Sermon Tone Analysis

“The disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”[1]

Catholic bishops met in Dallas in the Spring of 2002.

The purpose of their meeting was to discuss the spate of revelations revealing sexual predators lurking among the Catholic clergy.

Despite their best efforts toward damage control, they were faced with a growing rebellion as ordinary worshippers learned of their spiritual perfidy throughout years of excusing the ordination of homosexuals and permitting them to prey on unsuspecting boys wishing to serve within their church.

The bishops returned home and for months tried to sell their compromise to the people in the pews and to a host of other critics.

It was an embarrassing time for Catholics; but there remained a difficult question that was hardly asked by news media: Were there still other, perhaps even worse, child abusers out there, not yet called to account for the awful things they had done?

The answer is, “Yes—by the thousands and tens of thousands.”[2]

The point is not merely some rhetorical device to make an abstract and theoretical point.

We are weighing abuse of children so severe that Jesus said those who do it should be thrown into the ocean with huge stones tied to them so that there's no way for them to resurface and become repeat offenders.

I am telling you that even after a massive cleanup in the Catholic Church, these evil abusers are out there in enormous numbers.

Not that what has happened in Roman Catholicism is not terrible in its own right.

Catholic bishops were saying so themselves.

“This is a harsh day,” confessed Cardinal Edward Egan to parishioners in New York after the bishops' meeting a couple of days earlier in Dallas.

“We are all outraged, scandalised.

We need to pick up the pieces, and we will.”

Neither is it clear yet that either the Roman Catholic hierarchy, or especially the secular media who were so fixated with this scandal at that time, have been honest either with themselves or with the public they serve about the uniquely homosexual nature of the problem.

Both the church and the media have tried hard to suggest this is just a general problem with adults abusing children—as if that sad picture might somehow mask the harsher reality that this is overwhelmingly an issue of adult homosexual men taking sexual advantage of young boys.

In “Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse,” a paper published by the Family Research Council, Dr. Timothy J. Dailey statistically and scientifically highlights the unmistakable correlation between the two.[3]

It is a link that simply must be acknowledged by both the churches and the media if any long-term correctives are to be put in place.

Tragically, it is all but impossible for such an acknowledgement to be made in today's politically correct culture.

And it's precisely at the point of that refusal that we find the colossal assemblage of child abusers I mentioned earlier.

For if it is terrifying to tamper with a child in a manner that for the rest of his life leaves him struggling with his own sexual identity or with his ability to relate to other humans, how much worse is it to confuse a child about his own identity as a creature of God—and about how he can be properly related to that God?

The first offence, as most reasonable folks in our society (but not all) seem now to agree, is so bad that at the very least, those found guilty of it should be removed from their jobs and from all further contact with children.

Capital punishment, Jesus says, is a preferable alternative to the accountability that shall be demanded when that individual stands before the Living God!

Specifically, the behaviour that earns this incredibly strong response from Jesus in three of the four Gospels is simply causing “one of these little ones” to sin.

But given the nature of the people to whom Jesus was talking, it's not likely that the sin He was warning them against was something as blatant and unsavoury as tempting some little boys to engage in activities most people know to be sinful.

The really insidious danger was that the Pharisees would teach people to be blind to their own sin—and indeed by failing to see sin as sin, to walk the rest of their lives in sinful paths.

Such is precisely what most of our society today does with our children and adolescents.

We have made truth relative.

We tell our young people in so many words that there is no such thing as right and wrong.

We say that all religions are valid, that all value systems have equal potential for working.

Our government-controlled educational systems—from pre-school all the way through our big universities—are rooted in precisely such pluralistic doctrine.

Even much of private education buys into the same thinking.

And the media—the same ones whose newscasters cheer for anything that makes a church look bad—spend an inordinate amount of their time indoctrinating their listeners that there really is nothing ultimately good or bad.

Sadly, the young people of our nation have believed it.

By the millions, and by the tens of millions, they have believed it.

Even people who call themselves evangelical Christians have more and more questions about absolute truth.

