Thoughts

In response to the disciples’ seeking to find out “who is the greatest” (18:1), in this first part of the fourth of Matthew’s great discourses, Jesus speaks about humility and its value, identifying a childlike state of humility as the greatest virtue of the Kingdom (18:4). Green (p191) comments that the word used here for children, παιδια, can, like its Aramaic equivalent, also mean servants, and to be a servant of Jesus is to have the highest status in the Kingdom. While Green focuses almost exclusively on obedience and attentiveness as the meaning here of “become as little children”, Chrysostom (LVIII:3) focuses on a very small child’s freedom from pride and contentiousness, and correspondingly on the virtues of simplicity and unworldliness as being characteristic of the virtue of humility Jesus is praising. Set in the context of Jesus’s other teaching on the nature and life of the Kingdom, all of these meanings are surely included in the picture he was conveying with the little child – especially since Christ finally identifies himself with the little child (18:5).

Having established that life in the Kingdom (and thus, in the Church) is to be made up of those living this life of humility, Jesus goes on to illustrate just how serious a matter it is if such a one is deflected from this life and tempted or encouraged into sin. (Green is not sure whether he is referring here to children or “unimportant people” – p191 – but surely the context has been set to indicate all those living the life of humility, children and adults.[1]) Chrysostom (LVIII:4) notes that if it is “better for him” to have millstone around his neck and be cast into the sea, then this means the actual consequence of this behaviour will be worse. However Chrysostom takes the meaning of “ος δ’αν σκανδαλιση ενα των μικρων τουτων” – σκανδαλιζω (‘scandalise’) can mean either to ‘cause to sin’ or to give offense – differently from most English translations “whoever causes one of these little ones… to sin” (NKJV), suggesting that the offence lies rather acting in a “spirit of arrogance” against the humble and causing them offence. The relationship between ‘scandalising’, ‘causing offence’ and ‘causing to sin’ is a complex one, though the concepts are closely related. Given the close connection between 18:6-7 and 18:8, ‘causing to sin’ is probably the better translation here.

Chrysostom (LIX:4) considers the warning about offenses and the expression about cutting off hands and feet to be a reference to keeping bad company, or ‘peer pressure’ as it is commonly called. One may be in a situation where the offenses are inevitable (18:7), and the important thing then is, being unable to prevent the offenses, not to participate in bringing them about. It is better then to cut oneself off from the group rather than partake in the offenses: Do what you can (as Chrysostom says in several places). If you cannot prevent the offense, at least do not participate in it, or you will lose not only your friends but even yourself (18:9). (Attempt also to prevent any of the ‘little ones’ from being involved, since the consequences for those committing the offenses will be all the greater, as we have seen.)

Green has three further implications arising from this “vivid language” (p192). First, that it is a figurative preparation for the torture and martyrdom that they will undergo who refuse to be dragged into offenses, preferring to remain a child of Jesus. Further, it is a guide for excommunication (though he does not use the word): that there comes a time when for the health and even the continuing life of the whole body, certain members have to be removed. Finally, it is an encouragement to personal priorities and commitment in ‘going the extra mile’ to avoid temptations that could lead to sin.

[1] Green is perhaps misled in his analysis of this passage by his decision to separate v5-6 as a separate section (so that he can have a symbolically-significant seven sections in the discourse). One consequence of this is that v7-9 are no longer seen by him as having anything in particular to do with the mentions of the ‘little ones’ in v1-6 and v10-14.

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