Our text begins with a question: At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”[1]

The question exposes the disciples’ real interests. They are interested in power, prestige, and preeminence. They desire greatness. Indeed, more than simple greatness, they desire – like Muhammad Ali – to be known as “the greatest”!

The disciples anticipate the inbreaking of God’s kingdom at any moment. They know themselves to be the Messiah’s closest companions – his right-hand men. They have great expectations of military conquest. As Messiah’s right-hand men, they believe they have every right to share in the spoils of victory including special privileges, exalted position, and ultimately, great power! They desire to be remembered as the great and mighty men of renown – the heroes of the kingdom. And like all power-hungry people, they will not rest until their reputation is secured as “the greatest.”

Jesus responds to their question in a way that his disciples could never have anticipated: And He called a child to Himself and set him before them.[2]Imagine the scene: Jesus calls a small child and sets him in the midst of the disciples – a little lad surrounded by big men. A weak, helpless, wide-eyed child –more interested in playing than in power – becomes a living “object lesson.”

With child in hand, Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted (lit. “are turned”) and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”[3] Jesus emphatically declares[4] to his disciples that they are looking at “the greatest” in the kingdom. They are gazing at one of the unlikely heroes of God’s kingdom. The hero is not great according to the standard of the kingdoms of this world. But in relation to the kingdom of God, the young child is the standard of greatness. The child is the model they must imitate. They must become like him. They have no option. It is impossible to participate in God’s kingdom otherwise. They must abandon their wrong views of greatness, “turning” from them, in order to enter and receive God’s kingdom.

Jesus’ disciples held a wrong understanding of greatness because they had a wrong view of God’s kingdom. God's kingdom is not of this world. It does not function like the world's kingdoms. Neither military strategy, political maneuvering, intellectual prowess, nor physical strength are the key to its power. In God’s kingdom, true greatness is found in childlikeness. This paradox is at the heart of God’s kingdom.

As prophesied by Isaiah, in the kingdom of God “a little child shall lead them.”[5] The key to the kingdom is found in this paradox: when we are childlike, then we are mature. We are to remain forever young in childlikeness! We are to “grow up” by “growing young” for “spiritual childhood is not only the way to Heaven, it is Heaven's very life.”[6]

In this message, I would like to help you “grow young” by nurturing a childlike faith – the mark of true greatness in God’s kingdom. Obviously there are some characteristics children display that we do not want to imitate - selfishness, impatience, fits of anger, etc. We don’t aspire to be childish (exhibiting the unfavorable qualities of children) but childlike (exhibiting the favorite qualities). Childlikeness is not the refusal to grow up (which is childish), but growing up by growing young. “There is no one less childlike than the man who with adult obstinacy refuses to grow up.”[7]

Characteristics of Childlikeness

Powerless and Weak
“Children are not in charge of the world, and they know it.”[8] Children are not afraid to ask for help. As adults, we hesitate to admit our needs to one another. Asking for help is humiliating, an admission of weakness and dependence. We do not want others to know how much we depend upon them for our well-being.

Children have no such reservation. Their very well-being depends on the benevolence of others. For this reason, they have no problem asking for what they want. “Fathers don't have to teach their children to pull on Daddy's trousers repeatedly when they want something... Making requests comes quite naturally to little children. It is the only way they ever get what they want.”[9]

Young children have a natural instinct to trust their parents. They possess a natural inclination to relate to their parents in the way we should relate to God. Their status is one of complete helplessness. They are absolutely dependant. Everything they receive is a gift: “Children at first earn nothing and are given everything.”[10]

“Faith is for the helpless.”[11] Those unwilling to admit their helplessness, need, and dependence will never learn to trust others, primarily because they will never have the courage to admit their need. Yet, no one of us exists independently. All of us enter the world naked, needy, and vulnerable. Many of us will exit life in the same way. Unless we are willing to admit our weakness, we will never know the strength of God sustaining and carrying us.

