The lesson from this simple passage is sweet, and necessary: Don’t fence God. He needs no body guards.
Note first: Christians need not be God’s protectors as many in Islam violently protect Mohamed. When our God needs defending by us rather than we needing defending by Him – things are upside down. Ultimately, it is the product of human hubris – even though it may flow from a personal sense of reverence.
It is true we are to pray and work for the fame of the name of God to be restored; for the whole of sentient creation to hallow, revere, respect and honor Him for who and what He is. When Jesus taught us to pray, He put this issue as the very first among all things we are to pray for. Nothing was dearer to His own heart than to see His Father’s reputation restored. To see all love and cherish and delight in the Father as He Himself did. But that is not done by swatting down those we think deficient, unworthy or even blasphemous. It is done by trusting Him, praising His name, walking in such a way as to reveal His character, preaching His Gospel and walking in truth.
He is our great defender, we are not His.
Note second: There are none more worthy than others to seek Him than others.
Young, old, hale, infirm, educated, ignorant, accomplished, indigent, intellectual or challenged. He came to seek and save “the lost”, not humanly created sub-sets of humanity.
Jonathan Edwards recounts the case of Phebe Bartlet who at the age of 4 began to manifest evidences of the Spirit moving in her soul. By 5 she was truly remarkable in her pursuit of God. John the Baptizer was filled with the Spirit even in his mother’s womb. And I can add that of myself, having my eyes opened to my sinfulness before God, and my heart opened to embrace Christ and the Cross at the age of 8.
When people show any interest in spiritual matters, we need to take it seriously. This is especially true with children, who do not take such an interest at all naturally.
Note third: How quick Jesus was always ready to bless.
And should we imagine Him any different today? Were these children displaying some interest in Him themselves, or was it only that their parents sought something on their behalf – He loves to receive and bless. Here, it says they specifically wanted Him to pray for these little ones. To speak to the Father on their behalf.
What an encouragement then for parents today to seek Christ that He might intercede on behalf of our children, grandchildren and others. In this, we never see a refusal. Instead, we see Him admonishing any who would hinder it.
Be encouraged to seek Him for your loved ones. He is far more gracious and ready and willing than we dare believe.
A key to understanding this short section has to do with prevailing Jewish thought on two fronts.
First off, we have to note that divorce had become fairly rampant in society. No doubt there are several contributing factors. Being that the Jews were under Roman occupation for quite some time, the permissiveness of Roman culture in this regarding divorce and remarriage, certainly had an impact on the general populace. They were used to seeing this behavior in their own leadership.
Herod the Great was the King of Judea (a Jew but under the Roman power) was in power when Jesus was born. He had 10 wives total. Some murdered, some divorced. But getting out of one marriage into another was a way of life. He considered himself a pious Jew. After all, it was he who built the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem where Jesus went frequently. And it was his son Herod Antipas who divorced his first wife to marry the wife of his half-brother – Herodias – who had John the Baptizer also murdered.
So divorce and remarriage couldn’t be all that bad could it? Since the Jewish political leaders were fine with it, why not everybody?
The second factor was that it was considered a duty for a Jewish man to be married. One commentator noted that is a young man reached the age of 16 and had no marriage prospects locked in, the elders of the Synagogue might call him in and find out what the matter was.
In that kind of an environment, if a man in fact did get divorced, it would be shameful to remain single.
Now you can see why the Disciples were a bit incredulous at Jesus’ statements. If a man can only divorce and then remarry under such narrow parameters, maybe it is best not to get married at all!
“But” Jesus says, singleness is not something to be entered into any less seriously than marriage. And here, He breaks with both major Jewish schools, and with a prominent sub-sect – the Essenes, who connected celibacy with a higher spiritual state. Once again, He doesn’t make anyone happy on any side of the equation. He neither condemns nor pushes singleness. What He does do is call each to live righteously before God, given our freedoms, and providential parameters.
Providentially, there may be some who are born in a condition (physically) where fulfilling the requirements of marital intimacy would not be possible. In such a case, there is a forced singleness. It would be the responsibility for such a one to live within those parameters righteously before God. And no doubt, special grace is extended to such as they seek how to live well before the Father.
Second, there may be those who through accident (perhaps in war) or more likely, by virtue of having been castrated as slaves, in order to serve in court positions to attend royal women – would too find that Providence had precluded marriage as an option. They too would need to seek for grace to remain pure in such forced singleness. Under this umbrella, one might consider a spouse who has become impotent or unable due to disease, accident or some other condition. This form of “singleness” (in this one regard) would require special grace.
