A child became an objective lesson.
At that time the disciples approached Jesus, saying: Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
I don't know if you have detected in this question a certain material ambition. It seems as if these men had been talking about this Topic and perhaps some of them believed that they could reasonably be considered the most important in the kingdom of heaven. So the Lord adopted an attitude that should have caused a great sensation. Let's read.
"And He, calling a child, put him in their midst".
What does this teach us? It shows us that the child approached the Lord without hesitation. In the Gospel according to Mark 10:14, we read that the Lord said: "Let the children come to me; do not prevent it." The problem was not that children came to Him, but to prevent adults from getting in their way when the little ones approached the Lord. We have here a beautiful image of Jesus, placing a child in their midst. And then, he told them, as he says in verse 3:
"And he said: Truly I say to you that if you do not convert and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."
This verse has been abused and misunderstood. Remember that the Lord was talking about conversion and not about a reversal. Some think that these words mean that one must, in some extraordinary way, return to childhood, or that one must behave in a childlike or youthful way to enter the kingdom of heaven. The Lord was not talking about returning to past childhood but rather of moving into a new life. It provides logic to the disciples' thoughts, by diverting their attention from the Topic of having an elevated position in the kingdom to another matter of fundamental importance such as ensuring entry into that kingdom. This was an affirmation as radical as that of Jesus in the Gospel of John 3.3, when he said: "Truly, truly, I say to you that he who is not born again cannot see the kingdom of God." The important thing that was emphasized in this verse is the new birth. You have to become a child in the sense that you have to be born again. When you are born again, you begin to live spiritually as a child.
"So, whoever humbles himself like this child, that is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
When we emphasize the entry into the kingdom, that is, the new birth, we find that he who humbles himself as a child is the eldest in the kingdom. Verses 5 and 6 continue to say
"And whoever receives a child like this in my name receives me. But whoever stumbles one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better if they hung a millstone from his neck from which he moves. an ass, and that he drowned deep in the sea. "
To "stumble" here means to sin. Jesus warned against this action in hard language. It seems that in this section what I was doing was turning the evangelization of children into a divine imperative. For him, reaching children for Christ was a high priority, which should remain important even today. Let's continue reading.
"Woe to the world for its stumbling blocks! Because it is inevitable that stumbling blocks will come; but woe to that man for whom the stumble comes! And if your hand or your foot is an occasion to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you. ; it is better for you to enter the life of a man or a lame person, than having two hands and two feet, to be thrown into the eternal fire.And if your eye is an opportunity for you to sin, take it away from it and throw it away from you. with one eye, that having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire. "
Here it is affirmed that God's judgment would fall on those who caused the aforementioned offenses. Jesus was not teaching the need for self-mutilation, such as cutting off a hand, a foot, or taking out an eye. Because doing so would not eradicate the source of the offense, which is the heart, as we saw in chapter 15, verses 18 and 19. Jesus was teaching the need to take away everything that offended others.
Credits for the Bible school following the teacher.