Like a Child

Please open your Bibles to Mark 10.

First of all, happy Valentines day to everyone!

We are so thankful that you are joining us here at NHCC this morning.

I’d like for us to go ahead and hop right into our text.

Read Mark 10:13-16- And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Pray.

After Jesus’ interaction with the religious leaders and His disciples on the topic of divorce, Jesus continues in ministry, likely preaching, teaching and healing those who need healing.

Parents begin to bring children to Jesus, but the disciples keep them from getting to Him.

There is much to be gained from this text if we take the time to ask the right questions. I would suggest at least three:

1. Why are the disciples keeping the children away from Jesus?

When we read our text, we are likely, and rightfully so, horrified by the behavior of the disciples.

How is it possible that those who are the closest with Jesus, who have heard His words, and have witnessed His ministry, would now ever consider turning certain people away from Jesus?

I think that there were multiple reasons for the behavior of the disciples.

First, the disciples want to lord their status over others.

Remember earlier, that someone was casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and the disciples stopped him because he was not one of them.

Immediately before that narrative was Jesus’ command that whoever wanted to be great in God’s Kingdom must be the servant of all.

When we read those texts, it’s hard to figure out why Mark put them all together. But now, with greater context, we see the general attitude of the disciples.

Not only did they want to stop someone from casting out demons in Jesus’ name, but they also now want to keep certain people away from Jesus.

The disciples want to be the gatekeepers to Jesus. They want to wield their power, influence and authority not only by saying who can and cannot do miracles in Jesus’ name, but also who can and cannot have access to Jesus.

Simply stated, to this point in their ministry, the disciples still did not grasp the nature of serving everyone, regardless of size or status.

And we ought to be reminded of Jesus’ words, that we serve according to the power and authority of Jesus, but that such power and authority is used appropriately only through humility and servitude.

Our work on this earth as followers of Jesus, for the duration of our time here, has a single, all-encompassing aim- service.

But there was more going on here. Not only were the disciples exerting power over others, they were also revealing their prejudices.

They did not believe that children were important enough to warrant Jesus’ time and attention. And such an attitude was not foreign to the society in which the disciples lived.

We will not spend too much time here, because we have already seen the lack of importance of children in that ancient culture. They had no value, no influence, and thus no importance.

Remember, when Jesus was saying that the disciples must be willing to serve everyone, it was a child that was brought into His lap to make the point that it really was ALL people who must be served. Jesus picked the one who had the smallest possible amount of value and said that even he must be served.

Thus, it is not surprising that the disciples do not believe that Jesus should spend time on those who are valued so little.

Again, it is time for a heart check here. Who are those in our society that do not warrant Jesus Christ, at least in our own eyes?

With whom might you struggle to share the gospel, due to differences of lifestyle, differences of opinions, or differences of status?

Finally, the disciples didn’t allow the children to come to Jesus because they misunderstood Jesus.

In their own minds and hearts, they had drawn a caricature of Jesus and were living as though the caricature was a valid representation of who Jesus was.

Their perception of Jesus did not meet the reality of Jesus.

And the problem here is that when we do not grasp the truth of who Jesus is, what He cares about, and how He desires for us to live, then our following of Jesus will be skewed.

It’s not difficult to follow in the footsteps of the disciples, so we would do well to take a moment to evaluate how they are guilty.

Ultimately, the disciples expected Jesus to be more like them than He actually was.

So they took their own values, their own mentalities and thoughts, and imposed them onto the character of Jesus.

“If I feel this way about something, then Jesus must as well.”

Such a mindset likely permeates much of our thinking about Jesus.

Maybe we trust that God is loving, or jealous, or merciful, or wrathful, but for each of those characteristics that we attribute to God, we do it through the lens of our own experiences with love, jealousy, mercy or wrath.

For example, we see this happen all the time when we make the claim that God is an angry God, and so we envision Him as shaking an angry fist at people like the guy mad at kids that are on His lawn.

We picture God with our emotional response of anger, and it’s not right to do. And it leads to a misplaced acceptance of anger in our own lives.

What we don’t realize is that God’s anger, or His wrath, is turned only toward those things that warrant His wrath and anger. It is not an emotional response to some small offense that damages our pride.

So we entitle ourselves to anger, with the claim that God is at times and angry God.

And we do this with other characteristics of God, drawing up some caricature and then excusing our own behavior based on the caricature.

Notice the pattern. We behave this way, so Jesus must as well. Then, because Jesus, according to our assumption, behaves this way, then our behavior is excused.

Here is how it played out in the disciples. They don’t think that time and thought should be wasted on those they deem worthless, namely children. If they feel this way, then surely Jesus also does not want to have His time wasted with these children. Because Jesus doesn’t see these children as valuable, according to their own estimation, then they can shoo them away, likely with His blessing.

