And they were
bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked
them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, "Permit
the children to come to me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs
to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of
God like a child will not enter it at all." And He took them in His arms
and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.
Children, in the world of the first century
(indeed, throughout most of the cultures and history of the world) were
unimportant, a bother. They were the
lowest part of society and they were usually ignored, especially by men. The disciples were indicating that Jesus was
too important to be bothered with about the needs of children. Jesus was quite upset at the disciple’s
refusal, for he had already taught them that the one who welcomes, or offers
hospitality, to a child is welcoming Jesus himself. (Mark 9: 37) Thus, the disciples were
rejecting Jesus by indicating that he was too important to see children!
Jesus explains to them that children are
important because they are so humble.
The humble state of a child should be a point of connection between the
child and the disciple. For this reason
Jesus called the disciples names that would be given children, like “little
ones”. Jesus is saying that for one to
enter the kingdom of God—gain salvation—they must be humble like a child (Matthew
18:3-4). They need to be lowly, and part
of that lowliness is welcoming those who are lowly. Thus, the disciples, by turning the children
away, were doing the very opposite of what they needed to do to enter God’s
kingdom! Jesus, on the other hand, put
his hands on every one of the children and blessed them all. Mark, again, is emphasizing that it is the
“weaker” brother who is to be cared for, as he has since 9:33.
We need to welcome the outliers to our church, Jesus already taught us. But more than this, if we do not become humble, become weak, become insignificant like those outliers, those children, then we cannot enter God's kingdom.
This is a tough call from Jesus. We would like to think that it is enough for us to remain with the station we have, to be comfortably middle class, to know where we stand in our society. Jesus says, however, that if we are going to be a part of God's great second chance at life, we need to be distinctly uncomfortable with this one. We need to not know our proper station, not be sure if we are doing things right, to be told what to do and to be forced to listen.
The kingdom of God is only for those who don't fit.
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