These Little Ones
Matthew 18:1-11 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.For the Son of Man came to save the lost.”
Dear Ολιγο’πιστοι!
Ολιγο’πιστοι? What are you talking about, Pastor? You can hardly even say it, why are you laying that word on us right now? Speaking in tongues? Showing off?
Well, yes and no. I suppose that sinner in me is showing off just a bit. And, in a way, I am speaking in tongues. The tongue is the Greek language in which our New Testament is recorded, the language in which Matthew wrote our Holy Gospel and the words of Jesus for us today.
But back to Ολιγο’πιστοι. It is a word, likely coined by St. Matthew and echoed once by St. Luke, to convey a nickname Jesus’ gave to His disciples–and by extension to all Christians through the ages–a term of endearment and affection for His disciples then and now, them and us: “Yeoflittlefaiths.”
Pastor Matt Richard, current pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Mt. Vernon, IL, introduced me to this aspect of the word, Ολιγο’πιστοι in a sermon on Matthew 6, wherein he preaches:
“In spiritual matters, there is a danger of hearing God scolding us when He is really not. Of thinking that He is disappointed in us when, in fact, He is speaking to us so very gently and kindly. Such, I think, is the case with ‘O ye of little faith.’
“Sermons on this concept tell us that we should have more faith. But evidence points to a Lord who has come up with a loving nickname for us: Yeoflittlefaith. English hides the fact that in Greek it is only one word. It is used only by Jesus and it is unknown outside the Bible. It has the look and sound of a nickname. More than that, a term of endearment and affection.
“If you look at the occasions when Jesus uses the term, His followers are anxious, fearful, or confused.* What kind of Christ would scold people already in this condition? No, a more tender name for us Christians cannot be found. He is saying how much we need Him. Little faith doesn’t need more faith. A little faith needs Christ.”
I would add, great faith does too, if there is such a thing. Even great faith is ultimately useless and even damning if that faith has no Christ.
Here in today’s Gospel text for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, Jesus is again speaking to His disciples—and to us, who follow in their train—as His Ολιγο’πιστοι, His Yeoflittlefaiths, His little ones, His children.
“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” No one—especially in Jesus’ day—would usually credit a child with great anything. And faith was something foreign altogether—a new concept for all but a few, even though it is central (as Is Jesus) throughout the OT.
It was the OT passage that captured Luther and set the Reformation of Christ’s in motion. “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.” Habakkuk 2:4
And faith is evident in the life of every OT believer, as recorded in the litany of Hebrews 11 as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” by those heroes of the OT: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses and the people of Israel, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And all these, [having died in faith], having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
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That something was Jesus the Christ of God—for them and us, for faith both great or small.
And now you, dear Ολιγο’πιστοι—Yeoflittlefaiths—have been joined to this litany of the faithful. You are these little ones of which our Lord Jesus speaks when He says, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. Because, like even the saints of the OT, your faith needs God and His Christ.
Christ Jesus is speaking this to His disciples and every called servant of the Word who carries on their ministry in the Office of the Keys until He comes again, so that they will not omit one single person no matter the age, no matter the physical size, no matter societal standing, no matter their native land. For they, and we, are all little ones for whom this Jesus came to suffer and die, who need to hear the Word, who need to be forgiven their sins and sinfulness, who need to be baptized into the kingdom of heaven, Yeoflittlefaiths who need Christ as much as they can get, as much as we can give to keep them with Him in His Church in the one true faith—no matter how little or great of faith they or we might be at any given time.
And while we are, each of us, all too often indeed Ολιγο’πιστοι, Yeoflittlefaiths, it is no small thing that in Holy Baptism and the life of Christ’s Church we are received as Christ Jesus Himself, in Jesus, and to Jesus. It is no small thing to be received into the kingdom of heaven as one of “these little ones” whom the Son of God will not have despised and whose “angels always see the face of [His] Father who is in heaven.”
These little ones—yes, you and me–having been made citizens of heaven as His dear Baptized children, have the benefit of all the host of heaven including the mighty angels of our Lord under the command of the arch-angel Michael, who having cast Satan and his army of angels out of the heavenly realm, now are employed by God to guard and protect from all harm of body and soul to deliver you safely to the place our Father in heaven has prepared for you with Jesus. That is no little thing, is it? For “to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation”? Hebrews 1:13-14
Angels are ministering spirits, literally “messengers” that’s what the Greek word αγγελοις means. That aspect of the word is probably most familiar to from the words evANGELism: good news or message, and evangelist: good news messenger. These ministering spirits fight for us–by the Word of God. On our behalf, they fight for us, these little ones of His, to protect us from all earthly and spiritual evil.
As Luther is wont to remind us, if we would see what is going on all around us in that unseen world every day, well we would be frightened to death and would not be spared if it were not for these heavenly angels in the spiritual or unseen realms who always see the face of [our] Father who is in heaven (text)—who watch over and protect us from the evil one while we sleep and carry us to the bosom of our Father in heaven when we die.
But as important and comforting as it is to know that these angels fight for us and protect us from the evil one in the unseen world, in Revelation, the book that speaks of the last days as the time of the Church, we have another kind of an angel—pastors. It is pastors who lead Christ’s people by/in/with His Word who are the angels of the seven churches spoken of in the first few chapters of Revelation.
In this light listen to what our St. John says in our Epistle today. And they [Michael and his angels] have conquered him [the great dragon called the devil and satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Since those fleshless spirit angels do not die, this again speaks of God’s earthly messengers, those angels in the flesh that speak His Word of forgiveness, His Word of Life, His Word of salvation, by which the hidden heavenly realms are revealed to us and we are welcomed into and kept in the presence of our Father in heaven. Though we do not yet see His face as those heavenly angels always do, He promises to always give us pastors who give us Jesus in the word and Sacrament of His Church to keep us little ones of little faith always looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2
It is no small thing either that Jesus warns those pastors charged with being His angel messengers to the little ones of His churches: “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. That great millstone to be fastened around the neck, again going back to the Greek, is a large millstone which was turned by that beast of burden known as a donkey. And you all know what the King James version of a donkey is, right? So you can see the great shame and burden of judgment that will come upon the unfaithful servant of God’s Word and His little ones ones—and the great love and concern Jesus and His Father have for you.
Now, along with all these little ones our fellow yeoflittlefaiths, let us thank God, our Father in heaven and pray that beautiful Morning Prayer Luther encourages us to pray every day to strengthen our little faith, to assure us of the Father’s providence, and to know that He hears and looks out after us all in and for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. [As printed in the insert.]
“I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You keep me this day also from sin and all evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.”
Having prayed that prayer, let us take it home with us and at least pray it in our minds often as we rise, as well as that Evening Prayer you see there also, when we retire for the night.
And now, therefore, as Ολιγο’πιστοι, these little ones of Jesus and children of our Father in heaven forgiven all of our sins, let us now go joyfully to our work guarded by “…angels and arch-angels [that always behold the face of God] and with all the company of heaven [as] we laud and magnify the glorious name of God, evermore praising Him” [Proper Preface to the Sanctus] –in the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit–Amen.
