Stunned Silence

If you read yesterday’s parable carefully, you would have been struck by the fact that Jesus did not exactly mince his words. He quite pointedly used the word ‘torture’, and then even more pointedly says that this is exactly what will happen to each of us unless we learn forgive one another from the heart!

These are tough words that seem so very harsh. Quite frankly, some people have had absolutely horrible things done to them, so what does Jesus mean if THEY don’t forgive THEY will be punished?! Many us probably really struggle with that statement – especially if we, or a loved one - have been the victim of some horrible act.

But, perhaps if we moved into a careful discussion of this parable, we might better understand what Jesus is actually saying and meaning. You see, when people first heard this parable they would laughed out loud at parts of it. In fact they probably would have chortled away throughout this story until that last bit about a torture chamber, and then they, like us, might have fallen into a thoughtful silence.

The reason that Jesus’ listeners would have found this parable humorous was because of the sums of money used in it. For example, the sum that the first servant owed was vast. It was beyond the budgets of whole Roman provinces, and perhaps beyond the comprehension of many in Jesus’ audience. Someone has actually taken the time to work out that at the average day’s wages for a servant, it would have taken this man about 125 000 years to pay back what he owed! It was ridiculous to the point of being humorous at the thought that any servant would firstly be in a position to incur such a debt, never mind actually pleading to pay it back. The servant owed 10 000 talents, the crowds would have choked with laughter; they would have got the joke.

They would have found it even funnier at the thought of this same servant, released from his tremendous burden of debt, (a burden beyond the ability of any one human to deal with), walking away from the king’s palace praising God and then seeing a fellow servant who owed another ridiculous figure (this time ridiculous because it was so small – just a couple of days wages) and having him thrown into prison for his inability to pay. It’s like being let off a debt of 10 million rand and then imprisoning someone for owing you ten rand. Who would actually do that?

The crowd was probably still laughing at this point in the story, but their laughter would soon have quietened when Jesus got to the real punch line of the parable. The King, hearing of this latest development, had the first servant thrown into a torture chamber and then comes the clincher, ‘This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother’s & sisters from the heart’. Stunned silence. Jaws would have dropped as people in the crowd quickly tried to count up all people they had heard Jesus say were their brothers and sisters: Hated Roman oppressors, thieving, traitorous tax collectors, heretical Samaritans. Silence as the crowd chewed over thoughts of broken r/ships, betrayals by loved ones, injustices served on them, great hurts caused by others. Forgive all of them?!

Ah … the scandal of God’s grace in operation again. Perhaps you might find yourself just as offended as Jesus’ original audience was by this parable? Does this mean we have to forgive murderers, thieves and child molesters? Who might you especially struggle to forgive?

PRAY AS YOU GO

O Lord, sometimes we find your grace and love very threatening. We rejoice to hear that we are forgiven by you, but sometimes we struggle with the news that you also forgive people that we find reprehensible. Fill us with your loving Spirit once again and move us to a place where we can deal with this. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
Read Matthew 18. 21-35 in your favourite translation.

How Do You Handle Forgiveness?

There is a lovely story set in medieval times of two monks who were on a long journey through a great forest. The first monk was middle-aged, had been in the monastic order for years and was renowned for his wisdom. The second monk was a young novice. As they walked along the forest’s winding path, the hours went quickly by, sometimes they were in conversation, and other times they were silent.

At one point they came upon a wide, rapid stream. Sitting at the edge of the water was a young woman who was evidently very distressed. When she saw the two monks, a look of relief crossed her face and she stood up to address the older of the two, "Father, you would be doing me the greatest of favours if you would agree to carry me across the river. The water is swift and I do not know how to swim. If I should slip I may drown.”

"Of course, my child," the monk replied, "I would most willing to carry you across."

The novice shot his companion a surprised glance, for under the rules of their particular order, they were strictly forbidden to even touch women. Nevertheless, the older monk took the woman in his arms, and carried her safely across. After she thanked them both she went on her way, and the monks continued in their own journey.

There was silence between them for an hour, and then two. Finally, the younger monk mustered up his courage to speak. "Father," he said, "you know that we are not allowed to touch women."
"Yes, I know that," he replied.
"Then how could you carry that woman across the stream?"
“My son," the older man said, "I put that young woman down two hours ago. But you are STILL carrying her."

This story is very much like the parable in this week’s focus reading. Instead of a different focus reading every day, this week we will be concentrating on just one reading in an effort to thoroughly wrestle with and understand it. Please open your Bible and read through Matthew 18. 21-35 a few times before continuing with today’s devotion.

