Greatness — Part Two

Two things made Jesus really mad, religious pretense and this issue, which we are going to talk about this week — the way we model life for and treat children. He hammered the hypocrites. That's an eternally serious matter that we will talk about another time. And all we have to do is read this section in Matthew 18 to see the set of his jaw and the flash in his eyes. Non-adult adults will feel the heat of the Master's wrath.

The popular definition of adulthood is a pretty incongruous thing. When you are underage you are not to be admitted to establishments that have signs that flash "adult," or (supposedly) to the web sites that portray that same sensuality. The idea seems to be that when you cross certain age barriers this kind of thing doesn't hurt you any more (or maybe those birthdays give you warrant to hurt yourself — and, in truth, it's hard to estimate the enormity of the personal, family, and cultural damage). "Adult beverages" will harm still-developing systems, but inebriation won't hurt older folks. For now I won't push this any further, but I've always been arrested by the words of King Lemuel in Proverbs 31:4-7. In part he says "give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish." I think I'll wait until it's near the start of the embalming process.

Three weeks ago (because it was Father's Day) we read part one of this section about greatness (in trust becoming like a little child), and we saved part two for this week (with Vacation Bible School starting next Sunday evening). Greatness involves acting like a real adult (God's definition), not a pseudo adult (the world's definition). Jesus says that kids will see terrible examples and be enticed by wicked, worldly manipulators; but those examples and enticements better not come from anyone who intends to be part of the Kingdom of God.