And third, there are some who have been given a gift of not needing marital intimacy, and are able then to devote extra time and effort to serving the Kingdom. They have received another kind of special grace.
When all is said and done, Jesus’ teaching leaves us here:
1 – The norm is marriage, and marriage for life. Let us seek to serve Him within the bounds lovingly and wisely set for such a union. Seeking sexual satisfaction from anyone else other than one’s spouse, is grave sin.
2 – Some remain single for various reasons. There is no shame in not being married. And for some, an actual advantage.
3 – In both – we seek grace from the Lord to live righteously within the limits of His Providence. And He gives it. Let each receive as they are enabled. No providence excuses sin. Each context will find us needing to depend fully upon Him.
Contentment with God’s Providences is one of the most difficult spiritual lessons the Christian needs to learn.
But how gracious He is to provide for us in the gift of His indwelling Spirit.
At first blush, these two verses seem exceedingly incidental. Really, why bother? But I think there is something still worth noting here.
Note first: Back in 17:22, Jesus spoke – the most clearly to that point in time – about the immediate future. He said He was going to be delivered into the hands of men, killed, and then raised up three days later. This greatly distressed them the text says. But then the events of everyday life seem to push this revelation into the background. First there was the 2 drachma tax controversy, then the discussion over who was greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And this led to Jesus’ extended discourse on humility and forgiveness.
And so it can be with us even now. The promises of Christ’s return, the resurrection, the new heavens and the new earth can easily be lost by us as having continuing importance in the ordering of our lives. As staggering as those realities are, they can be overshadowed by the stuff of everyday life. But not Jesus. He takes His sidestep to deal with the immediate, but as soon as He is finished with those, He is right back on track. He is still undeterred from His path to Jerusalem.
And I wonder in myself, am I so mindful of my own path to the Celestial City? Am I a traveling partner with Bunyan’s Christian? Yes, many things require our attention from all sides each and every day. But are we on our way home? Or has that idea been pushed so far back in our minds that it no longer informs our thoughts, actions and decisions?
Am I, are you – consciously proceeding toward Heaven? Is that our course? Are all other things dealt with, experienced and contexualized by where we are headed? For to lose sight of where we are going, is to wander aimlessly through life. And is this not behind the despair of so many – even professed Christians?
Are we consciously going home to be with Jesus? And do we remain aware that the only way there is through the cross?
Note second: No matter where Jesus is, or whatever else is going on, pouring our mercy and grace on others is never neglected.
Large crowds were following Him. And He was neither deterred by them, nor unmindful of them.
He might have been consumed in Himself with what was about to happen to Him. But no. Or, He might have been tempted to stop His journey to enjoy the attention of the crowds. But neither is true. He met them, and He continued on His way.
Note third: His ministry to these crowds, is a ministry to a throng of the unnamed. The common folk. There are no mentions of the healing of notable people. No mention of class, station nor even the particulars of the healings. It is simply recorded that this is what He did. They, unmindful of what awaited Him, were simply desiring their needs to be met. And in typical Jesus fashion, He just blessed them. He gave them what He had without pomp, ceremony or self-reference.
How sweet and how gracious and how willing to bless our Lord is.
And if He is not too busy, too distracted, too fixed on the Cross to stop and heal this nameless crowd, then how much more is He ready to hear the prayers and meet the needs of His people from His place beside the Father even today.
Oh Christian, come to Him with your needs.
Oh lost one, come to Him with your sin.
He is no further away than the cry of your heart .
There is a perceptible shift in Jesus’ teaching at this point. His topic is still sin, but it moves to the personal and away from the general. In the process, we enter into some concepts which have been greatly debated in every generation, and particularly ours.
Note first: Jesus’ opening reference here is to private sin, personal sin, not public.
When Paul rebukes Peter in Antioch (Acts 15 & Gal. 2), he does not go to him privately because the sin was done publicly. It wasn’t a personal offense but one that was broader, against the Gospel and the Church. Being such, its effect needed immediate attention – its harmfulness to the observers right then compelled an immediate and public response.
It is often heard today, when preachers or teachers say or do sinful and outrageous things, that they ought to be approached privately first. Not so. Public sin requires immediate, open and public rebuke – especially when it is on the part of those in leadership. So Paul by the Spirit will tell us, when dealing with the sins of those in the Eldership – “as for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.” (1 Tim. 5:17)
Jesus’ here is addressing when someone sins against YOU. Personally. Individually. And from what appears in the process He outlines – privately. We’ll see this more in Peter’s follow-up inquiry in 21-22 and Jesus’ subsequent parable.
