For us, time only moves one direction, forward. Once the past is past, it cannot be undone or altered. This is how we know life to be, usually to our great regret. And as time moves on, we age, always growing only older. 2yr-olds turn into 4yr-olds, 20 becomes 30, 50 becomes 60, and before you know it, you are facing your own mortality up close and personal. Mind you the distance between 2-years-old and 60 is what we describe as a lifetime. But in truth, it is not. All of our years here are but a drop in the bucket, perhaps not even as much as a drop more like a molecule, and perhaps instead of a bucket, an entire ocean. There comes a life to those who believe that becomes nearly impossible to measure in years, for too many years pass by. The idea of eternity is hard for the human mind to grasp. We are too bound in the present, where our life expectancy is set before we are born, where reaching the age of 90 in relatively good health is considered an achievement. To reach a 100 is so rare it is worthy of press attention, beyond that is hardly something people will even believe. And in the context of eternity, 100 years old is barely a half a second, or a single blink of an eye. When time has no end, time becomes less meaningful. But perhaps the most striking element of eternity for believers is how it begins, not with the dissolution of time itself, but with a change in direction of how we grow.
No, this is not the story of Benjamin Button. In fact this is not fantasy of any kind. It is truism.
It is realism. It descends from
the mouth of Jesus Christ Himself. And
as a believer you will come to know the truth of it in your own life. To actually grow backwards. Let me give you a small taste. When you were a toddler, chances are you
trusted your parents to completely take care of everything you needed. As a toddler you had NO idea how they did
that. For that matter, as a toddler you
never even gave those thoughts a moment of time in your toddler brain. They just were. Or rather, life just was. It did not need definition. And your thoughts might then have been
pre-occupied only with the basics – am I hungry, or tired, or in need of
affection, or play. And no matter which
of these needs or any other your mind might stumble across, your parents were
the ones to meet that need. Sometimes
they were good enough to anticipate them.
To feed you before you even knew you were hungry. To hold you because they needed it, even if
you were already comfortable that you were loved. Parents did for you, because you were loved
by them.
Now extend the example to how God interacts with you
today. If you let Him, God will be that
parent for you in every single aspect of your life. When you are hungry, God knows it. And He promises to meet the needs of today as
they arise. He does not promise to stock
your pantry forevermore, but does promise to provide the bread you need as you
need it each day. Sometimes it is hard
to wrap your adult brain around even one simple gesture of trust. But if you can allow it. You will witness the actions of a loving
parent where your life is concerned. And
engaging in this kind of trust–fulfillment–trust cycle only builds trust in you
in who God is, and how God is, with you personally. You begin to see His parental instincts are
worlds ahead of your own, or of your own parents. And the worry of this life abates, and you
are made free to think on other things.
The stress of survival begins to recede, and what emerges is the freedom
to play more, enjoy more, and spend more time with Dad. You find Dad was just longing to do that with
you all along, and He will make the time, to do it. In fact, He has already set aside one day in
seven, just to mark out some special play time with you.
Having the freedom NOT to worry, is an anti-adult
thing. It is a child-like thing. And it is only the beginning of your journey. Luke wrote about it in the 18th
chapter of his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why. He picks up with the incident that outlines
the roadmap to this in verse 15 saying … “And they brought unto him also
infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked
them.” This is typical adult
behavior. The Jewish people believed
strongly in blessings. And to be blessed
you needed to make physical contact with the person blessing you. It took the laying on of hands to be
precise. No remote blessings. No dialing it in. The person doing the blessing would typically
put his hands on your head, and then the prayers and blessings would begin to
flow. Extra special blessings might
involve pouring olive oil on your head while the blessing was uttered. But these parents just wanted a quick
blessing from the Rabbi, or rather the Prophet, or rather the possible Messiah,
or perhaps the miracle worker they had all witnessed him perform. It was a good idea.
But the disciples had begun to think of themselves as more
serious people, as a quasi-guardian of access to Jesus. Imagine that, the first most prominent followers
of Jesus, soon took their own access to Jesus as a sign they should limit the
access of others, instead of trying to bring others to Christ. Sound familiar? Does that plague continue to persist
today? Where someone close to Jesus
begins to move away from welcoming all to the foot of the cross, to trying to
pre-sort the ones that are able to come at all.
