Everything happens for a reason at that time …

Everything happens for a reason at that time _____. I was adding what I thought was a simple side note to an article. It turned out to not be simple at all. So it became its own thing. It’s a look at the impact of three short words. Only ten letters and a couple spaces.

At that time

The questions then are these.

First, what time? Why now? Why not earlier? And why not later?

Second, who decided this was that time? Not to mention, given all the things it took to set up the scenario so the requirements for that time to take place, who can make all of them happen?

By now, many of you know the answer to who can make all these things happen at the time they need to happen to accomplish a purpose. It’s God.

Christians like to say, everything happens for a reason. Also that things happen according to God’s timing. In Bible-speak, at that time, as in at that time that God has set. But, do we realize how often those things appear in the Bible? Probably a lot more than you think.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked …

I’m sure the disciples asked Jesus a lot of questions. And at lots of times. But here’s one in particular. But before we get into it, here’s a “short” side note I wrote to go with it

Just a quick side note here. One of the things I do with recent updates is write more about many of the passages. I didn’t do that so much early on. Then some people told me I should. I tended to just include things that seemed “obvious” to me.

Then I was reminded of something I really didn’t want to forget. What’s “obvious” after years and years of study, research, and writing, isn’t obvious at all to many people who haven’t done all that. And of course, people who read to learn more also don’t think things are obvious.

So things do get longer. But I pray, they also get more useful.

Oh well, so much for the quick side note. Anyway, here’s the rest of a longer version of I never knew you.

Talk about “at that time”. I hope and pray that for someone reading this, it’s what you need at the time you read it.

As of this time, while I’m writing this, I never knew you hasn’t been updated. I’m doing this instead. When it’s done, I’ll add a link here. Or, you can subscribe using the button either at the top or towards the bottom, depending on what kind of device you’re using.

So – here we go.

---

At that time

The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven – Matthew

18:1-5 pp — Mk 9:33-37; Lk 9:46-48

Mt 18:1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Just this one little sentence has so much packed, and hidden, in it. What’s very ironic, and most likely not coincidental, it’s something I learned just now after writing that side note about ding more than just including passages and assuming the meanings were obvious. BTW – by not coincidental, I mean God, through the Holy Spirit. led me to first write the short note just now, and second to learn what I just did about timing. You’ll get the “timing” reference just below.

The NIV translation I normally use says, At that time. Other translations have At that hour. Of course, this kind of thing makes me wonder, what was the original word from the text and what did it mean in the full context of that situation and time?

So, here’s the word and what it portrayed.

1. The use of ὥρα in the NT corresponds very largely to that in non-biblical texts and the LXX. First it means “the time set for something,” e.g., the feast arranged in Lk. 14:17, the prescribed time for the offering of incense in 1:10, the “hour” of prayer in Ac. 3:1, with a numbered hour → C 7. Here the meanings “hour” and “set time,” which were both widespread at the time of the NT, combine. Formally we have in Rev. 9:15 the hour of a specific day etc. which is set for an apocalyptic event, while it may be seen from the genitive of content in 14:7 and the explanatory infinitive in 14:15 that ὥρα is in general “the divinely appointed time” for the actualisation of apocalyptic happenings. ἦλθεν ἡ ὥρα means “it takes place now.” The ὥρα τοῦ πειρασμοῦ is the situation which is characterised by apocalyptic temptation, Rev. 3:10. Similarly “this hour” in Jn. 12:27 (the Gethsemane incident) marks the situation when there takes place the required confirmation of Jesus which God has appointed and whose uniqueness is underlined by this expression. The hour is defined by the content given to it. Hence ὥρα can itself stand for this content, Mk. 14:35. The Christian present is characterised by the fact that the day dawns and this demands watchfulness, R. 13:11 f. It is high time to awake and to act with vigilance. The requirement of the given situation is expressed by ὥρα and the infinitive.  ¹Delling, G. (1964–). ὥρα. In G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley, & G. Friedrich (Eds.), Theological dictionary of the New Testament (electronic ed., Vol. 9, pp. 677–678). Eerdmans.