Note second: This is an issue of real sin, not just hurt feelings.
Scripture elsewhere enjoins us to overlook slights and minor offenses. Prov. 10:12 “Hatred stirs up strife, but lovecovers all offenses.” 1 Pet. 4:8 “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since lovecovers a multitude of sins.”
What Jesus is addressing here is more serious. It is not a disagreement over taste, opinions, or everyday knocks and bumps. As 1 Cor. will tell us, we are not to be litigious. Either inside or outside the Church. But especially among the brethren.
If you find yourself constantly offended, embroiled regularly in conflict with others and needing to press your case over and over – perhaps the problem isn’t “them”.
Not long ago I watched an interview with a person who had been married four times. Their lament was that there are just too few good women out there. My thought was, the common denominator in these four failed marriages is – you. Maybe that should be considered?
That said, when we are sinned against, truly sinned against privately, and we cannot just let it go in grace or it proves to be a harmful pattern in the other’s life – we first needs be loving and concerned to cover the sin from other’s eyes, unless necessity forces us to at last bring it to the Church.
Note third: The grand object in Jesus’ approach is recovery, not vengeance.
As Spurgeon preached: “Whenever there is a child of God who has any defilement upon him, and you are able to point it out and rid him of it, submit to any degradation, put yourself in any position, sooner than that child of God should be the subject of sin.” (Spurgeon, C. H. 1865. “Jesus Washing His Disciples’ Feet.” In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, 11:72. London: Passmore & Alabaster.)
And that, is to be our first motivation in all of this. Not prosecuting a case so that they get their comeuppance. Not for revenge. But for restoration. Restoration of the relationship and recovery from a fall. So in vs. 15 – Jesus’ says this with the hope that you will gain back your brother.
Note fourth: Not all our efforts in this regard will be successful.
We have it in spades in the life of Christ Himself. He comes and tells He creations their sin against Him. And they refuse to be reconciled. So it may be with us.
But the object in vs. 16 is NOT, please hear this – NOT, to take two or three witnesses to back you up. No. We take others to hear the whole matter objectively from BOTH sides. So that those unacquainted with the issue might hear both parties unprejudiced.
In other words, this is to be done in a spirit of humility, owning that we might be wrong in bringing this charge. We must be willing to be reversed if the evidence should not substantiate our perspective. We may have seen wrongly, heard wrongly, concluded wrongly, and need to be corrected in our perceptions. We do not enter into such a process like charging bulls, but like humble supplicants, wanting to get things right between us once more.
Note fifth: It is only after a number of efforts at reconciliation are exhausted, and it is truly a serious matter, that we must bring the matter to the Church. Only after several others have weighed the matter, and called upon the offender to repent, and they have refused to do so. Only then is it brought before the assembly.
The picture is one of patient pleading with the sinner over time, followed by obstinate refusal.
The mechanism then, is to bring the matter before the Congregation.
And only then – if in the view of the gathered saints, the person still refuses to repent, then and only then, they are to be treated as a “Gentile and a tax collector.”
And what does that mean? Does it mean we wash our hands of them? No!
It means we take a bold refusal to repent of sin as an indicator that they are not manifesting the most foundational aspect of being a true Believer – repentance – and thus treat them as unconverted until they do. In other words, they become the object of our efforts to bring them to Gospel salvation. They are not enemies to be prosecuted, but unbelievers who need to be evangelized.
Note sixth: It is in this context that the grossly misused idea of binding and loosing comes into play.
The simple and straightforward idea here is: One who refuses to listen to the Church when reproved by the majority as to their sin – and thus will not repent – is to be “loosed” from the Church. Those who repent, remain “bound” together in love. And Heaven ratifies this action.
Jesus is telling them that when they deal rightly with those who will not hear and repent as unconverted – they will not be making a mistake. They can act with confidence. Heaven had reached the same conclusion even before they did.
And since such judgments are not matters of personal execution, but before a council of “two or three” and then the congregation who are gathered together to adjudicate the matter, they can be confident they act with Jesus’ authority in the matter. As though He were personally attending.
Note lastly: How far we are to go in dealing with one another’s sins.
For in this, we are made to reconsider the history of mankind, and especially God’s dealing with the Jewish nation throughout the ages, and how He sent prophet after prophet after prophet, and disciplines of all kinds – for hundreds of years – before the decimation of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar, and the centuries following before the last destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.
