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Robert Fulghum once wrote in the Kansas City times, “Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten.” I’m sure a lot of you have heard this quote before, I know I have heard it several times. But it wasn’t until earlier this week that I heard the rest of this saying where Fulghum actually tells what it is that he learned. He writes “These are the things I learned; Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody…When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.” With this Fulghum, intentionally or unintentionally captured the essence of what Jesus was saying in today’s Gospel lesson “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” What does this mean? What does it mean that we have to be like a child?
In verse 13 of this passage we read that people were bringing children to Jesus on the chance that Jesus might touch them. This was actually a pretty common practice back in those days. People would bring children to a respected rabbi so that the child would be blessed by the rabbi. This is why people were bringing all those children to Jesus.
The immediate response of the disciples was to tell them to leave. The translation used for today’s lesson uses the phrase “spoke sternly to them,” but the original Greek translates as Rebuke. This is much stronger than to speak sternly to someone. Rebuke has a somewhat threatening tone to it. By using rebuke it’s revealed that the disciples were very upset at what the people were doing. They couldn’t believe that anyone would have the nerve to bring children to Jesus.
Now, it’s real easy to comdemn the disciples for their actions here but we shouldn’t be too hard on them. They knew that Jesus was headed to the cross and they were just trying to do their job of protecting him. But as strong as the disciples reaction to the people bringing children to Jesus was, Jesus’ own reaction to the disciples was equally strong. The translation used today contains the word indignant which is pretty strong and matches up with the translation from Greek which would be “got angry.” The fact that the disciples would send children away made Jesus very angry. This is the only time in the New Testament that this word is used to describe anything that Jesus did. Jesus had a special place in His heart for children. He loves everyone equally but He knew that there was something about being a child that is eventually got lost as a person went into adulthood.
One of the reasons that the disciples reacted as strongly as they did was because back then children did not hold a very revered place in society. In fact it has been written that children then were considered to be the lowest and the least of society. But when Jesus speaks of them he says that “it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” So, in worldly society children were not valued very highly but in the Kingdom of God they are valued very highly, in fact Jesus tells us that we must be like a child before we can receive the Kingdom of God.
Jesus didn’t say that the Kingdom of God could be received only by children but only to “such as these.” In other words, only those who are like children can receive the Kingdom of God. So what does that mean? How can we be like children? There are certain qualities that we all associate with childhood; Innocence, purity that type of thing. But those are qualities but they’re not really characteristics that we can strive toward.
So what is it that Jesus is talking about. What is it about children that Jesus wants us to strive toward. A book entitled “For families only” that came out in 1977 published the results of an experiment that took place in a Sunday School class in Brookside, New Jersey. In this experiment a group of ten year olds were asked the question “What’s wrong with grownups?” These are some of the answers that they were given:
Grownups make promises, then they forget all about them, or else they say it wasn’t really a promise, just a maybe.
Grownups don’t do the things they’re always telling the children to do-like pick up their things, or be neat or always tell the truth.
Grownups never really listen to what children have to say. They always decide ahead of time what they are going to answer.
Grownups make mistakes, but they won’t admit them. They always pretend that they weren’t mistakes at all-or that somebody else made them.
Grownups interrupt children all the time and think nothing of it. If a child interrupts a grownup, they get a scolding or something worse.
Grownups never understand how much children want a certain thing-a certain color or shape or size. If it’s something they don’t admire-even if the children have spent their money for it-they always say “I can’t imagine what you want with that old thing.”
Sometimes grownups punish children unfairly. It isn’t right if you’ve done just some little thing wrong and grownups take away something that means an awful lot to you. Other times you can do something really bad and they say they’re going to punish you, but they don’t. You never know, and you ought to know.
Grownups are always talking about what they did and what they knew when they were 10 years old-but they never try to think what it’s like to be 10 years old right now.
Now that list is kind of humorous and kind of cute and it’s meant to be that way. But it also contains quite a bit of truth. Throughout that list and all of the complaints, there were elements of unreliability, hypocrisy, deceitfulness and double standards. These are all learned behaviors and we become more and more de-sensitized to them as we grow up. So, certainly we can see why it is that an adult state of mind isn’t what Jesus has in mind for those who inherit his kingdom. As an adult we become jaded, it becomes easy to rationalize questionable behavior if we believe it’s working toward what we might consider to be a greater good and we don’t have the same expectations for ourselves that we have for children.