In this case, “At that time” means when it was time. And therefore, the question we need to ask is, time for what? By the way, since the Greek word occurs 61 times in the New Testament, I was curious as to whether this meaning was consistent. It was. With apologies to those on a cell phone, here’s a graphic to illustrate that. You can click on the image to download a larger version.

What time was it?

It was time for Jesus to bring up something that was brewing for quite a while. Here’s the sequence of events Matthew recorded prior to this passage.

As we go through each of them, you can sense the frustration rising. The unasked question continues to become more important. A roller-coaster of emotions. Until, finally, the question comes up.

1. Peter’s Confession of Christ

   • Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say I am?”
   • Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
   • Jesus responded, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

What did the other disciples think of this? Peter had the answer. They didn’t. Peter got an incredible response from Jesus. They didn’t. This is a potential issue capable of bringing up the question of who’s the greatest, don’t you think?

2. Jesus Predicts His Death

   • Jesus told His disciples He had to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
   • Peter, of course, said that would never happen!
   • Jesus’ response was quite the opposite of what He said in the previous passage. “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
   • Jesus then told all the disciples: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Did Peter just lose whatever good stuff he had going for him before this incident? And what’s all this about Jesus suffering and dying? Maybe confusion is about to take over among the ranks?

3. The Transfiguration – Matthew

   • Jesus went up on a mountain, taking Peter, James, and John.
   • Jesus was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.
   • Peter, of course, has something to say about what’s going on. “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
   • Then God, the Father, speaks. “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
   • There’s more to the passage, but this is enough to make the point.

Awesome stuff is going on. And guess who speaks up? Peter! Is Peter back in good graces again with Jesus? Is he maybe back on top of the others once again?

4. The Healing of a Boy With a Demon – Matthew

   • When Jesus, Peter, James, and John return to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them.
   • Jesus asks, “What are you arguing with them about?”
   • A man in the crowd announces – “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
   • Jesus, seeming somewhat exasperated, replies, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
   • The famous sequence below takes place.
     • Jesus: “How long has he been like this?”
     • The boy’s father: “From childhood. It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
     • Jesus: “ ‘If you can’?”
     • Jesus, with a line we often don’t get quite right for its meaning: “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
     • And then the boy’s father, with a line we all need: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
   • Later, when everyone else was gone, the disciples ask Jesus: “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
   • Jesus replies, with an answer that always seems oddly incomplete to me: “This kind can come out only by prayer.’” It’s like we don’t have enough faith either, but Jesus doesn’t make that point obvious to them. Or us. Perhaps we learn that from the Holy Spirit. Just as they probably learned the same way after the Pentecost.
   • Then Jesus concludes with more talk of His death. “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.”
   • However, as Matthew records it, they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

The disciples that weren’t on the mountain failed to heal this boy. Was that because Peter wasn’t there with them? Because Jesus wasn’t with them? Failure is usually hard to accept. Failure while the master is away can be even worse. Especially if that failure was due to the absence of one of the three with Jesus. And the master sees it all.

5. The Temple Tax

   • Jesus and the disciples enter Capernaum. The tax collectors ask Peter: “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
   • Peter responds, “Yes, he does.”
   • Jesus then poses a question to Peter: “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own sons or from others?”
   • Peter answers, apparently correctly, “From others.”
   • Jesus then closes the passage with: “Then the sons are exempt. But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

This pattern of Peter doing well, not doing so well, doing well, Etc. keeps going. Even the tax collectors thought Peter was the one to talk to. Not “The teacher”, of course. But they seemed to think Peter was somehow over the rest of the disciples. What’s going on? And then, Jesus has this private lesson with Peter. Are nerves getting frayed?

What time was it?

It was time for the question to finally be asked. But look at what all happened before that. All that it took for the disciples to reach a point where they were willing to ask.

I always tell people in any group I lead that’s there’s only one stupid question. A take on the adage that there’s no such thing as a stupid question. And what is that one stupid question? It’s the question you didn’t ask!

Why is not asking a question stupid? Think about all that transpired before the disciples finally asked Jesus the question – Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? As we saw, all those other events very well played a role in getting them to a point where they finally did ask something that was probably on their minds all along.