If God is so patient with His people over such great spans of time and concerning grave and damnable sins – then how patient are we to be with one another when personally sinned against?
This is now the third section dealing with the issue of seeking standing in the Kingdom of Heaven in comparison to others. We must not lose the train of thought Jesus is about, and does not complete until vs. 14. He has not started a new subject. And His words grow more dire.
Note first: How seriously we must take all sin, but especially the sin of seeking self aggrandizement.
If you work toward that end (if your hand causes you to sin); or if you walk in that direction (if your foot causes you to sin) – take drastic measures in dealing with this most pernicious and damnable desire. Better to lose anything else, no matter how dear or seemingly advantageous or necessary rather than lose your eternal soul to Hell for pursuing self.
Can Jesus be any more emphatic regarding our battle with sinful tendencies? I think not.
Note second: The only thing worse than giving into self-promotion and high standing in the eyes of others and before the Lord, is to pass on to others – to model or teach others – to seek the same!
Temptations come to everyone. But when we become the source of tempting others to sin – woe unto us!
The current trend to convince people that we are somehow worthy of grace, worthy to be saved, worthy of Christ’s blood, instead of leading people to understand that salvation and all that comes with it is by pure grace alone – fosters this notion and celebration of self.
So desperate are we to justify ourselves in some manner, no matter how paltry, that it can hardly be overstated. We constantly, incessantly compare ourselves to others so as to imagine ourselves not so bad, at least not as bad a X.
We comfort ourselves in our sins that they are not as dastardly, not as deserving of Hell as this one or that one. All because we do not truly know the depths of the sins we DO have, and because we do not recognize that outward sins are simply symptoms of the very same corruption. But how we love to note that other’s symptoms are worse than ours, imagining then that we are somehow inherently less sinful, less lost, and more easily salvable.
The truth is, if you or I were the only person alive, it would still take nothing less than the blood of the sin-less Son of God to reconcile us to the Father. Nothing less than Calvary and all its horrors. Nothing less than the incarnation, the resurrection and the sending of the Spirit.
Sin, no matter how little its manifestations, is nothing less than cosmic rebellion and deserving of eternal damnation.
Who will be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?
Christ!
And Christ alone!
Note third: The denial of the flesh in resisting temptation is not a light thing.
It is:
a. Inevitable for all those who would follow Christ.
b. Powerful.
c. Personally costly to refuse.
d. Something which must be dealt with drastically.
e. It may leave us temporarily impaired of bereft of even something legitimate in our war against it.
f. Worth it.
Note fourth: How great then is our salvation. Indeed, how great is this Savior who delivers us from all the guilt and shame this sin brings with it, and then bestows upon poor Believers the eternal riches of glory that He Himself deserves and has won.
Worship Him today. For He is all our righteousness. He is all our holiness. He is all our reward.
In this most remarkable account, Jesus turns common thinking on its head. For in the world, vying for place, position or recognition is not just sought after, it is celebrated. It is the essence of competitive sports. It is how we seek promotion on the job. It fuels academicians to be sure they publish as often as they can. Even actors strive foe the Emmys, BAFTAs and Oscars even as muscians want Grammys, advertising execs Clios. How many Facebook, Instagram of TikTok followers? Even Pastors can seek status based upon congregation size, sermon videos watched etc.
Pride is a pervasive evil.
Don’t get me wrong, striving for excellence is good and right. Feeding off of the recognition is not. But we are a pride-based race. Humility is not prized. Status is.
Note first: What is it about these children? Simple, being great in the Kingdom isn’t even on their radar screen. They are just about the business of being – children. Some sort of ranking in Heaven or the Kingdom to come isn’t even glint in the far reaches of their sub-conscious. Status in the Kingdom is absolutely meaningless to to them.
And so it ought to be with us.
Yes, Scripture speaks of properly seeking rewards in Heaven – but never status. Ever.
Note second: The child was set in their midst by another, not by him or herself.
How is it that we are even in the Kingdom at all? By sovereign grace. Period. We must be set there by His sovereign hand. We have no merits to earn it; no power to accomplish it; no means to even recommend ourselves to it.
As Jesus took this little child, calling the child to Himself and putting the little one in their midst, so it is with our salvation.
Status has no place in the equation anywhere.
Note third: The child is humble. Not assuming he or she has anything to add, but looking to be added to.
More, for a child’s humility is best seen in utter and absolute dependence. And unless we are humbled to the very same degree of absolute dependence, we will not even be IN the kingdom. So, who might be the greatest in the Kingdom is just plain the wrong question.
