Jesus and his disciples were on their journey toward Jerusalem and everywhere they went, a great crowd would gather around him to hear his words or to experience healing and in some cases just to challenge his teachings.
But on this particular occasion, people were pushing through the crowd to bring their children to Jesus in hopes that he would give them his touch of blessing and to pray for them.
Now, this wasn’t all that unusual because it was customary for Jewish parents to bring their children within the first 12 months of life to a rabbi in order to receive a blessing. The child would be brought before a Rabbi and he would place his hands upon the child’s head and both the Rabbi and the father would quote the Torah.
This blessing was given to reinforce the fact that they are loved, accepted and supported by their families and they God will be with them. Often times, the blessings are followed by hugs and kisses or words of praise.
It was a joyous occasion.
But when the disciples saw the parents bringing their children, they got angry because this was not the time for Jesus to be concerned with children. They were on a mission to Jerusalem, where Jesus would usher in the Kingdom of God and justice would be brought to His people. This was serious stuff . . . this was adult stuff and so they tried to shew the children away. They were so upset that it says that they rebuked the parents . . . a response typically connected with demons and something evil.
But Jesus was indignant by their reaction and he said, "Let the children come to me . . . don’t stop them"
He takes time out of his busy schedule, he pauses from his great mission, he sets aside the important task of preaching to the adults and this just didn’t make sense to the disciples. In their eyes, these children were just getting in the way; sitting on Jesus’ lap like he was Santa Claus, with their pony tails and boogers and fudgesicles and just pulling on his beard.
But it gets worse . . . rather than seeing the children as an interruption to the mission, Jesus uses them as a positive example. He says, "The kingdom of God belongs to such as these?"
Now Jesus has said some crazy things along their journey but what is he talking about now? Is he suggesting that we should be like children? Should we act like children? Are we supposed to take on the characteristics of children?
I mean, children are supposed to be cute, innocent and pure. But anyone who has ever dealt with children knows that they certainly are not innocent and pure and sometimes they aren’t even cute.
- Children are selfish and disobedient.
- They can be ill-tempered and unkind.
- They tell lies.
- They hit and they bite
- And they can be a real inconvenience; they sleep during the day, they’re up all night, they cost tons of money, they whine, they cry, they scream and fluids come from every hole like a sprinkler.
So . . . what is so special about children? And why on earth would Jesus say that the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these? That’s just crazy talk!
But perhaps, Jesus wasn’t talking about the characteristics of children but rather was pointing toward something bigger. The story says that these are babies or infants . . . the literal translations says that these were suckling babes, under the age of 1 . . . and an suckling babe cannot live on its own power – it has nothing to offer.
- Crying and screaming they constantly seek for their parents.
- And they get comforted and content in the arms of their parents.
- They don't think up anything to offer in order to win over their parents' love. They only seek for it.
- And they entrust themselves over to their parents' love and their parents' complete rule over them.
- They are completely dependent upon the love and care of their parents.
You see, the kingdom of God is a world where God's love and grace rule. You can’t get in by trying to acquire God's love in exchange for something you have or by something that you do. The Kingdom of God is only for those who just seek for God himself, like a baby calling out for his or her parents and then find comfort in the arms of the one who has come to love and care for them.
This is what we see as children sit on the lap of Jesus to blessed and to hear that they are loved and accepted and that God is with them.
Today’s story stops at verse 16, but if you put these verses into the context in which it comes, you will find another character that is in total contrast to the infant.
Some guy runs up to Jesus and asks, "Good master, what should I do in order to inherit eternal life?"
You see, he has kept the commandments of God since his childhood and he has turned out to become a fine adult. He has a big old stack of things that he has done. But still it doesn't look like it is enough to enter into the kingdom of God. And so, he asked, "What should I do?"
Jesus required of this affluent man something that he just couldn’t do . . .
He said, "You are lacking in one thing. Go and sell what you have, and donate it to the poor". The man became disheartened and he departed with great sorrow.
Jesus says, “You must go back to the days when he had nothing of which to be proud, to the days when he had nothing to offer, to the days when he could only seek and ask for things. He must go back to his infancy . . . because the kingdom of God belongs to people like that.”
Jesus is saying, "If you are a person who can only receive, and cannot offer anything, and can only seek for mercy, the kingdom of God belongs to you." Because those who can’t offer anything have to completely rely on God’s grace: that is the kingdom of God.
We tend to not see ourselves as children. We’d prefer to see ourselves as very responsible adults with very important things to do.
And God says, “You know what I see? Ponytails, boogers and fudgesicles . . . that’s what I see” The reality is . . . no matter how together we have things . . . no matter how big our stack of good deed are . . . no matter how many religious accomplishments we carry around in our pocket . . . no matter how many Mom’s we’ve supported in Ethiopia or how many hours we rang a bell for the salvation army . . . we’re a total inconvenience. And I don’t know about you but I apologize for being such an inconvenience.
But the fact that the father loves me and endures with me and he protects me and he provides for me and he instructs me and he corrects me, and he hold me in his arms and in that moment God’s grace is revealed. And by the grace of God, I get to be a child of God. We get to be that inconvenience through which his grace is revealed. That’s what Christianity is all about.