on them. To ridicule them. To not accept them. Which is why Jesus says this. And he also attaches a warning.

This warning is very stern. Whoever causes “one of these little ones to sin” would be better off being thrown into the ocean with a millstone around their neck!

Every parent gets protective over their children. Our Father in heaven is no different. Not only does he watch who treats his children well, he also watches who treats them poorly, and ESPECIALLY those who lead them into sin.

I think very few things make God angrier than watching someone convincing a Christian to sin. But it’s not just any sin that I think is in view here: the Greek phrase here means “to stumble”. I think Jesus might have in mind the idea of causing Christians to stumble in their faith.

Today there is a popular movement among some Christians to “deconstruct” their faith. It’s usually an excuse to ultimately leave the faith. As tragic as this is, Deconstructors don’t usually stop with themselves - they actively try to convince other Christians to doubt and leave Jesus, too. These are the kinds of people I fear Jesus may be talking about.

As if the thought of being dragged to the depths with a giant rock around your neck wasn’t a vivid enough illustration of the seriousness of sin, the Lord continues on by reminding us about what he said in the Sermon on the Mount.

First he declares a woe on the whole process of sin, and specifically those who lead others into temptation.

The idea of cutting off and removing sinful body parts is almost a direct quotation of Matthew 5:29-30. Jesus wants us to truly see just how serious sin is! It’s like gangrene, we have to cut it off before it spreads.

But I also think it can apply to members of the church as well. Remember, he’s warning against “whoever causes one of these little ones to sin” and “the one by whom the temptation comes”. Paul compares every person in the Church to a body part. If one of those body parts is causing trouble, they need to be cut off for the good of the Body/Church.

The Lord continues his warning by telling us “do not despise one of these little ones”. This time he tells us that “their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”

Some see this as a reference to personal “guardian angels”. That might be the case, but I think more broadly it’s Jesus letting us know that whatever happens to Christians, God will know about it. Angels are literally messengers. They will tell our Father what is happening. So nothing goes unnoticed, especially the treatment of God’s children.

Jesus then gives a broader perspective to this whole idea of how special each of his children are: if even one of them wanders off, He will find them. He uses the illustration of the shepherd leaving the 99 to find the lost 1.

I think Jesus here might be referencing the fact that sometimes Christians will unfortunately be led astray (but woe to the ones who do the tempting!). And yet, he will not be content with letting them be lost forever. Jesus will pursue them hoping to bring them back to the flock.

As the Church (Christ’s body), this is part of our mission. When we see a brother or sister drifting away (or leaving the faith altogether) we are encouraged to pursue them and bring them back.

James 5:19–20 “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

Jude 22–23 “And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.”

When someone is rescued? Celebrate! God doesn’t want any of his children to perish.

The Lord ends his sermon by getting practical. This whole avoiding and removing sin thing is important, but how do we actually do that in the Church?

This passage is considered the blue print for “church discipline”. These days it’s actually an uncomfortable passage for many people, but it is really important for a healthy church.

Here is the process:

First, keep the matter private. If a fellow brother (or sister) wrongs you, address it with them personally. Don’t gossip about it. Don’t complain to others about it. Just talk to them one on one. This is actually one of the hardest steps of the process.

I have known plenty of Christians who have been hurt by someone in the church, but rather than addressing it with them face to face, they seek to “avoid conflict” by not bringing it up at all. But this just leads to bitterness, anger, and resentment. It’s usually followed with some sort of, “I forgive them, but I won’t talk to them ever again.”

The good news is, if you can muster up the courage of just talking with them, one of two things will happen: they’ll repent (hooray!) or they won’t (oh no!).

If the former, things are great! Forgive him (truly) and move on. But if they don’t repent, now it’s time to get a few others involved. But just a few to keep the matter relatively private.

This is to establish the matter among two or three witnesses (this goes back to Deuteronomy 19:15). These witness can also help mediate the issue, as well as make a good judgment on the matter.

Hopefully this intervention will bring the brother or sister to repentance, but if not, it’s time to bring out the big guns: take the matter before the entire church.

The witnesses testify to the facts of the matter, and the community encourages the wrongdoer to repent and the relationship between them and you be healed and mended.

