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I spent most of 2024 teaching through the book of Romans. After that we began the Advent series where we examined the experiences of John the Baptist and Jesus in the wilderness. This provided the groundwork for the “Fix Your Faith” series that we just completed last week. Between now and Easter, I’ll build on this “Christ following” biblical examination as we return to our Parables series, this time through the lens of Matthew. If you’re a long time listener, this ties into our “Jesus Blueprint for the Church” series, and we pick up the story after Jesus’ visit to Capernaum, his home town. In Matthew this is chapter 18.

“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.” (Matthew 18:1-4)

Following last week’s “Ten Watersheds” , this teaching of Christ shouldn’t be so easy to gloss over and assume Jesus is asking us to possess “Child like faith.” Can anyone tell me what that is? Jesus isn’t suggesting we become gullible, or easily convinced like a child. This isn’t about being innocent, or morally pure, and Jesus’ heaven isn’t the one Evangelicalism promotes which comes after we die. In the following weeks we are going to explode what Jesus is teaching his disciples, during this very condensed time in his life, prior to being killed by the institutions of religion and state.

To access this teaching we need to explore the Greek which unlocks several pieces which will be picked up in later parables.

First, the Question:

“Who’s the greatest?” Greek word “mégas” Who’s the best…the biggest…the superior one…? We understand this in our world too. As consumers, we seek to buy the best, possess the highest, get the most… In life and career we want to align with those with the most economic, social, religious, and political power (éxsousian). We’re taught to always strive to do our best. It’s a competitive paradigm…in our worldview we’ve mistakenly concluded life is a zero-sum game.

This question came from the disciples who were reimagining a promised new world where Christ has reordered things. Unfortunately, all they did was reimagine it with themselves possessing the power… and that is where this teaching must land in us as well. Why do we want to be the greatest? The “mega”?What do we want to be a part of something big? Jesus is revealing (again) the Kingdom of Heaven is not a Power-over dynamic. Greatness is not a motivator for heaven, but hell on earth. So to explain it, he calls a child to stand before his disciples and says:

“Truly, if you don’t (stréphomai-change, turn around, change your way) change how you approach this new kingdom, and become like (génesthe-be, exist, become) like the children, you will not (eisérzomai– move into, begin, experience, live within) the kingdom of heaven.”

The text is so clear, Heaven and its entrance is here, not later, and the way to access this Eternally Present moment is not by way of everything we already know about power and position, but by changing, turning around, and divesting, emptying our knowledge of power and position and become like a child who has neither power nor position nor knowledge or understanding of such things.

Jesus is saying, “Heaven is joined by “un-knowing.” or said another way: “Certainty closes heaven.”

Forget what you know. It’s not helpful. Religion is useless to a child and must be to you as well. The ‘mega’ in the Kingdom of Heaven are the ‘micron’ (little ones), the un-knowing, the un-certain, those free from ego, pride, and the need for power.

So how do we “go back” and regain this? It’s gained not by addition but by subtraction. We must (tapeinów-undergo a humiliation, a humbling, be made low, embarass, level off). The present Kingdom is not entered “upright” or tall and proud, but bent low, prostrated, and bowed. Jesus folds this question of greatness on its head, by suggesting that the proud heart that would even ask how to be the greatest in the kingdom, will never enter it.

However, if we can die to our false self and give up on having power in this world, there is a payoff.

“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.” (Matthew 18:5-6)

The heart that receives those who are made low in this world, (by refusing the name, number or mark of institutional power) and instead receive Christ’s marks of suffering, and maligned name, and marginalization from power, will receive Christ and his kingdom. That’s so foreign to how we operate today, where we only subscribe to the “mega” with the most subscribers. Those who don’t “un-know” but insist on knowing, have no share in Christ.

This is not easy teaching but it is consistent. In fact, I’m convinced most Christian people have little sense of just how severe this is. World religions have concocted their barriers to entering heaven and they all stand guard with such certainty that what they know is imperative for everyone who wants the afterlife. However, Christ following reveals a different barrier…one that is not like that of Islam, Judaism, Evangelicalism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or Mormonism. These businesses have all become the “mega” and they exist outside the Kingdom of Heaven. So why would any of us put our trust that any of them could get us there?

They can’t. Only Christ can. Physical death is not required to access heaven, but the death of our superficial, proud, false self is. Our pseudonym must be humbled, it must be forgotten, lost in the backdrop of a kingdom in the foreground. The Eternal moment is breaking into each and every moment, when we sit with, bow and join, and let go and forsake all the compulsions and addictions that our surface level life imposes upon us.

The way to life is constricted (thlebo), we can bring nothing through the turnstile. Mega is the superhighway.

Imagine us discussing on a sea shore an island just over the horizon. Everything we could have learned about the island has less value once we’ve been there. Through the experience, we “unknow” what we thought we knew.

Religion and greatness doesn’t get anyone to heaven, instead we must find humility, smallness, and bow down in order to rise up, we must be made small to become great. We must forget and un-know if we are to truly understand by experiencing. This isn’t double speak, it’s the counter-intuitive kingdom where everything works unlike the exousian of this world, and once discovered and experienced, we learn a new way to live and be (exist): that is in love and freedom and peace, not hatred and captivity and competition.

If you want heaven, sit still and become small.