Now the reason the monk story is very much like the parable is because they are both stories about carrying things around in our hearts that are not healthy for us. When the first servant in this parable was faced with ruin and slavery, he begged the King for mercy. The King relented and forgave him. But like the young monk who could not let go of the woman, this servant still tightly gripped his own lack of forgiveness to his chest. No sooner had his debt been forgiven than he turned around and threw a fellow servant into prison until he repaid him a much smaller debt. We all know the end of this story. The servant’s lack of forgiveness lands him up in a torture chamber.

How do you handle forgiveness? Do you find it easy to let go of the hurts others have caused you, or do you struggle to let go? Is there something burning within your soul at the moment – some hurt you have received that you refuse to forgive? Perhaps you have been a victim of crime, or abuse and no matter what you do, you cannot let go of the anger and pain within? Or perhaps you have caused someone else grievous pain and have refused to ask forgiveness? Whatever it is, know that it is not God’s desire for us to carry that pain within us for the rest of our days. God’s own love and forgiveness offers to heal us and set us free.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord God, thank-you for the incredible way you have always forgiven me of my sins. Help me to acknowledge where there is a lack of forgiveness within me, and bring me to a place where I can let go of the bitterness and hurt within. Amen.

FOCUS READING
Matthew 18. 21-22 NIV
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Invisible and Voiceless

No-one knows exactly how bad the situation in South Africa is for children who are abused. In reporting on this Health 24 had the following to say:

“In this country there is a culture of non-reporting and underreporting of sexual offences. With the recent moratorium placed on the release of crime statistics, accurate figures are currently not available. Earlier figures released by the SAPS make for some terrifying reading, though.

Between 1994 and 1999 23,900 rape cases were reported to the police. It is reasonable to assume that many of these cases involved children. The SAPS estimate that only between one in twenty and one in thirty-five rapes are reported to the police. The same kind of reporting ratio would hold in cases regarding minors. When parents assume that their children are not at risk, they are very wide off the mark.”

Not exactly pleasant reading for a Friday morning I know, but child abuse is something we need to be aware of and deeply concerned with. The reason I bring this up, is because I was recently struck by a thought concerning the passage on childlike faith we have been studying all week.

What does this story teach us about God? For me, it is a glimpse into the very heart of God, a reminder of divine nature: That God cares for the little ones, the very least in our society. You see children in Jesus’ day were often abused, just like today. Besides the types of abuse that are commonly known to us, it was also not unheard of for a parent to sell their children into slavery in an attempt to recover debt. Children were often treated as nothing more than possessions.

They were definitely seen and not heard, invisible and voiceless. Except … except by God walking on earth as a man. Through Jesus, we learn that God has seen their plight and heard their cries for help. Through Jesus, we learn that God’s arms are always stretched out to the little ones, to those who find themselves at the bottom of our social hierarchies.

And in fact, we learn from this God, that we should also reach out to and love the world’s little ones. For not only has God commanded that we do all we can to protect them, but God has also told us that they hold kingdom truths which we all need to learn. Further to that, Jesus tells us that when we open our arms to embrace God’s little ones, we may find that we are in fact embracing God himself.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, we want to lift up to you every child that suffers. Those who are abandoned, abused and neglected. We pray O’ God that you would be their deliverer, and that they would know you as Father. We also pray that you would raise up Christians across the world, (including ourselves), to reach out and embrace all your “little ones” who are in need. In Christ name we pray. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Mark 9:36-37 (New International Version)
36He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."

What Does It All Mean?

The Christian author, Frederick Beuchner, gives us a couple of further hints at the meaning of childlike, as opposed to childish, faith. The first is that children know how to accept gifts! Since they are totally dependant from birth, children can receive gifts both gladly and unselfconsciously. They have no suspicions that there may be a catch somewhere, there is no debate about whether they deserve it or not, no worries about the proper etiquette of reciprocation.

Yet we do this type of thing all the time with God’s gift of salvation. We do our best to try to earn it, to prove we deserve it. I think Beuchner puts his finger on the very crux of Jesus’ point here, because trying to earn or prove we deserve a gift is something only adults will do. It is adults, not children, who struggle to graciously receive. Perhaps then a childlike spirit is the only thing that will actually receive God’s kingdom because it takes exactly that kind of attitude to receive grace!

Trying to earn or deserve this gift only leads us down the very sorry paths of legalism, pride and self-reliance. Interestingly enough, the story directly after this one, is about a rich, young man, who struggled with these very issues. Jesus commented on his story by saying that it was harder for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for someone who “has it all” to enter God’s kingdom. When his disciples queried him as to whether under those conditions anyone had any chance at all in entering God’s kingdom, Jesus replied: “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off for yourself, every chance if you trust God to do it.”