But when you plant doubts about absolute truth, and when you teach children that there is only a shadowy difference between right and wrong, and when you promote relativism as a false god, you've done something far, far worse than abusing little children's bodies and psyches.

Now you've stripped them of their consciences as well.

Go ask the gentle Jesus, who took little ones into His loving arms, what He would do with people who abuse children that way.

*The Disciples’ Question *— The question that prompted the instruction provided by the Master was on the surface innocuous.

Perhaps we have even justified similar, if not identical, queries within our own churches.

“Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven,” asked the disciples.

The question appears to have been a matter of concern for all the disciples.

We are not so very different from those men; we want to know whether our voice counts.

We become irritated at some of the brothers and we grumble that we are as good as they are; our ideas are just as valid as their ideas.

We each would like to think that we are valuable to the Master, and the way we evaluate ourselves is to ask if we count in the church.

The disciples were a product of their culture, just as we are products of our own culture.

We permit culture to shape the life of our churches far more than we are shaped either by the Word of God or by the Spirit of the Living God.

This is especially true among contemporary congregations.

As an example, congregations are more concerned to set up a democratic form of governance for the church than they are to take time to develop consensus among the members.

At least, we are superficially more concerned to give the appearance of democratic governance for our churches, though in practise most churches operate as oligarchies.

Generally, church members tend to be more concerned with avoiding conflict with the government than they are with avoiding actions that dishonour the Lord.

We tell ourselves that “the King’s business requires haste,” never pausing to remember that we are responsible to be considerate of one another or to permit the Spirit to bring the people of God into harmony.

As individuals, we are certain that */we/* are correct, and so */we/* believe */we/* are justified in forcing */our/* will on others.

*/We/* know what God wants, and others will just have to come along with */us/*.

Another example of being shaped by culture is the tendency among Christians to avoid overt evangelism out of fear that we might offend unsaved people.

We are prepared to leave hints that we are Christians—a Bible left on the coffee table, signing our E-Mail with a slogan such as “Let the Son shine in,” or “God Bless.”

However, we are uneasy if the preacher is too direct in denouncing sin or in calling sinners to repent and believe the Good News.

We avoid telling others that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ the Lord.

A final example of culture shaping life among the churches is related to the issue that prompted the disciples’ question.

We live in a culture that stresses the need for self-esteem.

This is so important that we are willing to cease teaching such basic educational concepts as reading and writing in order to teach children to feel good about themselves.

Educators have assured us that if children don’t feel good about themselves, they can never succeed in life.

Consequently, we bring that very attitude into the church.

We are busy, and so we don’t want to inconvenience ourselves by doing too much in the church, but we do want to feel good about ourselves.

We want to think that Jesus loves us, though we live as we wish rather than doing what He commands.

We want to think that we are important, though we seldom invest our lives or our spiritual gifts in one another.

This reflects our culture more than a Spirit-led life.

The issue of who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven was an important issue to the disciples.

Perhaps it was at the same time as our text, or possibly it was another occasion that revolved around the same issue, but both Mark and Luke provide some insight into this matter, and it will be beneficial for us to consider the accounts that these evangelists have provided.

“They came to Capernaum.

And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?”

But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

And he sat down and called the twelve.

And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me’” [*Mark 9:33-37*].

“An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest.

But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, ‘Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

For he who is least among you all is the one who is great’” [*Luke 9:46-48*].

For the record, I believe this was an ongoing, recurrent discussion among these men, not unlike the jockeying that occurs among those wishing to promote themselves as leaders within our congregations.

For instance, even as the Saviour faced the cross within a matter of hours, we see some of the disciples trying to elbow their way to the front of the line.

“A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.

And he said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors.

But not so with you.

Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.

For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves?

Is it not the one who reclines at table?

But I am among you as the one who serves’” [*Luke 22:24-27*].

Even as they neared Jerusalem on what would be His final day with the disciples before His Passion, John and James tried to engineer a coup that they imagined would promote them above the other disciples.

“The mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something.

And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’

She said to him, ‘Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’

Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?’

They said to him, ‘We are able.’

He said to them, ‘You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’