We must break this pattern. Get into the Word of God to see the true nature of Jesus Christ. Allow that true nature to transform your life, so that you are not making Jesus more like you. Instead, you are becoming more like Jesus.

All of this adds up to reveal to us the hearts and minds of the disciples.

2. How and why does Jesus receive the children?

Mark tells us that Jesus was indignant with His disciples, both their attitude and their behavior.

The Greek word employed reveals a sense of grief.

The word is used to describe the emotional response of the religious leaders when they see Jesus healing on the Sabbath.

Also used to describe the emotional response of the disciples when James and John ask to sit at the right and left sides of Jesus in His glory.

Jesus is not merely annoyed or frustrated with His disciples here, He is greatly grieved by them.

And why wouldn’t He be?

The disciples are withholding access to Jesus from people who desperately need Him. They are communicating to the crowds that there are some who are worthy of the love, compassion and ministry of Jesus while others are not.

So Jesus’ response is steeped in frustration with His disciples.

But He allows the children to come to Him, or to be brought to Him, for a couple of reasons.

First, He sees the spiritual capacity of the children.

Notice what He says, “to such belongs the Kingdom of God.”

Remember, the Kingdom of God is our salvation, it is the leaving behind of one kingdom of this world and a new alliance being made to God and His work in our world.

So Jesus states that these children are capable of belonging to and possessing God’s Kingdom.

This has massive implications for our lives and the way that we view and teach children.

For example, we ought to recognize that children are not only capable of receiving spiritual truth, but that we, as parents and teachers in the church, are called to challenge our children with spiritual truth.

Many are intimidated by such a thought. We ask how we can possibly be responsible for those incredibly important truths

So we convince ourselves that we are not capable of teaching, or they are not capable of comprehending. But the words of Jesus are meant to do away with our arguments.

Children can comprehend what they can comprehend, and it is our responsibility as those more mature in Christ to assess and give what is possible for them to digest.

Remember Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2- But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.

Notice that Paul is frustrated with the Christians at Corinth and so he is rebuking them in this text. But he also makes an important distinction between spiritual milk and meat.

What is he communicating? That different people can receive different levels of truth, and Paul had to do the necessary work to see what these believers were able to comprehend.

Are we willing to do this work in our families and in our church? This means we get to know our children. We see what they are capable of, and we teach just beyond their ability, helping them to grasp new and glorious truths.

When was the last time that we really checked the spiritual temperature of the children in our lives? What sort of questions are we asking them? What have they been praying about lately? What have they been learning from God’s Word? What sins are they struggling with that you can partner with them in accountability and prayer? How have they seen any evidence of spiritual growth in their own lives?

These are questions that are not only meant for young children, but children of all ages!

Think of all the things that we teach our kids- we help them walk, form their first words, we help them learn to eat, learn to dress themselves. We teach them the building blocks of their education, how to count, the alphabet, etc.

We find ourselves to be expert enough to teach these pillars of growth and development, why? Because they are part of our lived experiences. So we ought to consider ourselves to be equally well-equipped to teach our lived truths and experiences of faith in Jesus Christ.

And we will continue to walk alongside the children in our families and church family as they continue grasping more and more, because Jesus made it clear that children are capable of receiving the Kingdom of God.

Second, Jesus sees value and cares for those who are otherwise seen as valueless.

While the disciples may not have seen value in children, Jesus did see value in them and ministered to them as such.

When nobody else would recognize the worth of children, Jesus would pause His ministry to everyone else in order to lift them up, hold them, and speak blessing over them.

I love the detail given by Mark to reveal that Jesus took the children in His arms. Mark could have left out such a minute detail, but it was important for readers to see how Jesus cared for the vulnerable. He didn’t just look at them from afar, or even simply touch them as He had with the leper, but He picked them up, held them in His arms, and gave them the affection that is so necessary for children to know that they are loved and desired.

Imagine what this would have communicated, not only to the disciples and crowds, but more specifically to the parents and the children. Jesus loved them. Jesus cared for them. Jesus would attend to their needs.

I’ve been thinking this past week about the way that we show affection to our kids.

Always have thought it would be an interesting bit of knowledge to see how many kisses and hugs our daughters and our son have experienced up to this point in their lives. We cannot wait to show them our affection, to let them know that we love them and care for them.

As much as we love our kids, Jesus loves them infinitely more. Imagine what the embrace of Jesus would have meant to these children. Somehow, His picking them up and holding them would communicate a vast amount of love that these children had never experienced before.

And it is thus important that we see Jesus offering such expressions of love and affection to those who cast off by society as having little value.

We must always be mindful that, like Jesus, we are meant to show such love and affection to children. But it doesn’t stop there. We are meant to know the needs of those who are given little value in our world and care for them in the ways that they need the most.

