guest post by John Indermark, retired UCC minister, member of First Christian Church (DOC), Tucson
In Matthew 18, right after bringing a small child among the disciples to answer a question about who was the greatest in God’s sovereign realm, Jesus offered this additional word about children and “little ones” in our midst:
If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones . . . 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. (18:6)
Now, I get it that Mid-Eastern teachers of Jesus’ day often engaged in hyperbole, and Jesus was no exception. Camels passing through a needle’s eye . . . cutting off one’s hand if it causes you to sin . . . a servant who runs up a personal debt equivalent to the annual taxable income for Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, and Samaria combined at that time. All exaggerations for the sake of highlighting crucial points.
Exaggeration or not, we take Jesus’ point about the offense of causing grief to children and vulnerable ones. By the way, the Greek word translated as “stumbling block” is skandolon – in English, scandal.
Matthew 18 came to my mind when the most recent news (read, “scandal”) of a detention facility in Clint, Texas broke: children still in cages, youngsters having to care for infants who are not even family while subject to outbreaks of lice and other gross indignities. And understanding that such conditions do not come reported from distant Third World sites, but 5 hours east of our church on Interstate 10.
As a result, one cannot help but hear Jesus’ words in Matthew in an unexpected way. And one is led to wonder: what would Jesus do in response? Which is to say, what would Jesus have us do?