Save the Children

12 August 2025  Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14

“So, it is not the will of My Father, who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” Matthew 18:14

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). This text would have sounded a lot different to Gentile Romans than it did to Jews.

Roman civilization was not child-friendly, especially not for girls. Exposure of unwanted infants was common – babies were simply left outside somewhere to die. Often, they were found and raised as slaves, and upper-crust Romans, while they found exposure distasteful, nevertheless accepted it as a way of maintaining a workforce. Exposure was very often sex-selective – many more girls than boys were exposed because families wanted more sons than daughters – and female foundlings generally became prostitutes, an occupation even more dangerous and degrading then than it is today. Many common Roman names were numbers – Tertius (3), Quintus (5), Sextus (6), Septimius (7), Octavianus (8), Decimus (10). After the first couple of kids, the rest didn’t get names, but numbers, and girls just got a feminized version of the family name – all of Julius Caesar’s daughters would have been called Julia.

A Jew hearing Jesus’ teaching about becoming like children would have taken that to mean that children, and all people, were to be protected and cherished, because that’s rather the way it was for children in Jewish society. A Roman hearing this, however, would take away something entirely different. To become like a child was to become exceptionally vulnerable, dangerously weak, utterly dependent on the mercy of others.

Of course, maybe Jesus meant both these things.

Of course, protect and cherish people. Treat them like you would treat your children, because all people are children of God. Of course you are vulnerable, completely so. Your best efforts are all tainted by sin, and God is not obliged to save a single one of us: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). None of us have any hope at all apart from divine mercy – all the more reason to live in great gratitude that God is merciful, and wants to save us all.

It is worth keeping in mind also that if it is not the will of God that “one of these little ones should perish,” we should be very concerned if children are perishing. According to the Guttmacher Institute, there were over one million abortions in the United States in 2024 (1,038,100). According to the Centers for Disease Control, 42% of teens are experiencing persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, 22% have seriously considered suicide, and only about half have received any treatment at all. At the same time, a staggering number of teens avoid face to face interactions, preferring virtual, and often anonymous interactions online. We know that all of these things are evidence of psychic damage. We also know that children and teens who are involved in and committed to their religious communities are happier, and have more reliable resources for dealing with the pathologies of the culture.

“It is not the will of My Father, who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” Our children are vulnerable and dangerously weak. They need to hear more loudly and clearly from us the Good News that God wants to save them, save us all.