It is always interesting to overhear children when they are deep in conversation with each other. Many times, they love to brag about their fathers, especially with regards to occupation and rank in society.

Somehow the world is teaching them that true greatness is achieved by how high up one can go in this corporate or financial world. Perhaps we too have been affected by the worldly way of thinking about Christian celebrities, and mega churches, and are slowly being pulled into some self-deception even about our own status in the Kingdom. Matthew 18:1-5 is a great passage that will help us re-align our thinking about what “true greatness” really looks like in God’s eyes.

The disciples in Matthew 18:1 asked Jesus on the way to Capernaum about who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. This argument in Mark 9 and Luke 9 comes after Jesus spoke about His coming death and resurrection, which shows us how far they had to grow in their thinking about God’s redemptive purposes.

The disciples were not satisfied with each other’s answers, so they asked Jesus about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Imagine them in their later years looking back at how immature their understanding was.

Jesus in v2 and v3 does not say that it is completely wrong to even think about being great in God’s kingdom, but He uses it as an opportunity to tell them how radically different things are in God’s kingdom. He brings a child into the conversation and sets the child in their midst. He reveals to them that unless you are changed and become like this child you cannot even enter the Kingdom of God! In other words, their thinking was completely off track.

They were anticipating an earthly take over by Christ and a distribution of offices, provinces, name and fame. In a sharp contrast, Jesus says unless you become like this child you are not even entering the Kingdom.

Children in the middle east were not the center of the family and social structure. They were not the leading contributors to the advancement of the family, but rather a responsibility to be constantly looked after. They were at the lowest social standing and status. So, Jesus is reminding the disciples about what He had taught in Matthew 5:3 about being “poor in spirit.”

God’s grace and new birth gives us a new realization of our spiritual bankruptcy and we are willing to acknowledge our neediness and lowly state in God’s eyes. Dear reader, do you realize that you cannot contribute anything in your salvation and that God alone in Christ by the work of Spirit can save you? Your worth is not in yourself but in Christ.

After having shocked the disciples with how radically different the Kingdom of God is, Christ does give some indication about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven in v3. The ones who have been humbled by grace and who continue to position themselves as servants of even the least of the saints are the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

How radically different this is from the world’s way of looking at greatness. But this answer from Jesus is consistent with our Lord’s attitude, “ who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians  2:6-8 

There is a great challenge and struggle in our Christian lives as we are constantly tempted to want to be served and to be the center of attention. This attitude of wanting to be great in the worldly sense causes divisions and heartaches in the body. But there is great hope in Christ and His resurrection power.

From beginning to end, the Bible is about God’s great covenant love for us in Christ our Servant Mediator (Isaiah 53). From ages past, Christ agreed to be our last Adam; In the fulness of time, both by His active and passive obedience, He served us by paying our ransom and becoming our righteousness.

Furthermore, even in His state of exaltation, He continues to intercede for us and has promised to build a mansion for us and return for us. This kind of love and faithfulness revealed in the gospel is able to humble us and makes us grateful and thankful.

It frees us and makes us want to embrace the position of a servant in the house of God. Therefore, there is no substitute for a believer to be part of a gospel-preaching local church, partake of the gospel-showcasing ordinances, and be regularly humbled by the Law, while also being cleansed, restored and made grateful by the gospel. This is the secret of the pathway to true greatness in the Kingdom of God.