And think about it, we adults are serious people. We already know stuff. We are capable of hearing, learning, and
decided what stuff means. We have no
time for crying babies, or cute toddlers.
They can’t figure all this adult stuff out. They are incapable. So why should we waste our time with
them. Only the serious need apply. Only the capable need even try. Little ones are neither of those. Little ones are obsessed with only one thing
– they like to play. There is NO time
for playing in church. There is NO time
to try to distract Jesus with cute stuff.
Keep the cute stuff at home, appreciate it there, and don’t bother Jesus
in church with any of these antics. We
have no time for that.
But Jesus had other ideas as Luke continues in verse 16
saying … “But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the
kingdom of God. [verse 17] Verily I say unto
you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in
no wise enter therein.” Hold up,
wait a minute, Jesus is flipping time and growth on their heads. Instead of serious, Jesus plans to make time for
the little children. Jesus is going to
make time for cute, for play, for love, for affection. Yes we all know Jesus is busy, there is an
entire world to save, there are so many to heal, to feed, to preach to. But put ALL of that on pause for a moment. Something more important has come up. A little child wants access to Jesus. And Jesus is going to stop it all, make time,
and fulfill that need. Serious is out
the window. Reverent has been tossed out
of the play-yard. Jesus will enter
instead. But Jesus takes it a whole
world farther than anyone – parent, or disciple – could have ever
anticipated. Jesus declares that the
entire Kingdom of God (not just a part of it, but the whole of it) is made up
of little babies and toddlers like these kids.
What does that mean? Adult minds
are scrambling now to figure that out.
Adult minds are racing to figure out a new doctrine that runs counter to
every bit of wisdom they have been taught, and still they have no clue what it
means.
It gets worse. Jesus
ups the ante. Jesus further declares
that all us adults are never getting in to the Kingdom until we learn to
receive that gift and embrace it like one of these non-serious, heavy playing,
heavy loving little toddlers does. Not
just bad enough that people in the Kingdom are like these kids, people cannot
even get inside until they become like one of these kids. Adult minds just begin to collapse at that
declaration. And shouldn’t they? Give this thought a minute to sink in, in
your own mind. Jesus is asking for more
than just baby-talk you might do with your spouse behind closed doors, or with
your small children on the floor while you are playing with them. He is not asking you to act young. He is asking you to be young, to grow
backwards, to lose adulthood in favor of the trust and love of a young toddler
who never even thinks about “adult” things.
Toddlers have no time for that.
It would seem what there is time for is completely upside down when seen
through the eyes of Jesus.
At this point, the self-appointed-guardians of access to
Jesus, have backed up and gone nuts.
They have opened the floodgates of little ones jumping right into the
welcoming arms of Jesus. They don’t know
why. They heard Jesus describe the
Kingdom as made up of these. But the
idea that they have to become like these to ever get in – is beyond them. That is impossible. That defies physics, and history, and
everything we know about life. It is
upside down world. So how could we
possibly make that happen? It would seem
we are all doomed. It would get worse,
before it would get better. To drive
home the point about how this could ever happen, the story continues picking
back up in verse 18 saying … “And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what
shall I do to inherit eternal life? [verse 19] And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is,
God. [verse 20] Thou knowest the commandments,
Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness,
Honour thy father and thy mother.”
Now this was someone the disciples could equate to, perhaps
to aspire to. A rich young ruler, an
adult, who was obviously blessed by God, as witnessed by his wealth. He comes to Jesus asking how he might be
saved. This answer should obviously
clean up that whole be a kid thing.
First Jesus redirects the false flattery back to God who alone deserves
it. Then the first words of Jesus are
not about being a kid, they are about keeping the law of Moses. Finally!
These are words the entire Jewish nation will understand. Keeping the law is engrained in the DNA. You keep it, or you are lost. Period.