Without Status
Children were less important in Greco-Roman and Jewish cultures than in contemporary American society. They possessed no social status. Plato represents the Greek perspective in The Republic, classifying children as inferior beings, along with slaves, women, and beasts (431c). Jewish culture fared no better: “A child was a person of no importance in Jewish society, subject to the authority of his elders, not taken seriously except as a responsibility, one to be looked after, not one to be looked up to.”[12] In the Jewish Mishnah R. Dosa b. Harkinas lists four things that will lead to the ruin of a man: “(1) Sleeping late in the morning, (2) drinking wine at noon, (3) chatting with children, and (4) attending the synagogues of the ignorant.”

Even though children were without status in the ancient world, God has given them the highest honor by entering the world as a child. Through the incarnation of Christ, God has forever sanctified childhood. In Christ, God became flesh — God became a child. “When the Father's mighty Word left from singing Heaven to silent earth, He placed himself in dependency on a mother, first in the womb and later at the breast.”[13] Christ began his earthly life without status or significance, in the lowly life of a child. By doing this, God has given childhood great status and significance.

Simple and Easily Satisfied
It doesn't take much to make children happy. Buy a child an expensive toy, and he or she will have more fun with the box it came in. When my daughter Carmen was a baby, she always had more fun with candy wrappers and potato chip bags than any toy.

The “law of diminishing returns” is not a law for children. Children have an incredible ability to enjoy things again and again. Ravi Zacharias calls this “a child's propensity to exult in the monotonous.”[14]

Children have so little, yet live so fully. They prove to us that life does not consist in things.

Don't miss the irony here. Children experience such joy in life, yet they possess so few of the things that adults crave. They have no money, no prestige, no sex life, no power. They have few possessions and even fewer choices. How content would you be if someone denied you your ‘adult rights’ to own property, drive a car, dine in fine restaurants, and choose when to go to bed? Then think about it for a moment – have those adult rights ever brought you happiness?[15]

Abundant life is not found in an abundance of choices, possessions, or power. “Strange, isn’t it? Little children have so few choices, but they have so much life. Their possessions and power are so scarce, yet their lives are so abundant.”[16]

Transparent
“Somewhere in the process of growing up, we begin to design masks to disguise our true feelings. We build up walls around us so that we can hide away with our hurts.”[17] Children do not suffer from such things. They are always transparent and sometimes painfully honest. “I have a stinky diaper,” “You stink,” and “Are you a boy or a girl?” are some of the candid (and sometimes embarrassing) things children spout out.

We adults have learned that if you want to get anywhere in this world, do not tell anyone what you really think. Children are not yet this sophisticated. They insist, without knowing it, on being themselves. If they feel like crying, they cry.[18] If they feel like laughing, they laugh. They hold nothing back, being fully present in the moment, transparent to the eyes, hiding nothing.[19] You don't have to guess what children are thinking or feeling. “They stand in front of you with wide-open eyes and let you look freely into their souls. Most children say immediately what they feel. They will not say one thing to your face and another behind your back. Their childlikeness simply will not permit them to do otherwise.”[20]

Children are candid in prayer. They know nothing of canned formulas, over-used clichés, and religiously-correct words. Children's prayers are usually very simple and to the point. Children tell God what they are genuinely thinking – honestly, simply, and directly. When I tuck my daughter Carmen into bed each night, I ask her what she wants to thank God for from the previous day. We have prayed prayers of gratitude for everything from Barbie to Batman, from parties to preschool, from cake to church. She has not yet learned to pray for so-called “spiritual things” primarily because no “secular thing” exists in her world – all things are sacramental, means of grace to her straight from God.

Learners
Children are aware of their need to grow. Who asks more questions than children?

Grownups are supposed to be just that… grownup. Questions can be embarrassing for adults. They are a way of admitting that we don't know something. They openly reveal our ignorance.

