“God’s royal Grace has sought the child and it’s littleness and it’s need; therefore the Christ, who thinks the thoughts and wills the will God, identifies himself with the child. The little one. The little one believes. That means the high majesty of God dwells in him, and God’s hand is on him. To tamper with that faith is to invite the dread vengeance of Almighty God: that vengeance Jesus will not even describe, so terrible is it; he only says that sure death by drowning in the deeps of the sea would be a preferable fate. He tells his disciples flatly that no sacrifice is too great if it be made to avoid injuring these little ones of God: better to cut off the hand that reaches for greatness over the heads of these little ones, better to cut off the foot the treads down these little ones in its march towards greatness, better to pluck out the eye that looks towards greatness and overlooks these little ones than to enter whole into the fiery judgment of God. God has leisure for these little ones; their angels have constant access to him. He can look with equanimity if some of his hills are removed and is not too much exercised over the fact that an occasional mountain slides into the sea; but he has a steadfast love for his little ones which bursts forth into Fury when they are touched. Therefore the disciples cannot despise them. Christ binds his disciples to the little ones who believe in him; that is their only claim on him and on them: they are little, and they believe. All national limitations, all legal and cultic restrictions, all pharisaic, pietistic lines of demarcation have simply disappeared.” Martin Franzmann
