Matthew 18:1-9
“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6)
The wisdom of Jesus’ words here almost strike us as common sense. “Naturally!” we think to ourselves, “No one should hinder a child! The audacity!”
But what if I asked you to name a particular stumbling block. Could you do it?
Failing to bring kids to church? Sure. Not teaching them to pray? Okay. Forgetting to sign them up for VBS (or this year’s “VBS To Go”)? Sounds about right. Anything else?
Surely there must be, right? If it’s really just the list above, then Jesus could’ve been more direct in his proclamation: “Woe to you who don’t bring your kids to worship, neglects to teach them to pray, and don’t put them in a place to make macaroni art each summer!”
I suspect it’s the very intuitiveness of this passage that makes it easy to neglect in truly pondering it. So, let us not neglect this warning from our Lord. Let us think widely about every potential metaphorical stumbling blocks. Here’s a brief list I came up with:
- Fail to model the faith in our own lives
- Neglect their basic physical care – nutritious food, clean water, clean air, good hygiene, etc.
- Fail to show them how to lament for the world’s sins
- Don’t teach them emotional resiliency
And then what happens if we start looking at larger, systemic issues:
- Perpetuate our own prejudices onto their little lives, including the ways our society reviles people of color, the LGBTQ community, different religions, and every other form of “Otherness” that exists
- Sustain economic systems that require a caste system that keeps some people perpetually tied to poverty
- Too easily seek violence as recourse to every problem – domestic to international
- Pillage the environment for material resources meant for our own comfort and consumption
- Model a materialistic disposition toward the world
All of the sudden, there are just so many stumbling blocks – and, eerily, many of them are starting to look like millstones for our necks!
Part of the power of Jesus’ admonishment to look out for children is the many ways in which looking toward the care of future generations always demands changes from the current generation. At the heart of Jesus’ words is a call for radical, holistic justice in the world. Otherwise, all we are doing is raising up the next generation of Christians who will have increased stumbling blocks between them and their yearning to “love God and enjoy Him forever.” Amen.