Questions also make grownups uncomfortable. What if there are no answers? The well-being of children is not so hung up on having all the right answers. The mere process of questioning is enjoyed for its own sake. “Children's questions are more than a request for information. Their questions are an act of affection, of communion, and of trusting. In a healthy family, children's questions are not about answers—their questions are about relationship. Children intuitively know their questions are welcome, appreciated. Safe.”[21]

We must accept the fact that we will always be learners in this life. There are many questions we have that will never be answered. There are many answers we have that need to be questioned. When we assume we know everything, we can be assured we know nothing.[22] We must strive to remain teachable like children. It is a shame to be arrogant, not ignorant.

Children are such learners that failure does not stop them. “The love of learning turns babies into crawlers, crawlers into stumblers, and stumblers into walkers. Nothing stops children from learning. Hard floors and bruised knees don't defeat their crawling. And humiliating public tumbles don't hinder their learning to walk.”[23] Adults generally try something once, and if they fail, they quit. One good public failure is often enough to stop an adult dead in their tracks. Children are completely different. “[T]oddlers never consider failure to be final. Imagine a crawler falling on his first attempt at toddling and declaring, ‘Well, that's it. I guess I was never meant to walk’?”[24]

Playful
Children know how to play. Playfulness is looked down upon in our efficient society. We are far too important to waste time playing.

Playfulness is not a welcome idea for most of us. It sounds frivolous and shallow, distracting and irrelevant, inefficient and unproductive. That's because we live in a technological culture that worships busyness and activity… Play is an expression of God's presence in the world; one clear sign of God's absence in society is the absence of playfulness and laughter. Play is not an escape; it is the way to release the life-smothering grip of busyness, stress, and anxiety.[25]

Play is serious business with God. He built into the world a rhythm of life that demands we devote at least one day a week to playful rest, lest we destroy ourselves through ambition, self-importance, and overwork. He established three major festivals a year for Israel to take a break from the tediousness of life and simply celebrate food, fellowship, and faith with laughter, joy, and delight. In light of the gospel, should we do any less?

Children know how to laugh. “And when did you last laugh? I don't mean a momentary chuckle at a funny joke. I mean a real guffaw. I mean the uproarious, buckled-over, breathless, begging-for-relief kind of laugh. I mean the uncontrolled belly laugh of a baby who’s being tickled. What adult doesn't crave such uncluttered joy?”[26] If you can not laugh at yourself and at life you are taking yourself far too seriously. Fanatics lose their sense of humor through delusions of their own self-importance. Disciples recognize how silly we can sometimes be.

Celebrative
Children love celebrations – birthdays, growth charts, first steps, etc. We clap our hands so easily for children, why not for each other? Last week, I attended an open gym day at my child’s preschool. All the parents clapped for all the children when they did simple things like jump on a trampoline, do somersaults, and hop through hoops. They did not accomplish anything earth-shattering, but there was a palpable joy among the parents that was expressed through constant applause. We knew that the children needed our support and love, and like good caring parents, we freely gave it – to our own child and to others.

The church should do the same. The church is a place to love and be loved, to know and be known, to serve and be served, and (the one most often neglected) to celebrate and be celebrated. Why do we have such a difficult time celebrating the gifts, abilities, contributions, and simple presence of one another? To “rejoice with those who rejoice” is always much more difficult than to “weep with those who weep” and yet both are inseparably united in the Scriptures (Romans 12:15). In order to “rejoice with those who rejoice” we must crush our own pride and self-importance. We must consider others better than ourselves. We can retain our pride and self-importance when we “weep with those who weep” – applauding ourselves for being so sensitive to others who are worse off (read: not as important) than we are.

