Changed into Children

There's a car commercial that's been running on TV during the Christmas season featuring adults acting like children and children acting like adults. The excited grownups rouse the children from their beds early on Christmas morning then run downstairs to see the new car in the driveway. The children follow them outside with cups of cocoa in hand, commenting on how it's all worth it to see the joy on the adults' faces.

I thought about this scene of adults reverting to childlike behavior when I read today's gospel. Jesus tells his followers, "Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." So does that mean to become like the adults who just found a Lexus as their Christmas present? Or is Jesus talking about something else?

Interpreting images such as this one can be difficult. "Childlike" can have all sorts of meanings, some good and some bad. And modern notions of childhood are vastly different from those in Jesus' day. Fortunately on this one, Jesus gives us an interpretive clue in his next sentence saying, "Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

I suppose humility came easily to children in Jesus' time. Childhood was short and children had little in the way of power or influence. "Arrogant child" would have been something of an oxymoron in first century AD, and this seems to be the sort of change Jesus urges his followers to embrace.

Because Christian faith has tended to be presumed in America (at least until fairly recently), the notion of faith changing us has often been absent. If you've been a Christian all your life, how can your faith change you? Of course the problem with this notion is obvious. With no expectation of faith changing me, the way I happen to be must be compatible with faith. I wonder if this notion doesn't have a lot to do with how American Christians can see whatever views they hold as not only compatible but also as integral to their faith.

Examples abound of those who think that patriotism, consumerism, unlimited access to guns, Democratic ideals, Republican ideals, etc. are not only fine with Jesus, but actually an essential part of Christian faith. And generally speaking, none of these positions involves any "change" that occured as the result of following Jesus.

It strikes me that there is a certain arrogance to assuming that my political, economic, social, or other points of view fit easily into the ways of Jesus. Jesus did not fit easily into many of the norms of his day, and a great deal of what he says still grates against the norms of our day.

If we are to become the children Jesus recommends, it will not involve getting a Lexus, or any other consumer item. Jesus says it will mean becoming "humble," and a good place to start might be considering how the norms and truths we live by are or aren't in keeping with the life Jesus tells us to live.

One constant to being a child is realizing there is so much you do not know. Growing up is a regular process of learning new things and casting aside old assumptions of what is true and certain. Surely the humility Jesus demands of his followers requires that we test and evaluate all we hold dear in light of his words.

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