Clement Yeung
After watching the movie “Honey, I shrunk the kids!”, I was once again reminded of the relevance of size in our daily lives.
To many, size implies importance, power and reliability. The bigger the size, the more weight it carries and hence more importance. The same mentality is seen among the Christian churches too. The bigger the building, the larger the congregation, the more respect the church gets. The size of the church budget may also play a role. It is sometimes called the syndrome of size.
When the disciples heard about the kingdom of heaven, they thought Jesus was talking about an earthly empire and they started asking who among them was the greatest. Presumably that person would assume the most powerful position in Christ’s empire. Even the parents began to lobby for their children. “Jesus, when your kingdom comes, let my sons sit next to you, one on your right and the other on your left,” pleaded a mother.
Jesus showed them a child and explained to them that the door to heaven is very small. Only those who are extremely small can get in. Even then, you cannot take anything inside with you. His advice for them was: “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:3) The modern paraphrase would go like this: “You must be shrunken first.”
What did Jesus mean? How do we change and get shrunken?
We have to use a little imagination and extend the metaphor in the movie.
Imagine a shrinking machine. It does not use ordinary electricity. Instead it uses a kind of powerful shock wave called ” humility”. It can shake people to their core and change them inside out. In the process, it also creates a very uncomfortable feeling in their whole system. It makes them flushed, nauseated and even angry. The way it works is that if they tighten up when connected to the humility machine, such as making a first or wanting to fight, it will automatically double its voltage. Ask anyone who have used the machine, they will tell you that it is never a pleasant experience.
But, like Jesus said, it is the only way to get small enough to go through the entrance into the heavenly castle. Indeed, according to the epistle to the Philippians, the apostle Paul tells us that, in His incarnation, Jesus went through the humility machine Himself.
Why is it so unpleasant or even painful to go through the shrinking machine? Why is it so difficult to become like a child?
To become like a child is to give up control, to lose our independence, to be stripped of our titles, to be weak and vulnerable, to be helpless and powerless. All along, the surrounding culture teaches us to be strong, tough, independent and self-sufficient. To become like a child would be counter-culture. That is why some people are infuriated by weakness; they are disturbed by the cry of a child. Weakness awakens hardness and anger in them. That is why so many people are afraid of getting aged.
To be small, to be sick, to be aged or to be dying are stages of powerlessness. They appear to us to be anti-life and so we deny them. That is why it is so difficult for us to become like a child.
Yet if we deny our weakness and the reality of death, if we want to be powerful and strong always, we deny a part of our being and we live in an illusion (1). It is only when we accept our weakness and vulnerability that we become truly human. In other words, to become like a child is to be truly human.
When Jesus was born as a child in the manger, He became truly human.
He not only showed us what true humanity is, but also demonstrated what true humility is. “After being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (2).
True humility is no small matter. Humility comes from the Latin word “humus” which literally means earth, dust or mud. The humility machine reminds us where we come from and where we will go.
To put incarnation in a more contemporary way, we may say, “Honey, God shrunk His only begotten Son!”
References:
(1) Jean Vanier, Becoming Human, p.40
(2) Philippians 2:8
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道成肉身：当代诠释
杨世礼医生撰 / 以恩译
看完电影《亲爱的，我把孩子们缩小了！》之后，我再次想起个儿的大小在我们日常生活中的重要性。
对许多人来说，大小意味着重要性，力量和可靠性。尺寸越大，承载的重量越大，因此也越重要。在基督教教会中也有类似的心态，建筑物越大，会众越多，教会就越受尊重。教会预算的规模也可能起一定作用。因此有人称之为大小综合症。
当门徒们听说天堂时，他们以为耶稣在谈论一个地上的帝国，于是他们开始询问他们当中谁是最伟大的，以为这人将在基督帝国中担任最有权势的职位。甚至他们的父母也开始为他们的孩子进行关说。 “耶稣，当祢的王国来临时，让我的儿子们坐在祢旁边，一个在祢的右边，另一个在祢的左边，”一位母亲如此恳求。
耶稣带他们去看一个小孩，并向他们解释通往天堂的门很小，因此只有很小的人才能进入。到那时，谁也无法携带任何东西进去。祂对他们的建议：“除非你改变并变得像小孩子，否则将永远不会进入天堂。” （太18：3）现代的措辞应该是这样的：“你必须先缩小。”
耶稣是什么意思？我们如何改变并缩小？
我们必须运用一点想像力，并扩大电影中的隐喻。
想像一下收缩机。它不使用普通电力。相反地，它使用一种称为“谦卑”的强大冲击波。它可以动摇人们的核心，并彻底改变他们。在此过程中，整个系统会产生非常不舒服的感觉。会使他们脸红，恶心，甚至生气。它的工作方式是，如果他们在连接到谦卑机器上时紧绷起来（例如紧握拳头或想打架），它将自动使其(电)压加倍。询问使用过这种机器的任何人，他们都会告诉你，这绝不是令人愉快的经历。
但是，就像耶稣说的那样，这是使自己变得足够渺小，以通过进入天堂入口的唯一方法。的确，根据腓立比书信，使徒保罗告诉我们，耶稣在道成肉身的过程中经历了谦卑的机器。
为什么通过收缩机会如此令人感到不愉快甚至痛苦？为什么要变得像个孩子那么困难？
想要变得像孩子一样，就是放弃控制权，失去我们的独立性，被剥夺我们的头衔，变得软弱无力且无助。一直以来，周围的文化教会我们坚强，强硬，独立和自给自足。变回像个孩子将是反文化之举。这就是为什么有些人被软弱的人所激怒，他们因孩子的哭泣而困扰。软弱会唤醒他们里面的刚硬和愤怒。这就是为什么这么多人害怕变老的原因。
变小或生病，变老或垂死都是无能为力的阶段。在我们看来，它们是反生命的，因此我们否认它们。这就是为什么我们很难回转像个孩子。
但是，如果我们否认自己的软弱和会死亡的现实，如果我们想始终强大而坚强，我们就是否定自己存在的某一部分，我们生活在一种幻想中（1）。只有当我们接受自己的弱点和脆弱性时，我们才能成为真正的人。换句话说，成为像一个孩子就是成为一个真正的人。
当耶稣降生在马槽里时，祂成为一个真正的人。
祂不仅向我们展示了真正的人性，并且展示了真正的谦卑。 “被发现是以一个人的样式出现之后，祂谦卑自己，顺服了死亡，甚至死在十字架上！” （2）。
真正的谦卑绝非易事。谦卑来自拉丁语“ humus”，字面意思是土，尘土或泥土。谦卑的机器提醒我们，我们来自哪里以及将要去哪里。
为了以更现代的方式体现道成肉身，我们可以说：“亲爱的，上帝缩小了祂的独生子！”