Optimistic
Children don't fall into pessimism, despair, or bitterness. If they do, it is but momentary. They quickly forget it and start anew. “Every day is a fresh start. Every morning, when children get up, they believe the day will be good.”[27]

Hope reigns supreme in the world of the child. “They have little past to look back on... And plenty of future to look forward to. They are ardent and enthusiastic and so ready for any task, however arduous. They have faced a few setbacks, so they feel they can do anything.”[28] Like children, we have plenty of future to look forward to. Sin, despair, and death are never the final word. Nothing – no matter how difficult, threatening, or disheartening – can stop God’s redemptive purpose in Christ. There is therefore always reason to hope. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, not things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[29]

Unsophisticated
Children are unencumbered by worldly wisdom. They are not sophisticated enough yet. They do not know everything yet. (This is reserved for the teenage years — although some of us never break out of this delusion!)

Children are not “worldly-wise.” They have not “seen it all.” They are not “grim professors in grey suits.”[30] Instead of “been there, done that” they exclaim, “done that, let’s do it again!” The soul, as well as the body, ages. Many people have “old souls” in young bodies. The life has been drained out of them through bitterness, cynicism, and boredom. They have little space in their dried-up soul for the light of truth. Reality can hardly pierce through the hardened shell of a sophisticated soul. This is demonstrated in a prayer Jesus offered to the Father: “I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You hid these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to babes. Yes, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing in your sight.”[31]

Imaginative
Children have not lost their imagination to their intellect. For many grownups, the intellect devours the imagination, leaving them unable to dream of great realities. By losing the imagination, we lose the ability to reflect and meditate upon the vast significance of biblical truth. Richard Foster writes,

The inner world of meditation is most easily entered through the door of imagination… It comes so spontaneously to children, but for years now we have been trained to disregard the imagination, even to fear it… Just as children need to learn to think logically, adults needs to rediscover the magical reality of the imagination.

Full of Wonder
We've lost a childlike sense of wonder toward the world. With the loss of imagination comes the loss of wonder. As a result the world – a sacred place overflowing with God’s glory – becomes a secular prison. We rise every morning to a secular clock, eat secular food, drink secular coffee, watch secular news, go to secular work, come home to secular rest, and go to secular sleep. All predictable, empty, and hollow.

Jesus sought constantly to open the eyes and minds of his listeners to the wonders of the world God created for us: “Look at the birds of the air, the lilies of the field, the hair on your heard. Do you see the heavens declaring God’s glory? Do you sense the presence and care of God in all things? Do you understand how fearfully and wonderfully made you are? Do you realize how full of God this world is? Only the spiritual blind would miss out! Open your eyes to the wonder and mystery of the world God has made!”

There is so much magic and mystery in an ordinary day. Children see this: “Children find the ordinary as intriguing as the extraordinary… children have an innate leveling mechanism that keeps reality in perspective. They are neither overly impressed with power or unimpressed with the ordinary.”[32] It is not some super-spiritualized world that a child delights in, but the real world of flesh and bone, fire, air, water, and dirt that God has given us. “Simply to exist is wonderful, God's first gift, and, unless the wickedness of men frustrate him, no one has more natural capacity to enjoy the gift or sense the wonder than the child. The child does not normally walk around in a kind of 'dazed day-dream'; no, it is things which he finds wonderful; he loves the splendor were of the real.”[33]

We need to recapture this wonder. The world is no less enchanted simply because we are grownups. “Adults haven't lost the ability to look at their hands, inspect bugs, spy the moon, or fly a kite. Grownups have lost the wonder that once accompanied such simple things.”[34]

We've divided the world into secular and sacred without warrant. The whole world is sacred – sacramental – a means through which to encounter God, to experience wonder, to know life. Perhaps G. K. Chesterton can put us right:

You say grace before meals. All right.
But I say grace before the play and the opera,
And grace before the concert and pantomime,
And grace before I open a book,
And grace before sketching, painting,
Swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing;
And grace before I dip the pen in the ink.

This kind of prayer ruffles fundamentalist feathers! The world is not a sinking ship, but a glorious ruin in the messy process of renovation. Material creation is not bad (a heresy named Gnosticism) but is good. The opposite of “spiritual” is not physical, but dead. To be spiritual is to be alive – fully alive, fully human – embracing, enjoying, and giving thanks to God for all his gifts.