No other requirements. Being a
kid, is for kids, this Law stuff is for serious people, for adults who are able
to understand it. The story continues in
verse 21 saying … “And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. [verse
22] Now
when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto
the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.” You see, the serious adult has kept the law
from when he was a child up. Maybe that
is what Jesus meant about being a kid, that even non-serious kids better keep
the law or else. But that was not to be.
The answer of Jesus was now even more disturbing and for
many reasons. He tells the rich young
ruler, to go and sell everything he owns, for “treasure in heaven”. Then He follows by inviting him to become the
thirteenth male disciple. Hey wait a
minute, I thought only 12 were allowed.
They needed to be paired up for ministry, and 12 was like the number 12
of the tribes of Israel. Isn’t there
some numerical significance to that number, why are we about to open it up to
13 instead? That makes no sense. But Jesus is right there about to increase
their number, so much for pairing up in evangelism. Maybe Jesus will invite another one to make
it 14. But putting aside the whole
number fiasco. Jesus asks the rich young
ruler to do something ONLY a trusting child could ever do. To give it all away, and trust, and follow –
and not know a single thing more than that.
No road map. No plan. No agenda.
Just throw all the cares of money to the wind to care for the poor (and
in so doing perhaps help the poor to heaven, thereby increasing the only real
treasure in heaven there would ever be), and go and be made free in the doing.
So the whole kid thing has not gone out the window with
answer of Jesus. It is worse. Jesus is pointing out that keeping the Law
given to Moses is only a start. What is
really important is giving your entire trust to Him, losing everything you own,
and becoming a toddler disciple with no clue what will happen next. Your need to know is shot. You are not going to be told. When it is time you will know, not
before. And keeping the Law, or having
wealth, does not shield you from the need to trust, and to give it all
away. The story picks back up in verse 23
saying … “And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. [verse
24] And
when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom
of God! [verse 25] For it is easier for a camel
to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Oh no.
Jesus has just doomed all of their aspirations. In addition, He just made it impossible for
an entire class of people to ever see the inside of the Kingdom of God. Good thing Nicodemus and Joseph were not here
to hear this, it might have depressed them to death. And every other member of the Sanhedrin. All of them doomed. If Peter ever became a successful fisherman,
he too might be doomed. Good thing he
was only ever so-so at it.
But this response of Jesus to once again defy physics, and
reverse everything we know about religion and life was perplexing more than
just the disciples this time. Luke picks
back up in verse 26 saying … “And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved? [verse
27] And
he said, The things which are impossible with
men are possible with God.” And
there it is, the methodology of our salvation spelled out in terms both adult
mind and child mind can easily understand.
We don’t do it. We cannot do
it. We cannot reverse time or
physics. We are not supposed to. We are supposed to trust that even though we
are unable to save ourselves, that Jesus and God are able, and will do that
very thing. What is in fact, impossible
for us, is possible for God. Where our
spiritual maturity has thus far been measured in how serious we adult-minds
have become – is now to be turned on its head and go backwards – more trust,
more play, more love – less stress, less worry, less trying to figure
everything out. We are to lose our need
to know, and to just be. Be free. Play with Dad. Enjoy His hugs. Share His blessings. Push His love to us outwards, and sideways,
to everyone with no limitations – just like a group of toddlers will do.
We don’t grow backwards into toddlers of His kingdom because
we “act” like them, but because we become them.
We cannot act our way into heaven.
We cannot perform the duties required to get into heaven. We must instead become different people, much
younger people, with absolute trust, and a freedom we have yet to experience. To leave everything up to God, is
invigorating, renewing, and freeing beyond all measure. We stop needing to know “how” God does it, we
just need to know He does. And life and
history teach that too. Our minds then,
need not be so serious, but instead be trusting and loving. Keeping His law then will come not because we
will it, or think we do, but because He creates obedience in us, as a natural
state of who we become. And as pointed
out here, that is only the beginning. We
will grow into a state of wild abandon with Jesus. Willing to give up every single thing we
own. Trusting in Dad to meet every need,
and watching Dad do exactly that and more.
We can grow backwards, and grow younger, not because it is possible for
us, but because it is possible for God, and God does it for us, in us, and
through us. Sit back my toddler friends,
time to let Dad take over, and enjoy the ride.
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