At the beginning of Matthew 18, Jesus is dealing with the idea of "greatness" because his twelve still had the value system of the society around them. Jesus would change that idea for them over time. But, on this occasion, he called a child over to the group of men to begin his reconditioning of their thinking.
He began by saying some easy things like become as a little child to enter his kingdom and accept and welcome a little child and in so doing welcome Jesus himself. He went on to some ideas harder to put into practice such as the verses listed below. Perhaps Jesus' comments were literal, perhaps metaphorical, but they are hard to achieve.
Verse 6
Ὃς δ’ ἂν σκανδαλίσῃ ἕνα τῶν μικρῶν τούτων τῶν πιστευόντων εἰς ἐμέ, συμφέρει αὐτῷ ἵνα κρεμασθῇ μύλος ὀνικὸς περὶ τὸν τράχηλον αὐτοῦ καὶ καταποντισθῇ ἐν τῷ πελάγει τῆς θαλάσσης
(The ones who would put an obstacle in the way of little ones who trust me, would be better off hanging a grinding stone for grain around their necks and drowning themselves out in the open sea.)
Verse 7
Οὐαὶ τῷ κόσμῳ ἀπὸ τῶν σκανδάλων· ἀνάγκη γὰρ ἐλθεῖν τὰ σκάνδαλα, πλὴν οὐαὶ τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ δι’ οὗ τὸ σκάνδαλον ἔρχεται
(How terribly bad it will be for the world because their obstacles inevitably come, but it will be especially terrible for the person responsible for the obstacle.)
Verse 8
Εἰ δὲ ἡ χείρ σου ἢ ὁ πούς σου σκανδαλίζει σε, ἔκκοψον αὐτὸν καὶ βάλε ἀπὸ σοῦ· καλόν σοί ἐστιν εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν ζωὴν κυλλὸν ἢ χωλὸν ἢ δύο χεῖρας ἢ δύο πόδας ἔχοντα βληθῆναι εἰς τὸ πῦρ τὸ αἰώνιον
(If your hand or foot gets in the way of having a good life, remove it. It is better for you to participate fully in life crippled than to participate with two hands and feet and wind up being thrown into the eternal fire.)
Verse 9
καὶ εἰ ὁ ὀφθαλμός σου σκανδαλίζει σε, ἔξελε αὐτὸν καὶ βάλε ἀπὸ σοῦ· καλόν σοί ἐστιν μονόφθαλμον εἰς τὴν ζωὴν εἰσελθεῖν ἢ δύο ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχοντα βληθῆναι εἰς τὴν γέενναν τοῦ πυρός
(And if your eye is an obstacle to good living, take it out and throw it away. It is better for you to participate fully in life with one eye than to participate with two eyes and wind up being thrown into the despicable fires of the Valley of Hinnom.)
Two ideas stand out in these verses that make Jesus' point. Each one of the 4 verses uses either the noun form or verb form of σκανδαλίζει (to put an obstacle in the way). After telling the Twelve that they should become like children, he next had a message for those practicing Judaism. Don't change the trust factor that little children had in their Heavenly father. The literal interpretation is daunting. As children become adults in the world, there are many, many opportunities for them to dump trust in God and direct their trust elsewhere. That's why he made the statement about "the world's" obstacles that appear for everyone. The Romans and every other nation under the sun had their own beliefs about gods and lifestyles. Jesus told them that it would not go well for them ultimately.
But, he also personalized the statement to responsible parties who make life rough enough on children to make them switch loyalties from God to something else. As a parent, I know how easy it is to get in the way of a teenager's developing faith. Intentions to take soft or hard lines can have backlashes on faith that redirect a teen's fragile faith. Guiding one from child to adult required me to be the responsible party. In light of Jesus' words that task was daunting because I was not a perfect, responsible party. At some point the child is responsible for his or her own faith, but parents standing in that gap between childhood and adulthood as a guide know the perilous nature of that decade's journey from 10 to 20.
If the words are more figurative in nature, then the peril doesn't disappear from the situation. We all go through different stages of faith. We can look back to a time when our faith was developing. What kind of voice did we listen to? Whose choices of what was important for lifestyle habits did we look around to adopt from? Which books did we read to develop faith. And when we were more mature, if I was one of the voices someone listened to, then what did that person younger in faith hear me say? If my lifestyle was under scrutiny from someone who respected me, then what in it was worth adopting? And, if someone heard my teaching, from a book, class, counsel, or casual conversation, then did it further develop trust in God or deflect that trust to another place or entity?
The other idea in the passage is that of how a person's life ends. Jesus used his typical reference to a terrible end, the Valley of Hinnom. The reference is to the days of King Ahaz of Judea. He built an idol to Ba'al there for people to worship, even sacrificed his own sons there to the God Molech as did others. The story is carried in 2 Kings 23.10, 2 Chronicles 8.3, and Jeremiah 32.35. The fires that burned in the valley were kept going for a long period of time. The Jews eventually had a change of heart. The fires of Hinnom became the place to burn animal carcasses in order to show their disgust for what previously had happened there. Eventually, all kinds of garbage was incinerated there, so the fires never went out. The connotation of the place was one of "despicable" fires in this valley. Because the Jews kept the fires going over such a long period of time, they were also referred to as the eternal fire.
Some say the first is referring to not misleading literal children and the second is the figurative rendering of Valley of Hinnom's fire as hell's fire. Others say that the first is meant as a figure of speech not to lead people who have young faith astray and the second is the literal rendering of the image of the despicable fires of Hinnom.
Either way, I know that during the many years of my Christian journey I have violated the principle involved . I have pushed ideas that others were not ready to accept. I argued for ideas that worked for me at my various stages of understanding, but that didn't benefit others at their stages of understanding. For my lack of insight, I depend on God's forgiveness, his grace. I try much harder these days to understand the principles at work in Jesus' teachings. This determination is at the heart of the blogs I write.
[The beginning song is Never Too Late by Three Days Grace, the ending song is Handprints on the Wall by Kenny Rogers]
[Introductory artwork retrieved from
http://images.clipartpanda.com/pal-clipart-pal-clipart-of-a-digital-collage-of-couples-of-black-silhouetted-children-playing-together-by-dero-329.jpg]
[The Greek text used is the Nestle Aland 28th edition]
[Translations from Greek are my own.]