And guess what didn’t happen through all those events? The disciples probably weren’t all that focused on the actual events. They were instead more focused on Peter’s position, relative to their own. And guess what else didn’t happen? At least some of the lessons to be learned from those events weren’t learned. At least, not as thoroughly as they would be if the disciples were more focused.

So, to me the stupid question is the one we don’t ask, because our minds are so focused, even if subconsciously, on that unasked question instead of what’s going on around us.

Does that analysis seem off target? Here’s someone who doesn’t think so.

Who then is greatest (τις ἀρα μειζων ἐστιν [tis ara meizōn estin]). The ἀρα [ara] seems to point back to the tax-collection incident when Jesus had claimed exemption for them all as “sons” of the Father. But it was not a new dispute, for jealousy had been growing in their hearts. The wonderful words of Jesus to Peter on Mount Hermon (Matt. 16:17–19) had evidently made Peter feel a fresh sense of leadership on the basis of which he had dared even to rebuke Jesus for speaking of his death (16:22). And then Peter was one of the three (James and John also) taken with the Master up on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter on that occasion had spoken up promptly. And just now the tax-collectors had singled out Peter as the one who seemed to represent the group. Mark (9:33) represents Jesus as asking them about their dispute on the way into the house, perhaps just after their question in Matt. 18:1. Jesus had noticed the wrangling. It will break out again and again (Matt. 20:20–28; Luke 22:24). Plainly the primacy of Peter was not yet admitted by the others. The use of the comparative μειζων [meizōn] (so ὁ μειζων [ho meizōn] in verse 4) rather than the superlative μεγιστος [megistos] is quite in accord with the Koiné idiom where the comparative is displacing the superlative (Robertson, Grammar, pp. 667ff.). But it is a sad discovery to find the disciples chiefly concerned about their own places (offices) in the political kingdom which they were expecting.  ²Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Mt 18:1). Broadman Press.

To be sure, there are various interpretations of exactly what this question was about. But finding that I wasn’t alone in my thinking seems to give some credence to it.

Everything happens for a reason

OK. If at that time was about getting the question asked at the time God wanted it to be asked, there’s still one question remaining. Why did God want that question asked?

First off, while the thought/worries about Peter being number one may have led to the question getting asked, I hardly think Peter’s position was the reason for everything that happened. For those that remember the passage, it wasn’t. There was something much more urgent, and much more important, that had to be taught and learned.

Secondly, while there was/is a lesson to be learned, the actual lesson isn’t the focus today. Today, it’s more about the reality that there was always a lesson. Something Jesus wanted to tell us. To have us learn.

Further, that we should always be ready. In other words, at that time can and does come at any time.

Change into humble little children

Change into humble little children? Did Jesus really say that? Well, sort of. But sort of not.

Mt 18:2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

This is about what Christians call transformation. We don’t literally turn back into children. But we must change. To put it briefly, we must change back to trusting our Father. But in this case, notice Father is capitalized. So Jesus said we must trust God, the Father.

I know, this can be very, very hard. My earliest memory of not being able to trust my father, or mother, goes back to when I was four years old. Who knows. Maybe it was even before then. But that’s the earliest memory I have. So believe me, trusting anyone, God or human, is very difficult. Even all these years later. And yet, it’s what we must do. And what I still work on.

The humble part is about realizing our place relative to God. That’s not so hard. Yes, egos get in the way. But if we read about God or dwell even a little on the amazing world around us, it’s not all that difficult.

Rather, the hard part is often being humble before other people. But that’s a huge part of what Jesus wants.

And look at what Jesus said at the end. How He answered the question from the disciples.

Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Wow. Most people likely think that’s a race to the bottom. But, in God’s world, it’s a race to the top. And it’s the hardest race possible for us ego-driven humans!

So the question should never have been about whether Peter is the best of the disciples. It should have been about who’s the most humble disciple, serving the others. In today’s church-speak – it’s who’s the most Christ-like. That turns it into, among other things, who serves with no desire for glory? Uh oh.

Mt 18:5 “And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. 6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

If we welcome a little child, we welcome Jesus? And it’s better for us to frown in the depths of the sea than to make a child sin? Seems a bit over the top, doesn’t it? But maybe not that far over?

