Matthew 18:2-5 (New International Version)

 ² He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. ³ And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

The passage above is Jesus' answer to the question of "Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven."  When I read the question in Matthew 18:1 my mind quickly jumped to another question - Why didn't Jesus just say that he was the greatest.  Makes sense.

Jesus puts an emphasis on having the faith of a child.  I want to point out something about the forgetfulness of the disciples.  Verse 5 says that whoever welcomes a child in Jesus' name also welcomes him.  You would think that after hearing this that they would be looking for opportunities to do this, especially in front of Jesus.  But move a chapter forward...

Matthew 19:13-15 (New International Version)

 ¹³ Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.  ¹⁴ Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” ¹⁵ When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

I wonder how the conversation went later that night among the disciples.  I wonder what went through their minds at that time.  Did they think back to what had happened only a short time ago?  How could they be so quick to forget?