Reading: Matthew 17-18, Psalm 89
Transfiguration. Demon possession. Taxes. Personal ranking. Causing children to sin. Lost sheep. Community discipline. Forgiving as you have been forgiven.
Whew. There is just a little bit going on in these chapters of the book of Matthew. Many of the stories will be familiar, perhaps even very well known to those who have read the Bible and gone to church for much of their lives. What I am interested in is the links between them and the order in which Matthew chose to deliver them to us. Recall that Matthew began his book with the titles son of David, son of Abraham. He told us right away what he was aiming at. Matthew sees Jesus as the greatest character in the human story. The fulfillment of the promises to Abraham and to David. Promises about blessing all the families of the earth through this one family of Abraham, and promises about a wise king, who passes the test that Adam failed, who will reign forever. Matthew believes Jesus is The Guy they have been waiting for. He shows up declaring the Kingdom of Heaven is here now, today. He goes up on a mountain, is transfigured visibly in a glorious vision of humans as they were supposed to be. He meets up with Moses and Elijah, clearly representing the Law and the Prophets, and has a little chat with them. God’s voice lets any observers know that Jesus is the Son of God, the one to listen to. He comes down the mountain and… his disciples start wondering which of them is the greatest.
Okay, there is a lot going on the Transfiguration scene, but one of the easy ones is that Jesus is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. He just got a direct endorsement by the voice of God while having a chat with two of the most authoritative figures in Israel’s history. What are the disciples on about? I think that is part of the point that Matthew is getting across. The disciples are still looking at personal ranking in a world where Jesus has obliterated any possible competition for “greatness.” Following the transfiguration, Jesus reaffirmed his authority over demons by casting one out, and he gets the means to pay taxes out of the mouth of the fish. This guy clearly has the authority to do whatever he wants. He is so obviously the answer that the question seems mildly embarrassing.
But Jesus answers in an unexpected way. He looks at a child and tells the disciples to be like them. Children, for all their wildness, are the most easily led humans there are. They listen to the wisdom of their elders. They watch, observe, and learn from what they see those older and bigger than them doing. The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is to be like that. Easily led, observant of what the King does, attentive to his wisdom. They are to be humble enough to trust the wisdom of God rather than reach out and take charge of in their own knowledge of good and bad. Jesus is describing the opposite of the fall. Then Jesus issues a warning against misleading those who have chosen to have that kind of trust and humility. In a shorthand of the Hebrew Scriptures’ distaste for bad guides, he says it would be better to be drowned with a millstone around your neck that be like that.
Humility is greatness. It is another great reversal is the Story. Human wisdom giving way to God’s truth. The humble person trusting in God’s wisdom will forgive their brother without count if God says to do so. The one trusting to human wisdom will limit his grace to avoid further problems. The humble person trusting God’s wisdom will forgive as he has been forgiven, because he is watching the actions of his King and doing what he sees the one who is older than him doing. The one living by human wisdom will get every advantage he can, accepting the forgiveness of his own debt but exacting repayment from others.
The book of Matthew is relentlessly pushing the authority of Jesus and the necessity for humility from everyone else. Jesus is being made out as the trustworthy authority that the disciples are to surrender their wills to. Confusing passages like if two of you ask anything in my name, it will be done become less confusing if we read around them that the human will is to be wholly subject to God’s will. When we do that, anything we ask is done, even if it is throwing a mountain into the sea, or forgiving terrible sins. In the end, it is not doing “bad things” that constitutes the human problem, it is taking the knowledge of good and bad from it’s proper source, our Creator, and trying to apply our own version to the world. In the Kingdom of Heaven, humility is greatness.