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Luke 18 "Looking Up to Little Children"

Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!" I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:9-14)

What was the main difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector? What is the difference between pride and humility? The Pharisee stood up and compared himself to others, the sinners, the tax collectors and he looked pretty good. Certainly in his own eyes, but probably in the eyes of those around him as well. He was satisfied to be at the top of the scale. He thought to himself, "I am a success". The tax collector on the other hand did not think of himself as a success, he knew that he was a sinner with no right to stand before God. As far as he was concerned, and most likely as far as those around him were concerned, he was at the bottom of the scale. But here lies the difference between pride and humility. They use a different scale! The Pharisee, comparing himself with other men is a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, but what a limited scale compared to that of the tax collector. You see the tax collector did not compare himself to other men, but to God. He realized that he was a 1 on a scale of 1 to 1 million. Even though the tax collector did not dare to lift his eyes, his spiritual focus was on God. Even though the Pharisee addressed his prayer to God, his spiritual focus was on men.

Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. "

What is important to God and what is important to men are two different things. Jesus taught this all the time, placing the tax collector above the Pharisee, putting the little children first in the kingdom of God. Lately, I have noticed that people say to me, "Oh Pastor, I know that you are busy but..." or "Pastor, you are so busy." Our modern world values time more than anything else and so one measure of how important you are is how valuable your time is. If your schedule is full you look and feel important. What a blessing it was to spend 9 days in Russia. One of the first things I noticed in Vladisvostok was that we rarely saw anyone running on the street. Even the walking was done at a much more casual pace. No one was in a hurry to go anywhere. One afternoon while the rest of the team took a bus tour of the city I decided just to poke around on my own. After wandering around for an hour I stuck my head into a flower shop and found that they were making beautiful arrangements by hand. I tried to compliment them on their work, but noone could really understand me until they brought in a ten year old girl who was studying English in school. Soon we were having a wonderful conversation through this little interpretor. I asked them to make a wreath to take home to Rie, and while they were making it I sat down to talk with my new little friend. Her name is Polina, she likes to swim and make paper airplanes with her best friend Sasha and she is looking forward to going to her grandma's house for the summer. We talked and talked for almost 2 hours, traded addresses and will surely exchange letters in the future. What a wonderful thing to make friends with this little girl and her family. I think the main reason why so many people are lonely, is because they do not have the time to make friends. You cannot make a friend in a few minutes between classes, or after church before you rush out the door. You cannot establish a relationship on scheduled appointments. I could of very easily walked into the same flowershop, ordered my wreath, and came back in the afternoon to pick it up. But because I chose not to be busy, not to have to see the twenty other shops that I hadn't looked into yet, not to have to see every important building in the downtown area, I was able to use 2 hours and make not only a wreath, but a friend.

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it." I think that the things that are important to a child are very near to the heart of God. Children in general have much better priorities than we do. You can discover these priorities in exactly the areas where children frustrate you the most. Because this is where their priorities and your priorities clash. Take for example the morning struggle to get ready for school or for church. To the adult there is the clock on the wall that screams at us "5 More Minutes", and then "3 More Minutes" But to the child there is the delight in pulling off the socks that you just spent 10 minutes putting on them, because it "tickles when they slide off." I notice that with children it is almost always difficult to start something new, and equally difficult to get them to stop once they have begun. The reason why is because children live in the present. They cannot really see much past what is happening right now. They have an immense capacity to enjoy whatever they are doing, and very little capacity to worry about what will happen next or fret about what happened before. In contrast, adults have lost most of their ability to enjoy the present. We tend to have our thoughts firmly planted about a day or two ahead. Or even worse we start to live further and further in the past. Folks, in the kingdom of God, there is no clock on the wall. When God gives a command, there is no question of "when?" He means for you to get up now and obey now. I don't tell my child that I want him to clean his room tomorrow. He can't understand. If I want him to clean it tomorrow, I tell him tomorrow. God is the same way with us. He gives us promises that are good now and forever, the eternal now, but his commands are meant to be obeyed right away. In the kingdom of God there is only now. The only way to enter the kingdom of God, is to become like the little child, ever eager to enjoy the present, the now.

