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No Hierarchy!
JESUS TAUGHT THAT THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO HIERARCHY IN GOD'S KINGDOM — EVER! |
He placed a young child before them as representative of the minimum entrance qualification into God's Kingdom,
and said that whoever so qualifies for entrance is the greatest in the Kingdom, by representing Him.
answer laid down a principle too long ignored!
| "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me..." |
commonly used the term 'truly' as prefix to a statement which He wished to emphasise, and He chose to emphasise this principle!
many great prophets in its history, so it was very natural for Christ's disciples to wonder about the relative importance of the various figures who had contributed to their spiritual inheritance, with of course where they themselves stood as individuals in God's count of importance. But this was more than simply a pride issue.
We likewise attach varying importance to the different spiritual functions of those persons that currently affect our lives today and tend to treat them according to their grade of significance.
Jesus thought differently, very differently!
Sadly, some have even diluted Christ's statement above as simply teaching humility and so have completely missed its meaning.
The Lord in effect is saying that importance/'greatness' attaches to value, not to function, and that this 'value' is specifically representative in its nature.
is the same perspective given to us at the beginning of Holy Scripture in Genesis One: human beings, male and female, were constitutionally designed to represent God –
given authority to subdue because they were made "in His image".
This 'representative' perspective, even after God's judgment on humanity through the Great Flood of Noah, is the basis of value of any human life, and it alone therefore validates capital punishment ever being applied (Genesis Nine).
God has varying rewards for obedience, but this does not in any way undermine the inherent principle of God's universe — that human value is representative — of Him.
Persons may be honoured differently among us in terms of their varying responsibilities,
but this in no sense can ever negate the intrinsic essence of inherent value in each human being from his or her beginning.
We are instructed in Holy Scripture to "honour the emperor", even if it is the mother-murdering immoral Christian-killing Nero of Rome, but that is in terms of his special responsibility and not in terms of his representative value.
There is nothing greater than the innate representation of God inherent in the constitutional design of human identity from the beginning.
| Christ's authority during His ministry had nothing to do with His deity! |
On this, Jesus based all His authority to do whatever the Father instructed Him to do...
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| "He [God] has given Him [Jesus] authority to execute judgment, because He is 'son of man'*[human]" |
*'son of man' is a Semitic idiom for 'human' (as in Psalm 8:4), for the phrase 'son-of-' turns its attached noun into an adjective. |
