THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST TRYING TO GET AHEAD, A BROTHER WHO SINS AGAINST YOU

Scriptures

* Matthew 18: 15-331

For starters

Pride is one of those "invisible" vices--invisible to ourselves but painfully obvious to others. The victim of pride is often completely unaware of the serious and repugnant problem he has ("Stuck up? I'm not stuck up!"). Thus, it can crop up in contexts in life where swearing would never be heard, lying would by unthinkable, and immorality would never even be a possibility--like in the presence of Jesus among the His closest disciples. In Matt 19:1‚35 pride is at center stage, and Jesus confronts it in it many disguises.

So what's the story?

Jesus once told the apostles, "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." (Luke 6:45, RSV), and all too often the apostles revealed the worldly nature of their hearts by the questions that they asked. At this point in Jesus ministry, Jesus' closest disciples ask Him about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Implicit in their question was the not-so-veiled personal ambitions of wannabe princes and top dogs. The ferocity of this game of "king of the spiritual mountain" is shown time after time in the gospel accounts in the form of jealousies, special favors asked, refusal to serve others (eg. foot washing), and here in Jesus' overall response from Matt. 18:1 through v. 35.

Jesus' response to their question about who would be the greatest is not only that the humble are the greatest, but that these ambitious men needed to be very careful not to cause one of His little ones to stumble in their prideful rush to the "front of the line". Not only did they have the wrong attitudes about greatness, but their pride and ambition was actually downright dangerous to "little ones" who could easily be overlooked and lost in the scramble for the top2, unnecessarily offended by a leader's sharp tongued rebuke3, or prideful unforgiveness4.

The reason, of course, is that God is profoundly concerned about even one person. In our pride we will be concerned about one person but ONLY one, ourselves. The apostles were to be more circumspect than that, and their vying for place and position was a symptom of the "invisible" vice working among them that would cause them in the end to become unconcerned about none but themselves. Religious leaders in the following centuries have frequently forgotten this important principle from Jesus.

This concern for others and not just ourselves would prompt the apostles to seek to turn back a person who had sinned against us instead of simply excoriating them and writing them off.

"OK," Peter then seems to be saying, "What if the man that sins against me apologizes and repents. How many times do I have to forgive? Seven times?"5 Jesus answers him "not seven times but seventy times seven." Of course Jesus was not giving Peter an accurate number of times when forgiveness was expected but instead showing through a play on the number seven6 that the Christian needs to forgive an endless number of times because God forgives us this way. Jesus follows with the parable of the unmerciful servant showing that God has forgiven our sin against Him which is greater by far than anyone's sin against us.

Questions of Content

* What were the apostles fighting about?
* According to Jesus, who would be the greatest in the kingdom?
* What was Jesus' concern toward the "least of these"?
* How many times should a person forgive another person?

Thinking it over

* What are some of the reasons that some people reject "organized religion"? Does lack of humility, lack of forgiveness, or the presence of religious struggles for position and prestige sometimes play any part?
* What does humility, discussed concerning the child, have to do with forgiving our brother of sin? Why are we afraid to forgive someone more than once? Do children exercise a greater degree of forgiveness than adults? What can we learn from this?
* In what ways are children humble? Jesus uses a visual aid (the child) in his teaching of the disciples, why do you think Jesus found this necessary or profitable? The apostle Paul in Corinthians 13: 11,12 describes childish ways in an unsavory fashion, how does this fit in with Jesus's teachings?
* Why would we accept Jesus if we accepted a little child? Why would we accept God (The one who sent him) if we accepted Jesus? (Matthew 10: 40-42)
* Are there different degrees of greatness in heaven? Where will the angels be on the greatness scale? Did the disciples fully understand the (spiritual) kingdom at this point?