A childlike faith will not expend energy and effort trying to earn or deserve what has already been freely lavished upon us. It is clear that the wonders of God’s kingdom come to us only as a gift, and that it takes a childlike faith to receive this gift.

Beuchner’s next point follows the first one closely. It is that children know how to trust! In fact children have to be taught not to trust strangers, for distrust is against their instincts. The point is that nothing is too terrifying for a child to face up to as long as they have a trusted adult’s hand to hold. The reason this point is linked to the last, is because we need to trust in the Person who gives us the gift of the kingdom. Trust is being courageous enough to believe God can and will “pull it off” on our behalf. Trust is giving up trying to earn our way into the kingdom, and receiving it instead as a gift of grace.

So a childlike faith opens us up to the wonders and miracles of God in everyday life. A childlike faith releases us from pride and self-reliance, and a childlike faith enables us to trust that God’s generous gift of the kingdom is all we will every truly need.

PRAY AS YOU GO
Thank-you O’ God for the gift of the kingdom. Help us to receive this gift of grace without trying to earn it or prove we deserve it. Keep us from childish traits of legalism, pride and self-reliance and bring us into a childlike faith brimming with trust in you for all things. Amen.

FOCUS READING
Mark 10. 13-16; 23-27 (Message)
The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: "Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very centre of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.
But Jesus kept on: "You can't imagine how difficult. I'd say it's easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for the rich to get into God's kingdom."
That set the disciples back on their heels. "Then who has any chance at all?" they asked.
Jesus was blunt: "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it."

Wake Me Up Before I Die

So if Jesus was not talking about childish faith, nor about suspending adult questions and struggles, then what exactly was he saying? What does it mean to “receive the kingdom of God like a little child”?

Tony Campolo tells the story of once being challenged by a Buddhist monk: “You Christians teach your children to pray all wrong. You teach them to pray, ‘if I should die before I wake.’ It would be better if you taught them to pray, ‘if I should wake before I die.’”

His point was how often people seemed to live life only half awake, and not fully aware of the wealth of God-filled possibilities surrounding us everyday. With this in mind, Campolo goes on to say how he once similarly challenged a student of his with the words, “How long have you lived?”

The student responded: “23 years.”

Campolo replied, “No that’s how long your heart has pumped. How long have you lived?” He then went on to explain to the student exactly what he was talking about.

The student’s reply was very interesting: “When you say it that way, maybe an hour, maybe less than that. Maybe a minute, maybe two. Most of my life seems to have been the meaningless passage of time between all too few moments when I was genuinely alive.”

Wake me up before I die! My 9 month old daughter teaches me this lesson every day. Hers is a sense of wonder at life. Her eyes open wide as if trying not to miss a single moment, her hands eagerly reach out to grasp what seems to me to be very ordinary things. Childlike faith is about having our eyes open to the miracle of everyday life again. It is about learning to see how the divine can shimmer and dance even in quite ordinary things.

The movie, “Finding Neverland,” tells the story of how James Barrie, (played by Johnny Depp) wrote the play, “Peter Pan.” At the premiere of this play, Barrie knew that there was a very real danger adults would just not ‘get’ the magic of the story. So he arranged for 25 children from a local orphanage to be present, seated randomly around the theatre. The children arrived late, and as they took their seats, disapproving patrons raised their eyebrows. When the curtains rose, the children let out squeals of delight and laughter. Tuxedoed adults, not yet quite grasping the wonder of the play, looked askance at these ragamuffin children who had caught on immediately. And then the adults began to look again, more carefully this time at what was happening onstage. Slowly their eyes started to brighten, and they began joining in the chuckles. Infected by the children, the adult patrons soon got caught up in the wonder of the play.

They were awakened to wonder and majesty. They were made alive to beauty in everyday, ordinary things. This is what children will teach us, if we take the time to listen. God is wondrously beautiful, and his presence and miracles surround us everyday. If only we would awake before we die, if only we would learn to see this, if only we would receive that truth like a little child.

'Glorious' Self-Indulgence!

So what exactly did Jesus mean when he spoke of “receiving the kingdom of God like a little child”? In helping us to understand this, perhaps it would prove helpful to first understand what Jesus was NOT saying.

Let’s face it: childhood can be a time of glorious self-indulgence. It is a time when the world seemingly revolves around you, when grown-ups rush to meet your needs at the slightest cry. Childhood can be a time of foot-stomping, ground-pounding, high-pitched screaming tantrums. Over the last few months, since my daughter was born, childish tantrums have become part of the daily reality of our house. However they are soon to stop, because my wife has told me that I am really not setting a good example for my daughter!