But what exactly did Jesus mean when He said that we must be “as a little child” to receive the Kingdom of God? In preparing for this sermon, I came across several different opinions on what was meant when Jesus said we must be “as a little child.” Some have said that what Jesus is referring to is honesty. And that’s nice. But c’mon are children really that honest? I wasn’t when I was a kid. When I look back at my childhood I am amazed at how dishonest I was at times; hiding report cards from my parents, telling my parents that I was going to go see “The Bad News Bears” but actually going to see “The Exorcist.” But I think I payed for that by not being able to sleep for the next week, continuing to hang out with friends after my parents decided that they were a bad influence on me and that I shouldn’t hang out with them anymore.
I have also heard some people say that Jesus was talking about the humility of a child. Are children humble? I remember when my sister had her second child. It was a pretty tough adjustment for her first child, my niece Natalie. Prior to the arrival of her younger sister, Natalie was not only the only child of my sister, but the only grandchild of my parents and the only niece or nephew of myself and my other sister. So the idea of all of a sudden having to share the spotlight was a pretty tough one for her to embrace. People who are inherently humble don’t have a problem sharing the spotlight.
I have read some interpretations to say that what Jesus was talking about was a complete and utter dependence on parents that children have. I will say that for the most part, children are dependent on their parents throughout their childhood. But that doesn’t mean it’s a willful dependence. Children do depend on their parents for love and support, among other things, but it’s not easy for them to realize how dependent they are on their parents. Consequently, children are pretty young when they begin to seek out their own independence. Kyle is not even three years old and his typical response when being told to do something is “I don’t want to go to bed” or “I don’t want to brush my teeth” or “I don’t want to eat.” Kyle’s dependent on Sheila and I, but it seems like every day he’s losing sight of that. I think if Jesus were talking about dependence, it would be a willful dependence.
So, if it is not humility, honesty or dependency then what is it that Jesus is talking about? One trait or quality that we gain through life experience is wisdom. Wisdom comes about through maturity and maturity comes through insight from life experience. But we can’t be wise, mature or insightful without also being at least a little cynical. In one sense this is a good thing because it does lead to a somewhat worldly wisdom but it also leads to suspicion, paranoia, self righteousness etc. It all stems from that little bit of cynicism that we gain from life experience. I believe this strikes at the heart of what Jesus was talking about.
In our epistle lesson we read “God left nothing outside their control, as it is we do not yet see everything in subjection to them.” Now, this translation uses the “their control” which would make it seem that the author was talking about people being in control. But again, going back to the Greek, it is translated as “His control.” Several other English translations, including the King James and the NIV, use “His control.” This would make it seem that the author was talking about Jesus’ control as opposed to people’s.
But then we read that not everybody is subjecting to that control. Why is it that not everybody is subjecting to that control? I believe it’s because they have failed to be “as a little child.” Young children believe what people tell them because they haven’t had the life experience that instills that cynicism that comes with adulthood. They have no reason not to believe because they don’t know any better.
I remember when I was in the Navy, a friend of mine had a 5 year old son. I stayed at their house one night and the next morning I went on a walk. When I came back their son was up, watching television. He asked me where I went. I said I went on a walk. He asked me where. I said the moon. I started telling him that my shoes were specially made by NASA and that they were issued to just a few people in the military. I told him they had space cameras built in them and that I would take pictures on the moon for NASA. Then I told him that he couldn’t tell his dad about it because his dad didn’t know about them because he wasn’t issued any. He believed every word of it. As far as he could tell, he had no reason to doubt me. He didn’t have that life experience that would eventually instill in him the cynicism that comes with adulthood.
I believe that’s what Jesus was talking about when He said we must be “as a little child.” He calls us to step away from our life experience and the cynicism that it creates. In our Old Testament lesson we read about Adam and Eve. This lesson takes place at a time when they were still under grace, before sin had entered the garden. Sin didn’t come into the garden until seeds of doubt were planted in their heads. They began to question what God had told them. Ultimately God had to show His authority to them.
Cynicism leads to doubt. Doubt leads to a desire for proof. Proof comes from man, hence you can only prove what man creates. Belief in God requires faith and faith only comes from God. When you seek proof you lose faith.
But when you step away from your life experience and the cynicism and paranoia and doubt that it creates you become “as a little child.” And when you become “as a little child” you allow yourself to be filled with the faith of God and thus you inherit the Kingdom of God.
Amen