Finally, we turn our attention to Jesus’ main point made in this brief interaction with His disciples.

3. What are our takeaways?

How might we find ourselves challenged by Jesus’ words and actions in our text?

And, more specifically, how are our lives meant to be shaped by the words of Christ? What difference will His words make in our lives as we step out of this building? I’d like to suggest one major challenge:

We are to become like children. Or, more specifically, in order to enter the Kingdom of God, we must receive such a Kingdom the way that a child receives it.

And please note, there is no alternative here. If we refuse to receive the Kingdom as a child, then there is no entrance into such a Kingdom.

So, how do we become like children?

The temptation here is to take a look at the various qualities of children that differentiate them from adults, perhaps those qualities that cause us to see children as innocent. The problem is, we must ignore a lot to see children as innocent.

For example, children are trusting. Sure, this is true, but at the same time, children tend to be some of the most fearful human beings on earth.

Our children hate shots. An adult can trust that the pain will last for a short time and will feel better soon. Not children. We cannot talk our kids into trusting us that this is a short-term pain that is for their benefit.

So while children may sometimes trust on a different level than adults, we know that they also tend to not trust easily in certain circumstances.

Or maybe we should consider honesty. We highlight the honesty of children, knowing that they can drop truth bombs at any time that are generally filtered out of the mouths of most adults.

However, I’ve grown to be equally nervous about not only our kids telling truths about us, but also them telling things that are not at all true, and are made up out of thin air.

Yes children can be truthful, but we also know that they can unbearably dishonest at times, in ways that would put adult dishonesty to shame.

Thus, Jesus is not speaking of some inherent positive quality that all children possess against adults who do not, but instead is speaking of the situation of children, something for which they are not at all responsible.

What Jesus is highlighting here is the neediness of children; they’re complete inability to provide for themselves, to care for themselves, or to stick up for themselves.

Again, this is not a positive quality of children that they are somehow responsible for, but is instead their situation in life, their nature, something that they are completely unable to change.

And this is what we are meant to embrace when we come to consider the Kingdom of God.

We come as needy, wanting children, knowing our lack, and understanding that we have nothing to offer in order to receive God’s blessing.

Martin Luther- “When we approach God, we can only hold up empty hands.”

Such a mindset is contrary to how we would rather approach God to accept His blessing. We feel the need to have something to offer. And so we scrounge up what we can, meanwhile feeling that we are not actually all that needy.

Here are my good works, here are my good attitudes, here are my good traits.

It would be like a child taking a terrible fall and scraping up and skinning her elbows and knees, and having the air knocked out of her. There is a moment of dead silence as the indicators of pain have not yet made their way to her brain, allowing her to know that she is in pain. But finally it happens. And she cries, and she screams. And she approaches her parents with arms outstretched, only wanting to be picked up. This is the only possible comfort. And so there is no hesitation in the outstretched arms. She is reflexively aware she can do nothing to help herself feel better, and is completely reliant upon the need of her dad.

Now imagine the foolishness of her falling, the same amount of pain, but before coming to receive the comfort from her dad, she had to grab her piggy bank in order that she could have something to offer. What she requires costs nothing because there is no payment she can make to earn the comfort of her dad’s embrace.

It’s the same with the Kingdom of God. We bring nothing, because we have nothing to bring. There is no monetary value on what we are receiving, and so we would do well to simply receive it and give God the vast amounts of praise that He is due.

And this praise takes the form of obedience. We show God that we are thankful for His grace by listening to Him and obeying His words. He is giving us the Kingdom, now we find what it looks like to live as a member of His Kingdom.

This is the Christian life, the life that is devoted to God, revealed in Jesus Christ.

We receive eternal life knowing that we have nothing to give to deserve it, and knowing instead that it is a gift given from a grace-filled God.

And the rest of our lives from the moment of receiving the gift of eternal life are to be defined by a loving relationship with God, recognizing His perfection and wisdom, and leaning on His direction for how He desires for us to live.

But here is what is of so much importance- none of this happens when we believe we have something to contribute to our own salvation. This is the point Jesus is making- become like a child, embrace the Kingdom as a child. Or you will never become a part of the Kingdom.

Those who reserve power in and for themselves will never see the need for the Kingdom, and will thus have little desire to receive it.

So here is the question- have you received the Kingdom as a child? Has your humility reached the depths of recognizing your need for Christ and for Christ alone? Have you approached Jesus with a spirit that is poor?

Or do you always bring something to offer, something that allows you think think you are not truly THAT needy?

We probably always need to be reminded of our neediness, whether we know and love Jesus or not. Kingdom life revolves around knowing that our wisdom, our strength, our authority is nothing compared to the wisdom, strength and authority of the Father.

Until we rest in these truths, we will never seek, let alone receive, God’s Kingdom.