Mark 10:13-16 - Children and the Kingdom

This account naturally follows that of the preceding section because children belong naturally to marriage. Having elevated the sanctity of marriage among his disciples he now seeks to elevate their view of the importance of children. So this is an easy transition from one subject to the other.

In our culture children are almost revered. We often plan our entire lives around them. You see this especially among younger parents. Their whole lives, often, will revolve around activities for their kids. We also idealize childhood and look at those years as the most important years of our lives. Modern psychology has added to our propensity to do this, delving deeply into the memories of childhood and the events that shaped us to try to ascertain why it is we behave the way we do now.

We sometimes opine that we want kids to stay young longer and don't want them to grow up too fast. Crimes against children are the worst of crimes because we view children, almost, as innocent, or even virtuous, just because of their age. Some of this, no doubt, is due to the fact that the older we get the more cynical we become (as adults) and the more hardened toward the realities of a hard world, and we long for the days when we were not yet too calloused to see the wonder around us and to dream. Childhood—it’s idyllic. Children—to be enjoyed, and envied. Grandchildren—who doesn’t want grandchildren around? And babies—is there anything better than holding an infant?

But this is all modern stuff. This is a product of the influence that Jesus has had on our western thinking—because it was not like that in ancient times. In the pagan cultures of Jesus’ day children had almost no status at all. In Jewish culture it was a little better, but not much. In large part, the status children enjoy today in western culture is due to stories like this from the gospels. If you want to know what changed and how it changed then you can look to Jesus. It is due to him that we have such high views of children now. In those days they were nobodies. They were ‘the least of these.’

So someone is bringing children to Jesus. Why? What is going on? How do the disciples react to this? And what does Jesus have to say to them about their reaction? And is their some deeper lesson underlying all of this? There usually is.

I invite you to take the time to listen to the audio recording of this sermon preached at our church a week or so ago. Just click the link below and a new window will open in your browser where you will find this sermon. You can stream it or download it for later listening. I hope you do. God bless.


Click here: Mark 10:13-16 - Children and the Kingdom


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