A Study of Matthew: Who Is the Greatest?

Matthew 18:1–20 ESV

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 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. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 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. “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! 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. 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. “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. 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? And if he finds it, 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. “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. 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. 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. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

What defines greatness?

The disciples come to Jesus asking who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They want to know how to impress God. Maybe they are hoping that Jesus will point out all the things they are doing right.

Instead, Jesus puts a child in the middle of their circle. “You have to be like a child if you want to be great in the kingdom.” How does this even make sense?

Time and time again, Jesus keeps reminding us that the kingdom of God has a value system completely opposite of the world’s. We keep pushing to improve ourselves. Everybody is playing “king of the mountain”, each of us desperately fighting to be the one on top.

God’s kingdom, on the other hand, values recognizing our limits. Jesus says to come as a child. Isn’t that exactly what he did? The Son of God, the second part of the Trinity, set aside omnipotence to become a tiny, fragile baby. He learned to walk, to talk. The ruler of all submitted himself to human authority. Can you imagine the Creator of all things learning how to build things from Joseph? The one whom Psalm 121:1 Describes as never he who never slumbers nor sleeps, cradled in Mary’s arms?

Remember the Sermon on the Mount back in Matthew 5? Jesus starts listing the people he considers blessed. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’s sake. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on Jesus’ account.

Why would Jesus consider these things blessings? It’s not the persecution that is the blessing. It’s the fact that the persecution is a sign that you are doing things right in God’s eyes. God wants us to recognize that being vulnerable is good, because it shows us how much we need him.

2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When we accept our limits, we give God room to display his strength. It gives us a reason to follow him, and in doing so, act as a guide to those even weaker than we are. That’s why there is a curse on anyone who causes someone else to stumble and fall away from the faith.

I had a conversation with someone this past week who shared with me about a young man they know who felt called into ministry. He prepared a sermon and showed it to his pastor, who criticized it—and the boy—mercilessly. The boy was so shook up, he quit going to church and fell into drugs. It’s been many years since that happened to the boy, and he is only now starting to get his life back together, but he is still untrusting where things of God are concerned. Some day, that pastor is going to have to face God for his treatment of that young man.

But what drove that pastor to do what he did? It was an attitude of superiority. The fact that he chose to tear down that boy rather than help him improve shows that he misunderstands what God values. None of us are perfect. We all make mistakes. We are all tempted, and we all fall.

Matthew 18:8–9 ESV

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. 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.

How many of us are ready to gouge out our eyes and cut off our appendages in order to overcome temptation? I didn’t think so. Jesus is pointing out how hard is is for us to overcome temptation on our own. We NEED the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome, to be victorious.

Remembering just how messed up we are helps us have mercy for others when they fall. They may struggle with something that you don’t struggle with, but then again, you may struggle with something they don’t. God makes us a body so that we can complement each other.

We make ourselves accountable to each other, so that we can help each other grow in Christ.

The moment I begin to think of myself as “having arrived” spiritually is the moment I fail. I do not have all the answers. I hardly know the questions, let alone the answers!

We are so keen to be great. Even the shyest among us want to be acknowledged and appreciated by others. Each of us has at least one thing that we are famous for, whether it be some record we earned in our youth or our skills today. Even if it is for just one thing, like your award-winning rhubarb pie recipe.

And there is nothing wrong with that desire. But, like everything else, we need to put that desire into God’s hands. I want to be great, but I want be great in the right things, for the right reasons.

Jesus talks about the shepherd leaving the 99 to find the one lost sheep. It’s not that the other 99 are not important. The shepherd may be leaving the 99 at the moment, but he’s not abandoning them. They have no reason to be jealous of the one that the shepherd went after. The 99 are not superior to the lost one. They don’t have it all figured out. They don’t get to condemn or make fun of the one that got lost. It could just as easily been one of them who was lost. They are being cared for by a good shepherd.

Sometimes we, as Christians, can get arrogant. We have our walk with the Lord. And we see those wretched souls out there who don’t know the Lord. But instead of doing what we can to help them, love them, and lead them to the kingdom, we judge them and make them feel less than human. We make them feel that even God couldn’t love them. We say things to them like, “Why don’t you come to church sometime?” And under our breath, we say, “Lord knows you need it.”

But, folks, the only use the church is to someone like that is in introducing them to Jesus. How can they believe God loves them when we don’t?

We need to demonstrate love. Remember how 1 Corinthians 13:7 says,

1 Corinthians 13:7 ESV

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Jesus instructs us that, when we believers fall into a dispute, we need to respond out of love, assuming the best in each other.

Matthew 18:15 ESV

“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.

He goes on to say that, if you can’t settle it peacefully on your own, then you should bring a few trusted other people to listen to the both of you and help figure things out. Only if one of the two parties demonstrates an unrepentant attitude should the matter be brought to the church.

What I think Jesus is saying is that, if we start with the assumption that whatever happened was done unintentionally, and we approach the other person with a position of humility, peace can be achieved. If we go in, guns blazing, “WHAT in the world is going on here? WHO do you think you are?” We have turned it into a fight from the beginning. But what happens when it turns out that YOU were the one in the wrong, misunderstanding the situation and taking offense where no offense was given? We need to start from a place of humility, remembering how messed up we are.

I mean, Jesus tells his disciples that, even if a person refuses to repent after being confronted by the whole church, the church should simply regard him as a “tax collector or a Gentile”,—in other words, someone who is lost and needs the Lord. We don’t hate them. We pray for them to hear from God and turn to him, because, for all their religiousness, they are lost. And weren’t we all just as lost, at one point? Don’t we all still fail sometimes?

Who in here wants to be great in God’s kingdom? Come to Jesus as a child. Realize that there is still so much to learn. There is so much growing that still needs to happen. None of us have arrived yet. It’s when we realize how small we are that we can see how big God really is. That’s when we can be useful.