John Chrysostom, the greatest preacher of the 4th century, pointed out that even though a child were asked to chose between the queen, dressed in all her riches and beauty, and its own mother dressed in rags the child will always choose its mother over the queen. The reason why is because the child uses as its measure, not beauty or wealth or prestige, but friendship. All the wealth of the Roman Empire doesn't mean a thing compared to the face of love, the face he knows. A child puts the highest priority on relationships. There is a constant struggle that takes place between adults and children. The child simply wants to be with the adult, doing whatever it is that is interesting. But the adult most likely has ulterior motives. We want the child to learn something, or to make something, or to go somewhere. In short we adults have to be "doing" something, whereas children simply concentrate on "being". For example, for a child the whole point of bathtime is to play with Daddy or Mommy in the water. Getting clean is not anywhere in the child's mind at all. For the adult, getting clean is the main priority and as soon as the child can accomplish that function on its own we would rather not go into the bath with them at all so that we can use that time to do other "important" things. I have heard this distinction between "doing" and "being" for quite some time now, and I realize that I need to go from the one to the other. I understand that all my doing is not really making very much progress for the kingdom but I don't know how to stop. Looking at children helps me with this, and gives me a handle on how to move from doing to being. You see, no one just is. We cannot just "be". Sheer existance doesn't cut it. There is no child more unhappy than one that is all alone. We have to "be" with someone, with our Father in heaven. We have to "be" in relationship, as children of God. In the kingdom of heaven there is no "important" thing that must be done. Jesus said, "It is finished". He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, perfection. There is nothing that we have to do to add onto His work. God has no ulterior motive, He simply wants to be with us. The only way to enter the kingdom of God, is to become like the little child, ever eager to "be" with his Father.

I think that the more we get to know children, the more we learn about the kingdom. I could go on and on, but let me share one more characteristic of children that we lose as we become adults. I remember watching the movie E.T. with my son a few years back. At that time he was only three years old and didn't really have the attention span to stick with a full length movie, especially one that wasn't animated. So I was surprised to see that even though it was getting later and later my son was still wide awake on my lap. In fact, even though Rie and her parents went to bed around 10:30, Keita still wanted to see the movie. In the scene where ET is dying I was having more fun watching my son's face than the movie, as he got so into it. He was so concerned about E.T. that the tears were rolling down his cheeks. And then when the police were chasing the boys on their bicycles Keita jumped up and was shouting encouragement "ET! ET!" Following every twist and turn with his whole body, and then when the bicycles lifted off the ground, I thought surely Keita would also start to fly he was so excited. He woke up everyone in the house yelling, "Yeah ET, Yeah ET" over and over. Children are very tenderhearted. They feel much more than we do. They are much more sensitive than we are. We adults have built up an arsenal of defenses to protect ourselves from being hurt. But at the same time we also end up protecting ourselves from experiencing joy. A child is by nature defenseless. This does not mean that they have nothing to fear, indeed there are many enemies. That is why children have parents, to protect them. Whenever a child feels threatened it automatically runs to Mommy or Daddy. Or if it cannot find either, it cries out as loud as it can so that Mommy or Daddy can find them. But adults are not so, they are self-sufficient. They do not need Mommy or Daddy to protect them anymore, they have physical, psychological, social means to protect themselves. The things that scared them when they were children no longer impact them the same way that they did before. But unfortunately, the things that thrilled them no longer seem as special any more either. Their tender hearts have hardened over.
This self-sufficiency is the root of pride. Have you ever noticed that children do not boast in themselves, rather they boast in their fathers. "My daddy is bigger than your daddy.", "My daddy can run faster than your daddy!" Their strength, their power is not in themselves, they are totally dependant on their parents. Would that we also would boast in our heavenly Father! That we would realize our dependance on Him. In humility we can regain the tender heart of childhood. As we realize the futility of our own defenses and once again look to God to be our strength and shield, then we have the confidence to open up once more to the world around us. In the kingdom of God there is no need for us to have walls, defenses, physical, psychological or social, because God is our strong tower, our Rock. The only way to enter the kingdom of God is to become like a little child, humble enough to be tenderhearted, trusting in your Father to protect you.