After the Transfiguration takes the road to Jerusalem and his eventual passion, death, and resurrection. Along the way there are no more large crowds, big miracles, or big sermons, rather he concentrates on his last teaching for his disciples. Today’s Gospel reading comes from that journey along the way to Jerusalem.
Along the road to Jerusalem some of the disciples thought that Jesus was going to establish a new earthly, political kingdom by setting up a new kingdom following in the steps of King David. So, naturally questions would arise as to how to be great in that kingdom or who would occupy the important positions in Jesus’ new government. Who would be the greatest? One part of the Gospel even states that these questions lead to division among the disciples.
In reply to those questions Jesus proposes the image of a child. It is hard for us as modern readers of the Gospel to understand how shocking Jesus’ statement about children was to his contemporaries. In our modern culture each person is considered important and has guaranteed rights. Children are held in high regard and are protected by special laws. We even have a separate court system just for minors and family matters. But in Jesus’ time children had no rights and were in a sense not considered real people until they reached about 13 years of age. They were completely dependent on their families with no rights, no voice and in one extreme considered part of the household goods. Children are dependent, the least of all, must obey, serve everyone else, and must be attentive to their elders. All those characteristics go against our desires to be important, to be independent, and to impose our will on others.
The greatest in the Kingdom of God is a child, the one considered the least important, the one that is dependent, the one who obeys, the most humble, the one who serves, and the one who is lost.
In Matthew’s Gospel one of the first teachings on the way to Jerusalem is this image of turning to become like a child which means our own conversion process – renouncing ourselves.
Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Image: https://reflectionsonhim.com/2019/08/13/to-be-a-child/