‘Jesus the Logician’ Project: Matthew 18:12-14
February 1st, 2005 | 03:37 AM |(5 years, 5 months, 4 weeks, 1 day, 13 hours, 59 minutes ago)
Last week I posted an entry for the ‘Jesus the Logician’ Project which covered all of Luke chapter 15. As part of his parable, Jesus used the story of the lost sheep. It was apparently a favorite story because Jesus also uses it in Matthew 18:
“What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. Thus it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.”
(Matt. 18:12-14, NASB)
As with his use of this analogy in Luke 15:4-7, Jesus is making use of a fortiori reasoning. Unlike Luke 15, Jesus is not responding to hostile complaints from the religious leaders. This time, he is using it teach his disciples about the value of little children.
His disciples had come to him with one thing on their minds; how to become big shots in heaven. Jesus responds by having a small child stand with them while he explains that they need to become as humble as little children to even enter heaven. He then gives two explanations of how valuable little children are to God. The second is the story of the lost sheep.
The reasoning is simple. Men of New Testament times had a highly developed understanding of how important sheep were to them. (See the article on Luke 15 for more details.) By contrasting the value of a sheep with a little child — certainly more valuable than any sheep — Jesus was able to make it clear where God’s priorities lay.
This entry has been posted to the ‘Jesus the Logician’ Project.
