“He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:2-3
In our modernized world of idolatry of intellectualism and self-actualization, we have been taught and continue to teach the pursuance of everything and anything that takes us away from being a child.
So whether it is going off to study in places of higher education as a way to join the adult world; or whether it takes the more rebellious form of adopting the less-than-stellar habits of the adult world, such as smoking, drinking, doing drugs; or whether it is a material migration in the form of moving out of the family home and adorning one’s life with the accouterments that signify adulthood (apartment, house, car, marriage), it seems to me that nobody would ever say they want to remain a child, or go back to that mindset once they’ve shed it.
Why does Jesus say we must become like children to enter the kingdom of God, and why don’t we do it? His reasons and our reasons are intertwined:
Once we claim Christ as Lord, we give up our self-elected kingship over our own person (and for many, a hard-won personal kingship at that!). Many are opposed to giving up that control.
We don’t want to concede to our elders when we find ourselves—surprisingly—beginning to be drawn to the Christian faith of our parents or grandparents—the very faith we vowed to resist, re-invent, re-configure or reject altogether! The crossroad here is to either swallow our pride and follow the pull towards faith, or to rebel, headstrong, and turn the other way.
It’s ironic that many who pat themselves on the back for being independent when they reject Biblical faith are in reality simply refusing faith because they can’t stand the thought of their parents and grandparents being right! These so-called “independent thinkers” are as far from independence as one can get, because they are allowing their obstinate determination to remain separate from their parents dictate their worldview. Thus, they are more connected than ever to their parents.
Other reasons one may balk at becoming childlike, and why Jesus insists upon it:
We may remember being vulnerable as a child, and who wants to return to that?
We’ve no interest in the things that interested us as a child: reading, for instance, or unfeigned innocence.
We may think becoming childlike means re-entering a past we are quite content with not re-visiting.
But the main reason, I believe, that folks don’t become childlike in order to enter the kingdom is because they don’t know they must! And that’s precisely why Jesus tells us.
A person close to me once said of my faith, “That’s great for you, I mean, you read books and you’re smart.”
Her implication was that faith in Christ is for “smart” people.
I was incredulous that she saw being born again, along with Bible comprehension, as an intellectual exercise!
Is that what we’ve made it?
Because Christ certainly did not!
Here’s what I wish I had said to this person:
“Actually, it was because I was so highly educated that I had a very difficult time coming to faith in Christ!”
Yes, my love of reading is what got the ball rolling and sealed the deal, so to speak. It was through my initial reading of Scripture (as a yet non-believer) that God quickened my heart and His Spirit began to secure me. But since I began reading it before I was actually Spirit-filled, just like the Ethiopian in Acts 8, I did not know what I was reading. It would be another five years of on again off again Scripture reading before I would meet Jesus head on and enter His world—and that His Spirit would enter me.
This is not to say that it’s more difficult for an educated person to enter the kingdom than an un-educated person. It means that educated or not, we all have to ditch our adult worldview and become like children. The woman who made the comment to me had to ditch her adult perception that only “smart” people can read the Bible.
If we are totally honest with ourselves, although we look like adults, speak like adults and live like adults, many of us are still very much like a child on the inside: fearful, lonely, sad, frustrated, misunderstood and bored. That is the brokenness of child and adult alike. And that is the state Jesus wants us to stop denying and instead confess directly and personally to Him.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-29
As children in the world, we were asked to do many things we did not want to do. Do the above words from Matthew sound like something we would not want to do? To me, it sounds like the very thing I craved as a child: a person I could go to who would do just that.
I never found that person when I was a kid. But at the age of 38, I did find that person in Christ. I brought all of the child, long cast off, out into the open before Him. And in that lowly position, I was welcomed by Christ—not because He had ignored me all those years, but because I, in all child-likeness, could finally see Him and know His presence.
I, who in hindsight ponder the many times I sensed Him but ignored Him as a child, finally, as a grown-up in childlike spirit, once and for all reciprocated His welcome held out to me all those years.
“At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.” Luke 10:2
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