Welcome to day 4 of our 40 day challenge! Today, we are in Matthew 18.

(You can catch up on our Intro, Day 1, and Day 2, Day 3 if you missed them)

Today we are in Matthew 18:

Matthew 18:1-7

The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven

18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

² He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.³ And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.⁴ Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Causing to Stumble

⁶ “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. ⁷ Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!

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Who will be the greatest? The disciples knew only the hierarchy of the world, where it’s better to be on top, but the Way of Jesus is very different.

It’s beautiful that Jesus doesn’t rebuke them for this. He reorients them. And He does the same for us. We too, will get it wrong, we’ll focus on the exact wrong thing. We’ll forget the orientation of this upside down Kingdom and our role in it. And when we do, Jesus will reorient us and remind us that His Kingdom flips who the world thinks is great and who is blessed. Jesus takes our desire to be great and shows us that true greatness is found in loving the least of these.

Jesus turns the world as we know it upside down, and a large part of following Christ is learning to see things from His perspective. This fallen world has it all backwards and wrong side out, so we need consistent reorientation. His Kingdom is not one where the big and powerful are prioritized and allowed to crush the small. In Christ, weakness is strength, the least is the greatest, and the last is first.

Jesus doesn’t rebuke them, and He doesn’t tell them to grow up. Jesus tells them, and He’s telling us, to become like little children. And so this is another tension we hold in God’s Kingdom. We seek to become like children as we seek to mature in our faith. When we come to the Lord, we are first and foremost His children. We are sons and daughters, and nothing else compares to this role. When we approach God, it’s with the confidence of a beloved child.

Jesus affirms the position of children with God, and then He reaffirms our responsibility to them. It would be better to tie a giant stone around our necks and drown in the depths of the sea than to cause a little one to stumble. We don’t take this seriously enough, and this isn’t a new perspective for the people of God. On Day 1 of this challenge, our passage in Isaiah showed our responsibility to the vulnerable. And who is more vulnerable than a child?

How we treat them is how we treat Jesus (Matthew 25:40). Jesus stands in the place of the vulnerable. This is incredibly appropriate for today, when the world is deciding whether it will continue to sacrifice children to the wealthy. Is Jesus not pointing to millstones as He reveals the horrors?

Father, help us to have the faith of a child, trusting fully in our Abba to care for us. And may we mature in our faith to be the kind of people who love you well as we love and protect others.

Options for further  journaling or discussion throughout the challenge:

• Choose a part of the passage to write out by hand. Writing by hand helps us slow down and focus on what the Lord might highlight for us in the passage. Our brains can focus and remember better by writing than just reading alone.
• Journal about what the passage brings to mind. Does the passage tell us anything about God? Does it tell us anything about our response to Him?
• Does your heart respond in gratitude to any part of the passage? Write or pray your gratitude to the Lord.

We’ll see you Monday, for Day 5 in Matthew 4!

♥ Samantha