The Upside-Down Kingdom Text: Matthew 18:1-6
Introduction: The Politics of Heaven
The disciples come to Jesus with a question that reveals they are still thinking in the tired, worn-out categories of the world. They are jockeying for position. They are polishing their resumes for a cabinet position in what they assume will be a glorious new political administration. "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" It is a question dripping with ambition, the kind of ambition that builds Babels and topples empires. It is the question of men who can smell power and who want to know who will get the corner office.
In our day, this same spirit is alive and well, both outside the church and, lamentably, within it. The world measures greatness by influence, by platform, by follower counts, by the ability to command and control. And the church, far too often, simply baptizes these worldly metrics and calls it "leadership." We want to know who the keynote speaker is, who has the biggest ministry, who is making the biggest splash. The disciples' question is our question, and it reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of Christ's kingdom.
Jesus's answer is not a gentle course correction. It is a complete demolition of their entire frame of reference. He does not give them a new set of qualifications for greatness; He detonates the very idea of greatness as they understand it. He takes their ladder of ambition, lays it flat on the ground, and tells them they must get low enough to crawl under it. The kingdom of heaven does not operate on the principles of Washington D.C. or Wall Street. Its politics are upside-down. To go up, you must first go down. To be great, you must become small. To rule, you must serve.
This passage is therefore a foundational lesson in kingdom economics, kingdom ethics, and kingdom authority. It is a radical call to repentance for a church that is constantly tempted by the world's definition of success. And it contains one of the most severe warnings in all of Scripture, a warning that our generation of sentimental, child-abandoning Christians has determinedly ignored, much to its peril.
The Text
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,
and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever therefore will humble himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;
but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.
(Matthew 18:1-6 LSB)
The Wrong Question and the Living Answer (v. 1-2)
The scene opens with the disciples' carnality on full display.
"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, 'Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?'" (Matthew 18:1)
They have seen the miracles. They have heard the teaching. They have just been told that Jesus is going to be betrayed and killed. And yet, their minds are occupied with internal promotions. This is not godly ambition, which desires to serve God faithfully and see His kingdom advance. This is worldly, selfish ambition, which seeks personal glory. It is the original sin of pride, the desire to be like God, to be number one. They see the kingdom as a pyramid scheme and they want to know who gets to be at the top, just under Jesus.
Jesus's response is a living object lesson. He doesn't deliver a lecture; He performs a parable.
"And He called a child to Himself and set him before them," (Matthew 18:2)
In the ancient world, a child was a non-entity. They had no status, no power, no rights. They were entirely dependent. To be a child was to be at the bottom of the social ladder. Jesus takes this symbol of insignificance and places him in the center of their circle, right in the midst of their power games. He is about to redefine their entire political dictionary using this child as His visual aid.
The Inverted Entrance Exam (v. 3-4)
Jesus then lays out the non-negotiable terms of His kingdom. It is a radical reorientation of the soul.
"and said, 'Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'" (Matthew 18:3 LSB)
Notice, before He even addresses their question about being the "greatest" in the kingdom, He addresses the more fundamental issue of how one gets into the kingdom at all. You don't get in by climbing; you get in by stooping. The word "converted" means to be turned around, to have your direction and your entire way of thinking reversed. They were thinking about ascending, and Jesus tells them they must repent and descend.
To "become like children" is not a call to be childish. Paul tells us to put away childish things (1 Cor. 13:11). This is not an endorsement of ignorance, silliness, or immaturity. Rather, it is a call to be childlike. And what is the defining characteristic of a child in this context? Utter dependence and humility. A child does not have a resume. A child does not have a list of accomplishments. A child has needs, and he looks to his father to meet them. He has no illusions about his own power or importance. He simply trusts. This is the posture of faith. To enter the kingdom, you must abandon all your self-righteous striving and come to God with empty hands, trusting in His provision alone.
Then, having established the entrance requirement, Jesus answers their original question.
"Whoever therefore will humble himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:4 LSB)
The world says, "Whoever exalts himself, promotes himself, and builds his own brand is the greatest." Jesus says the exact opposite. Greatness in His kingdom is measured by the yardstick of humility. The one who is truly great is the one who is not trying to be great. He is the one who, like a child, understands his own lowliness and dependence on the Father. This is not a false, groveling piety. Biblical humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. It is a robust, reality-based assessment of your position before a holy God. You are a creature. You are a sinner saved by grace. You have nothing that you did not receive. True greatness is found in joyfully embracing this reality and living out of it.
Receiving the Small and Warning the Proud (v. 5-6)
The principle of humility has immediate, practical implications for how we treat others in the church.
"And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;" (Matthew 18:5 LSB)
To "receive" a child means to welcome, to value, to care for the insignificant ones. Jesus is not just talking about literal children, though He certainly includes them. He is talking about any believer who is lowly, weak, or considered unimportant by the world's standards. When we welcome such a person, not because they can do anything for us, but because they belong to Christ, we are in fact welcoming Christ Himself. The church is not a club for the impressive. It is a family where the least are honored.
This has massive implications for our covenant children. We receive them in His name at the font, marking them as members of His visible kingdom. We are not to treat them as pagans until they can produce a sufficiently dramatic conversion story. We are to receive them as Christ's own, and raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, believing the promises of God for them. To despise them, to neglect them, is to despise Christ.
And this leads to the most terrifying warning in the passage. After the gentleness of verse 5 comes the raw thunder of verse 6.
"but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea." (Matthew 18:6 LSB)
A "little one who believes in Me" is a disciple, a follower of Christ, particularly one who is new or weak in the faith. To cause one to stumble is to place an obstacle in their path that leads them into sin or causes their faith to falter. The image Jesus uses is brutally graphic. A millstone was a massive stone, sometimes turned by a donkey, used for grinding grain. Jesus says it would be a comparative mercy to have one of these tied to your neck and be thrown into the ocean than to face the judgment for this sin. This is not hyperbole. This is a sober calculation of divine wrath.
We must ask ourselves, what are the millstone offenses of our day? Our entire secular culture is a massive, industrialized stumbling-block factory. Our system of godless public education is designed to shipwreck the faith of covenant children. The sexual revolution, with its normalization of perversion and its assault on the created order of male and female, is a direct attack on these little ones. And when the church compromises with this spirit of the age, when it adopts a soft, effeminate posture, when it refuses to draw sharp lines and practice discipline, it becomes complicit. When pastors refuse to call sin by its name, when they offer therapeutic platitudes instead of the sharp sword of the Word, they are placing stumbling blocks before the flock. They are earning their millstones.
Conclusion: The Great Reversal
The disciples wanted a hierarchy of greatness, and Jesus gave them one. But it is a hierarchy that is the polar opposite of the world's. The way up is down. The first are last. The greatest are the servants. The leaders are as dependent as children.
This requires a fundamental conversion, a turning of our minds. We must repent of our worldly ambitions and our pride. We must learn to see greatness not in status, but in service. We must learn to value the people that the world overlooks. This is the entrance exam for the kingdom, and it is also the final exam.
And we must take the warning with deadly seriousness. God is fiercely protective of His little ones. To lead them astray, to corrupt their faith through false teaching, worldly compromise, or a cowardly refusal to stand for the truth, is to invite a judgment so severe that a violent drowning would be a welcome alternative. Our culture is drowning in such sins. Let the church not be found with a millstone around its neck. Let us instead humble ourselves, become as children, and receive the little ones in the name of the one who humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross, and was therefore highly exalted by the Father.