We need to recover mystery. Biblically speaking, mystery is a profound truth that is so profound it can never be explained away – the mystery cannot be removed. It can only be embraced and enjoyed – never defined. It becomes ever more precious, delightful, and attractive upon each reflection. God is shrouded in mystery. God’s world is also, to a lesser degree. If we become bored with God and with life, we have no reason to believe that others will be interested in knowing God. Indeed, to become bored with God proves that one does not know God very well at all.

A Lost Treasure

Do you ever feel like you have lost something precious? I do. And then I am reminded of the importance – indeed, the necessity – of childlikeness.

Terry Scott Taylor has written a haunting song entitled “Ever After” that demonstrates how the daily grind of life can drown out the deeper mysteries that surround us – mysteries that children intuitively see, accept, and relish.

She makes her way to the factory
She's living this side of the rainbow
Oh, broken hearts giving up on "happy ever after"
She seldom cries
She's gotten used to steel-grey skies

Out to the train, thru the turnstile
Down to the city he goes
Oh lovely view, but he just sees a job to do
They all get by
And Grandma's there when baby cries

Chorus:
No happy ever afters
They're working the holidays
They've lost their love and laughter
Locking their hearts away

Evening--and she sets the tableware
He is delayed at the depot
Late home again, she asks him how his day has been
He says, "The same. The paper says it looks like rain."

Over black coffee and cigarettes
They try counting blessings and old debts
So much for dreams--they just come true on TV screens
Oh they'll get by
And Grandma's there when baby cries (Repeat chorus)

Baby sleeps and [baby] sails up over the moon
Jesus in a castle meets her,
feeds her with a golden spoon
Baby wakes, and in her eyes
shines light from the soul
The kind that mommy used to carry
so long ago.[35]

Have we lost our “happy ever afters” – losing love, laughter, our very soul? Have we lost the “light from the soul” that Taylor attributes to the little child – “the kind that mommy used to carry so long ago”?

Simply consider your journey to church this morning: Did you let your preoccupation with people, programs, or pressures crowd out your capacity to wonder? Were you too busy to see the trees, enjoy the sky, wonder at the clouds? Were you so blind that you overlooked the glories that surrounded you? And if you missed all this, why? Can we really call this spirituality, when it appears to simply be frenetic, self-preoccupied, busyness – the dull routine of mindless and heartless existence? And we wonder why unbelievers simply ignore us! “One of the reasons so few of us ever come to our full stature as human beings is that we have lost this spirit of childlike seeking, something that is very difficult to regain once it has been conditioned out of us.”[36]

We need to remember that the Gospel is good news. In the prologue to William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament published in 1526, Tyndale describes the gospel: “Euangelio (that which we call gospel) is a Greek word, and signifies good, merry, and joyful tidings, that makes a heart glad, and makes [one] sing, dance, and leap for joy.” We must never forget that the sound the gospel produces is not wailing but laughter. A child’s uninhibited laughter deeply reflects the truth undiscovered by most of the world – the good news of great joy to all people that Christ is the loving and gracious Lord to all who will receive!

Conclusion

Eventually this question arises in any group, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom?” Like the disciples, we constantly need to remind ourselves of what true greatness and true power consists of, for it has no reflection in the power systems of this world. The greatest in the kingdom is a child. Only when we are childlike are we mature. The most mature among us will be the most childlike. The true hero of the kingdom – the greatest, the most powerful – is the one who is most like a child.

Through a pursuit of childlikeness, we remain forever young, experiencing the very life of God’s kingdom – a life that continues throughout eternity. Our soul grows up by growing young.

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Child, though I am meant to teach you much,
what is it, in the end,
except that together we are
meant to be children of the same Father
and I must unlearn
all the adult structure
and the encumbering years
and you must teach me
to look at the earth and the heaven
with your fresh wonder. -- Jane Clement

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© Richard J. Vincent, 2004