Greatness in the kingdom is a matter of one’s realization of need of grace. Those are greatest in God’s eyes, (not man’s) who know their need the most, and look only to Him.
This account comes right on the heels of Jesus’, Peter, James and John descending the Mount of Transfiguration. That context helps us understand the depth of Jesus’ cry in v.17 “how long?”
Note first: What an expression of Jesus’ personal grief over the ravages of sin in the human race emerges here.
And can you imagine the jolt of this scene on His humanity? He has just been glorified before 3 of His disciples, and in communion with Moses and Elijah in this glorified state – only to plunge back into a context where sin has brought demonic torture to a little boy, and the state of His own disciple’s faith is so poor, they are unable to offer any help.
I wonder if we share the same when we see such suffering?
But we need to drill down and really grasp what grieves Him so. He tells us plainly: Unbelief. That men are faithless, denying God, refusing to believe His truth and the Gospel of the Kingdom.
I fear that we are (I am) more grieved by the results of faithlessness (like what produces such aberrations as demon possession, war, rape, murder etc.) than we are by faithlessness itself.
As long as faithless people don’t bother us, we don’t seem to mind their faithlessness.
We ignore the most tragic part of their condition – while He grieved it above all else.
What does He call this condition? Twisted or perverse. Because to be oriented this way is to be upside down from the heart and mind of God.
PRAYER: Oh Father, make me grieve the unbelief of men more than the mere acts which vex me most. Give me your heart and mind. For it will drive my energies to see the Gospel is preached more than any other approach to society’s ills. Yes, Jesus healed the boy, but what of those around? And what is healing if we are left in eternal darkness from the face of God in Jesus Christ. Keep us from putting temporal band-aids on the eternally terminal cancer of the soul. Let your glory in Jesus be known. Let your Gospel be preached. Let me be a messenger who boldly, clearly and endlessly proclaims the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name – and reconciliation to you through the Cross.
He grieves. Deeply. And sighs out His exasperation in the moment. It is stunning.
Note second: We must never let the doctrine of God’s impassibility (that God is not driven by external impacts upon His emotions) bleed over into imagining God is unfeeling altogether. Mercy and compassion are not stoical. God is not emotionless, but neither is He driven by or subject to His emotions. He is Lord over Himself. As Paul teaches us by the Spirit in Galatians 5, one fruit of the Spirit is self-control – which must be in perfect form in the One in whose image we are made.
And it is why some branches of Christianity err so greatly in thinking the Spirit brings a lack of self-control – like being “drunk in the Spirit”. He makes us more like the Redeemer, not less. And Jesus was never, ever, under any consideration, out of control.
Note third: We are wont to think of faith in terms of quantity. Perhaps we think this way because we conceive of Jesus’ word regarding “little” faith – as though that is quantitative. Here, Jesus dispels that idea completely.
It is not that the disciples needed greater faith, they (and we) only need faith but the size of the tiny mustard seed -that will do. It is rather that faith must be exercised, rested fully upon God. Indeed, the word rendered “little” here is more often translated “few” in the New Testament.
Some commentators note that the idea is that their faith was poor. It’s size was irrelevant. It’s quality was the issue.
In this case (as is often true of ours) faith was not utilized everywhere it could be.
We believe for this, but not for that. We trust God in some things, but not in all things. We only believe in a few areas, not in many. Oh Father, grant that our eyes might be opened, to trust you in everything, everywhere, at all times. For it is not our faith in and of itself that accomplishes anything – but the One we have faith in – You.
Note fourth: The idea here of moving mountains is simply a figure of speech, a euphemism for doing the impossible. What is normally impossible, may be possible when we believe God and obey accordingly.
It should be noted that neither Jesus, an apostle nor any others after them ever moved a single mountain. Physical mountains are not the point.
Note too, how this has to do with carrying out Christ’s commission, not miracles on demand for our own purposes. In doing His work, furthering His cause, carrying out His will, we have unbounded ability, if we will but trust His promises – trust Him.
Lenski differentiates between saving faith – which is permanent – and “charismatic faith” which would be that of those in Matt. 7 who will prophesy, cast out demons and do other mighty works, but who in the end will be found to not be “known” by Christ as His after all. Such “faith” may come and go. And it is not inherently salvific.
How we need to be sure we are Christ’s agents carrying out Christ’s work according to Christ’s means and methods. Then, in serving Him believing His will will prevail, we can go forward trusting that He can move mountains indeed.