I think a lot of people agree with the second part. Unfortunately, all too many people do cause children to sin. Who knows, maybe even all of us? I don’t have kids, so I can’t really answer that question. But I’m certainly aware of those who do make children sin.

The first part though. What does it mean? Since I’m not going into any great depth, I’m taking the liberty of adding the names of the books in the Bible inside of {} to the passage below. That lets you hover over the links to read for yourself. It’s a capability built into the software I use, but it doesn’t translate over to this format.

5 The first main part of chap. 18 (vv 1–14) {Mt 18:1-14} is about disciples, not children. Even the reference to the παιδίον, “little child,” in vv 1–4 {Mt 18:1-4} is only for the purpose of encouraging childlikeness in the disciples. Thus v. 5 too is not about receiving children (pace Gundry, Davies-Allison), as is the case in 19:13–15 {Mt 19:13–15}, but about welcoming the disciple of Jesus, who for the moment in this transitional verse is referred to as ἓν παιδίον τοιοῦτο, “one such child” (thus correctly Thompson, Matthew’s Advice, 105), the disciple who has become childlike. The later equivalent of the phrase understood in this sense is ἕνα τῶν μικρῶν τούτων, “one of these little ones” (vv 6, 10, 14) {Mt 18:6 Mt 18:10 Mt 18:14}. Thus the real parallel to the present verse is in 10:40 {Mt 10:40} (where just a few lines later the disciple is also referred to as “one of these little ones” [10:42] {Mt 10:42}). Receiving a disciple here, as there (where the same verb, δέχεται, “receive,” is used), apparently means showing hospitality and consideration to disciples in pursuit of their calling, and hence especially in missionary work. This reception of the disciple is to be ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί μου, “in my name,” says Jesus (a fundamental characteristic of discipleship in Matthew is acting in the name of Jesus; cf. v. 20; 28:19 {Mt 18:20 Mt 28:19}). To give hospitable reception to a childlike disciple is furthermore to receive Jesus himself (cf. 10:40 {Mt 10:40}; exactly along the same line is 25:40, 45 {Mt 25:40 Mt 25:45}).  ³Hagner, D. A. (1995). Matthew 14–28 (Vol. 33B, pp. 521–522). Word, Incorporated.

So Jesus uses children to start off His lesson, but ultimately speaks of disciples who take on the need, humbleness, and trust of the Father. More on that in a moment, since the next paragraph touches on it.

Then, if we are the disciple who has become childlike, Jesus is talking about us. Notice, it’s not the blanket kind of statement where everyone who claims to be Christian is a disciple. Rather, it’s, again, the disciple who has become childlike, who truly is more Christ-like.

Then Jesus concludes.

Mt 18:7 “Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”

Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin takes on special meaning when we consider the part about But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Add in the disciple who has become childlike and I hope you can see a really huge problem.

Do you? Think about all the things that teach children today to not be humble. To not have respect, let alone need, for parents. Of course, in some cases, it’s the parents themselves who teach kids not to trust their parents.

And just look at what Jesus says about that. We have commercials teaching this stuff today. And some probably think it’s cute. But look what’s happening. The seeds of pride, total independence, mistrust, and so on, are planted very early. And without much thought. But make no mistake, they are planted and their growth is thriving.

Conclusion – Everything happens for a reason at that time …

This is just one example. From three little words. And yet, look at what’s behind those words.

The lessons that show everything happens for a reason.

And everything that had to be perfectly lined up, so all those things could happen at that time.

We say we believe everything happens for a reason. And we say God’s timing is perfect.

But, do we believe it and live like it?

---

Image by Angel Glen from Pixabay

---

Footnotes

• 1
  Delling, G. (1964–). ὥρα. In G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley, & G. Friedrich (Eds.), Theological dictionary of the New Testament (electronic ed., Vol. 9, pp. 677–678). Eerdmans.
• 2
  Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Mt 18:1). Broadman Press.
• 3
  Hagner, D. A. (1995). Matthew 14–28 (Vol. 33B, pp. 521–522). Word, Incorporated.