The Thursday after Misericordias Domini Sunday
Posted on April 23, 2026 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 18:10-14 (NKJV)
18:10 “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. 11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
12 “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”
Devotion
God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). In Matthew 18, Jesus especially wants us to know about the Father’s care and concern for the “little ones.” Having placed a little child in their midst, Jesus speaks about becoming as humble as a little child so that believers learn to follow Him in simple trust. Jesus condemns the most heinous sin of causing one of these little ones who believe in Him to sin (v.6), and progresses to the less grievous, of only despising or regarding them as unimportant (v.10). The parable of the hundred sheep illustrates the point that the heavenly Father highly regards them and doesn’t want even one of them to perish.
It shouldn’t surprise us that our Lord instituted a sacrament which can be applied to children. Acts 2:38-39 commands all men to repent and come to baptism where the Lord has placed the promise of the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then, explicitly singling out the little ones, it says, “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
Collect: God, Who, by the humiliation of Thy Son, didst raise up the fallen world: Grant unto Thy faithful ones perpetual gladness, and those whom Thou hast delivered from the danger of everlasting death, do Thou make partakers of eternal joys; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
