Being examples to the little ones
Matthew 18:6-9
6 ‘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. 7 Woe to the world because of stumbling-blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling-block comes!
8 ‘If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell of fire.
This passage links to Jesus placing the child in the middle and saying, “Unless you become like children.” The little ones in vs. 6 is the children we were invited to welcome in vs. 5.
Adults have a responsibility to care about children, protecting and seeking the best for the next generation. Jesus uses dramatic language to highlight his point. Being the source of actions, words, or attitudes that cause children to stumble on their journey of faith is a very serious offence.
These verses at times have been used by adults to justify their advocating for a particular set of actions, practices, position – saying that they are seeking the good of children against forces seeking to do children harm. Sometimes, I think, something gets missed: the way in which people maintain their position, the ways in which they describe their opponents, the language they use to portray people who think differently than they do. Those actions, words, attitudes put stumbling blocks in the way of children and youth as big as anything the adults are trying to protect the children from.
Let me try to say that more clearly. If in advocating for children on some issue, I speak in a disrespectful way about those I disagree with. If I vilify the opponents, treating them as almost less than human, my actions have in fact become a stumbling block to young people who will think that my way behaviour, since I am a responsible adult, is an acceptable way of dealing with disagreement. Or alternatively, they will be so repulsed by my pattern of behaviour, that they will reject the very One whose name I claim to speak for. Children learn more from our example than from our words. The ways we speak and act should not become a stumbling block for children and young people who are learning how to follow God.
PRAYER:
O Lord, we are often unaware of how our examples are seen by others. Shape our lives so that our actions and behaviours will not be a stumbling block to children and youth who are seeking to follow you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.