Let’s be clear that Jesus was NOT talking about childish and inappropriate behaviour here. The author, Philip Yancey, when writing on these verses, helpfully differentiates between childish faith and childlike faith. One example of childish faith might be a faith that is continually weak and unhealthily dependant on God, a faith that never grows us beyond ourselves. As Eugene Peterson says: “Christian faith is not neurotic dependency but childlike trust.” Of course there are times in our lives when we rely upon God to help us through difficult moments, but we are not meant to be eternally naïve spiritual infants who have no identity apart from a feeling of being comforted, protected, and catered to.

My daughter is 9 months old now, and as her parents, we make all her life decisions. What she will eat, what she will wear, when she will sleep. If we are still making all those decisions for her at age 19, if she is still unhealthily dependant on us, then quite frankly we have failed her as parents. The goal of parenthood is to produce healthy adults, not eternally dependant children. In the same way, the Bible makes it clear that God wants us to grow spiritually from infants to adults. A spiritual adult will have a healthy, vibrant, mature and yet childlike trust in God and will not continually live with a fearfully neurotic and insecure clinging to God. That is the difference between childish faith and childlike faith.

Finally, nor does having childlike faith mean that we have to suspend all our adult questions and struggles. Anyone who has spent time with a toddler will tell you that questions form a huge part of their make-up! A wise person once said: “The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.” Doubt is not necessarily an obstacle to faith, but potentially can be a seed of faith, a means of growth. Asking questions and struggling through issues, can set us on the road to deeper faith. What we learn from children however, is that they ask their questions without cynicism. Their questions come out of a genuine desire to learn and grow. We need to learn that despite any fears or questions we may have, we can still love and trust our sometimes mysterious God. It is ok to have questions, or to struggle with doubts, just so long as you don’t let them stop you from having a relationship with God. A relationship with God, like any relationship, can only be plunged into without knowing exactly where it may take you.

PRAY AS YOU GO
Holy and mysterious God, we pray that you would help us to learn the difference between childish and childlike faith. Pray grow us into spiritually mature adults who would always retain an incredible trust in you as our Father. Help us to work through any doubts and questions we may have in way that grows us closer to you. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE
Psalm 131 (NIV)
My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; 
       I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
 But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, 
       like a weaned child is my soul within me.
 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.

Childlike Faith

The story is told of a man breaking free from prison. It took him years to painstakingly dig a tunnel, which he carefully hid behind a poster on his cell wall. Unbeknown to him, a miscalculation on the angle of his tunnel would ensure that he would finally dig out into a nearby children’s playground. The day eventually arrived when he broke through the last metre of soil. He lifted himself out onto the surface, jumped to his feet and started shouting: “I’m free. Thank God Almighty, that at last I am FREE”! His celebrations were interrupted however, by a tug from a little hand on his pants. He looked down to see a little toddler standing there with a defiant face and hands on hips. “That’s nothing”, the tyke retorted, “I’m already FOUR”!

This week we will be looking at the concept of childlike faith. We will be focussing our attention mainly on Mark 10.13-16, although other verses will be used as well.

Now it was common practice for ancient Jews to bring their children to a respected Rabbi for a blessing. This is obviously what happened here, with local parents attempting to bring their children to Jesus. However, they were prevented from doing so by the disciples. The Greek word used to describe how the disciples ‘rebuked’ them, is the same as elsewhere used by Mark to describe Jesus rebuking a storm into calmness. In other words, the disciples quite aggressively chased the children away. Perhaps they thought Jesus was tired after an exhausting day of ministry, but after so long in his company, they really should have known better. Mark’s Gospel clearly says that Jesus was indignant with the disciples for doing this. It describes Jesus as having a kind of embarrassed anger that his disciples would so misrepresent him. Time after time he had taught them about God’s love and care for those considered the ‘least’ in society. The powerless, and the marginalised had always been central to Jesus’ ministry, and now he overheard the disciples trying to drive some of them away.

This prompted him to tell them: “Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very centre of life in the kingdom,” (Mark 10. 14 MSG). Jesus then went onto say: “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it,” (Mark 10. 15 NIV).

Jesus is saying that we can only receive the kingdom of God, if we learn to receive it as little children. It strikes me that there is a powerful lesson to learn here and that these are very important words for us to hear and understand. This is why we will spend the whole of next week attempting to do exactly that.

Spend some time today thinking about what Jesus may have meant in this passage. Write your thoughts down and pray over them.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O’ Lord our God, we pray that you would open up our hearts and minds to this Scripture in a wonderful way. Help us to learn from you in this, and so deepen our faith and enlarge our hearts. This we pray in the name of our Teacher and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

FOCUS READING
Mark 10:13-16 (NIV)
 13People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 16And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.