The Symbol Of 'Children' In the Gospel Of Matthew: A Call for Christian Witness in Africa Today
Date
2002
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
What do children symbolize in the Gospel of Matthew that calls for a Christian witness in
Africa today? Generally, the three synoptic Gospels have made use of the symbol of children to
communicate their message in a particular context. Unlike the two other synoptic Gospels,
Matthew treats the children in a special way. Matthew's Gospel is the only Good News that talks
directly about church affairs. The children' are the symbol of Christ's followers in Matthew's
ecclesiastical life. In view of this, I have preferred to take the theme of children in the Gospel of
Matthew, rather than in Mark and Luke, as lam addressing issues in the African Church.
In Matthew's Gospel, children are the symbol of disciples who will enter the Kingdom of
Heaven The symbol of a child has a great challenge for our Christian living, especially in Africa.
Many people are yearning to be great, according to the worldly standard of greatness, and are
fighting for power. hi this paper children in the Gospel of Matthew have been used to counteract
the world's notion of greatness which states that "Might is great". Nevertheless, the symbol of the
child demands us to do exactly the opposite 'Humility is great". The presence of a child among
the disciples of Jesus is a living parable ofJesus that contains the reversal of values: the mighty is
no longer great but the lowly. Thus, a child is taken as the symbol and a standard of what every
Christian ought to be. Taking a child as a standard for imitation would have provoked many
questions in the community of Matthew, just as it sounds ridiculous to many African ears today.
What value does a child possess to be admired and imitated by the elders?2
As the title suggests, my commitment, my intention in this paper is to journey through the.
Gospel of Matthew and search for the symbolism of the children, in view of challenging the
African church today. I am compelled to dig deeper into this Gospel (of Matthew) in relation to the situation of our beloved African Church Certainly, my task in this paper is not to offer a
solution to the problems facing Christians in the African Church but to let people examine their
Christian witness in line with the symbol of children. To bring out the message that is contained
in the symbol of children, I have analyzed exegetically most of the texts that contain 'children'
in the Gospel of Matthew. 1 am not doing textual criticism or form criticism on the texts but
textual analysis, for 1 am not interested in all the details found in the texts with children. My
interest is in the symbol of the word child or little one. Only in some few texts, 1 have had
recourse to the parallel in Mark. I have left out Luke purposely, for Luke and Matthew had access
to Mark's material, as it is believed. I have made an overview of the whole Gospel of Matthew,
investigating the symbolism of the children. The symbol of children is mostly employed in
Matthew 11:25; 18:1-10,14; and 19:13-143, which have been analyzed in detail in the second
chapter of this paper.
The paper has three Chapters, with General Introduction and Conclusion. Each Chapter
has its own short introduction and conclusion. Chapter one contains the theme of children in the
Hebrew Scriptures. This is because Matthew has written to show that Jesus is the Messiah who
has come to fulfill the Hebrew Scriptures. In addition, in Chapter one I have considered the
children in the New Testament world in which Jesus delivered his message. Besides that, in the
same Chapter I have given different terminologies about children to highlight the symbolism of
children in Matthew's Gospel. The first Chapter sets the stage for the exegetical work found in
the second one, which stands as the backbone of the whole paper. Furthermore, Chapter two
comprises sub-topics that bring out the theology of Matthew. Chapter three is an attempt to
contextualize the message contained in the symbol of children in our contemporary African situation. Since we are all children of God, the message concerns all of us. But! have decided to
apply it in three areas of our Christian living the Small Christian Community, religious life and
priestly life.
Lastly, we should note that all the Biblical quotations cited in this paper are taken from
the Revised Standard Version English Bible.