Finally, if the offender will not even listen to the church, then “let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector”. Most see this as an expulsion from the Church (taken together with 1 Corinthians 5 and other similar passages).

A few things I want you to notice about this process:

it is incredibly graceful. The idea of repentance isn’t to shame or embarrass the person into it, so privacy is emphasized until the very end.

Jesus says to “let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector”, which on the surface doesn’t sound great considering how Gentiles and tax collectors were treated! But someone once said, “Remember how Jesus treated Gentiles and tax collectors.” How did he treat them? Quite well.

The process is meant to purge sin from the church, while also bringing the offender and victim back into communion with one another. We see this process kind of worked out in practice in 1 and 2 Corinthians.

A couple of other things Jesus adds here:

He gives the power of loosing and binding (to forgive or not to forgive) to all believers. This was something that he at first only gave to Peter back in chapter 16. Christians have great power, and forgiveness may be the greatest power that God has bestowed on us, his children.

The other power? Authority. By declaring that he is among us when 2 or 3 gather in his name, He is saying that the Church and it’s members have his authority to make decisions. This is particularly true when “two agree on earth about anything”.

Together, these two things show that the Church has authority on many matters, and especially church discipline.

21-35: Sure Jesus, but how much do we really have to forgive?

That process may sound great in practice, but Peter wants to know what we all want to know: how many times do we have to do it?

He realizes that forgiveness is important, which is why he asks, “Should I forgive my fellow brother or sister up to seven times?” The rabbis taught that you only needed to forgive someone up to three times. Peter, realizing this is an important subject, dares to double that number plus one. Surely that’s enough right?

To which Jesus says, “No.” Not seven times. Seventy-seven times.

Is this literal? No. If you’re counting the number of wrongs a fellow brother or sister is committing against you waiting to hit 77, you’ve completely missed the point.

Jesus clearly wants us to know that there should be no limit to our forgiveness, no matter how difficult it may be. This is the radical way of Jesus. When the rest of the world says, “I will not forgive this person.” Christians step forward and say, “I will.” This is part of what Jesus means when he says that the world will know we are his disciples by our love for one another. Forgiveness of each other is a big part of that.

To get his point across Jesus tells a parable.

The point of this parable is to demonstrate why we should be willing to forgive if we only can acknowledge the unimaginable debt that we have been forgiven.

The King is Jesus. We are the servants.

The first servant was 10,000 talents in debt. A talent was worth about 20 years of labor. Do the math and that is an impossible amount of debt to pay. He deserves everything the king is about to levy against him.

And yet, the king shows him mercy.

But what does the servant do? He goes and finds another servant who only owes him about 3 months worth of debt. The first servant completely forgets the great mercy he was shown, and absolutely refuses to show that same mercy to his fellow servants.

Notice what happens: the debt is reapplied. Jesus makes it clear that the Father will do the same to us if we refuse to show mercy and forgiveness. And it’s not just a superficial forgiveness, but a true forgiveness from the heart.

I will also say that another part of this parable that has always bugged me is the fact that the second servant seemingly wasn’t let out of prison. That might be reading too much into the parable, but I also have to wonder if it shows that our wrongful refusal to forgive someone will have consequences on them (and not just on us).

Conclusion

The bulk of today’s lesson was all about how Jesus Christ expects his children to treat each other. Ultimately, that treatment comes down to forgiving one another. But truthfully, that is one of the hardest things to do. Especially forgiveness without limit.

I once heard a man, who had been deeply hurt be a relative, say, “Surely there’s another way. Surely God knows how hard it is for me to forgive them for what they did.” He was clearly struggling with this and looking for a “way out”.

But when we remember just how much sin Jesus forgave in us, it should be easier for us to forgive others. Not long ago I heard some of my non-Christian friends talking about a particular person who they called, “the worst person on the planet” (they used some explicit language to make their point). I couldn’t really disagree that this person wasn’t a “good person”, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say what they were saying. Why?

Because unlike them, I know how much sin I’ve been forgiven of. I know that, as Paul says, I’ve been the “chief of sinners”. And so forgiveness gets a little bit easier every day.

My prayer this week: if you are currently at odds with a brother or sister in the church, please go find them, address it with them, and then if they are willing to repent, forgive them.