Mark 10:13-16. 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
From Mark 9:29-10:30, Immediately after the Transfiguration, Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem, and He tells them He’s going there to die, but to rise three days after that.
Jesus says this three times, but it seems no one is paying attention; likely the statement is so far off the disciples’ comprehension that they can only respond with stunned silence.
This section of Mark contains instance after instance of one person or group and another approaching Jesus for a blessing, approval, probing his integrity, testing, seeking validation over their hypocrisy.
In contrast to the hypocrisy of the adults, Jesus holds up children among those who are vulnerable and needy; there are examples (faith/trust) and to care for their needs (receive), and protect from spiritual danger (ones who believe)..
Jesus’ welcoming the children here in Mark 10:13-16 ties in with Mark 9:33–37.
Mark 9:33-37 They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. Sitting down, He called the twelve and *said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”
The disciples even get into the attention fest, passing the miles by squabbling and posturing one against another over who is the greatest…
They didn’t plan on catching the attention of the Lord, who asks, “What were you discussing on the way?” (Like he didn’t know).
They hesitate, as they know good and well what they were doing, busted. Hand in the cookie jar. Too ashamed to answer, they say nothing. It doesn’t matter. He knows, he always knows.
And Jesus takes the time to teach them a lesson – not as a chiding or scolding, but as help from the Lord. Jesus shows them how to get what they want.
Mark 9:35 Jesus sits, gathers them and has his say. “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”
Mark 9:37. He takes up a boy into his arms and says, “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”
See, the weakest, the most vulnerable, the odd one out? Seeing them as more important than you – that’s the way of Jesus as he has compassion on the weak, placing special emphasis on the spiritual care of the young ones…Jesus says…
Mark 9:42 Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.
The lesson done, Jesus gets up and starts toward Judea.
He’d been talking to them about what lay there for him, the cross;
They had no idea that Jesus would stand in their place for them as the atonement for their sins – that he would do that even as everything Hell could throw at Him crushed Him, all so they, his friends, would be forgiven and reconciled to God.
Jesus knew, for the present anyway, that they cared little about fleeing the wrath to come – no, they were more concerned over where they stood in the pecking order and whether they had the monopoly on casting out demons.
He’d been urging them to be at peace with each other; showing them the Way to God in the living demonstration of faith of a child; But the disciples didn’t quite understand, yet did they need to?
How could they ignore such plain teaching? Jesus is speaking afterall. So how?
My opinion: It’s because they were adults. A child would receive the Lord’s words with simple trust: “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” …And they would rush headlong to implement their being last of all and servant of all.
See, there would be no adult experience to get in the way, no preconceived notions of rights or shame or esteem, or reputation or prominence.
When we are listening with childlike faith, we hear Jesus speak with an undivided heart, and there is no other voice to consider. That’s the richness of childlike faith, it is pure and undivided.
But the disciples were stuck on stupid here in this passage – yes, they heard the lesson again, yes, we’ve heard it: the way to God is simple denying of self depending on God. – but they didn’t get it, again.
And it is a profound mercy that the Lord is patient and kind — even when what he says to us goes in one ear and out the other.
The disciples and Jesus arrived in Judea, and here in Mark’s chapter 10, Jesus is again teaching – again.
And again he is dealing with all those people adult problems;
again being challenged by the religious mucky mucks –
again being pressed to validate the hypocrisy of some self-justifier, here the money-loving rich young ruler,
again listening to that Pharisaical-branded thinking – calling it religious when a man tears asunder what God has joined
No wonder He’d rather hang out with the children.
Mark 10:13-16 gives us a scene where parents are bringing their children in hopes of having Jesus merely touch them. What meets them? Rebuke it says.
Jesus sees his own disciples doing just the opposite of what he had taken time to teach them, not too long before this.
The disciples were rebuking the parents for bringing the children to Jesus. This is a strong word: it means actively hindering and reproving; recoiling at some abomination. Like the parents were sinning. The disciples were actually holding the parents and pushing them back, trying to stop them from bringing their children to Jesus.
Seems like last Tuesday Jesus told them the way to be first is to be the servant of all; He said even that one who received such as a child in His name receives the one who sent Him, the Father Himself. And they are now keeping these children away from Him?
Were they even listening? Or did they not believe what he said?.
The word used to describe Jesus’ emotion here is indignant:
It is a type of anger associated with feeling moral pain; to grieve; to be displeased, sore displeased, and much displeased.
People with anger problems are often very acquainted with the times in the Bible when Jesus is said to be angry – perhaps this is so they can gain some excuse for their anger. This is one of those times Jesus is angry – but unlike the anger of man, His is purely a just anger. It centers on when people are being either led away from Christ; or being prevented from coming to Him.
Jesus has seen something which cuts at the very heart of what he has been teaching his disciples, that He came for such people as the very ones they are keeping away –
His own patient rebuke gives two lessons about the richness of childlike faith, one we’ve already seen: one cannot love people by excluding them from coming to Christ.
Mark 10:14-15 “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Truly I say to you, whoever doesn’t receive the kingdom of God like a child won’t enter at all.”
His disciples turned away the very kind of people who exemplify the attitude of a true disciple. Such people are not to be excluded.
Might this point support a discussion of infant baptism? Maybe, but the point is deeper for Jesus: it’s not just that children are to be included, they serve as living illustrations of the nature of saving faith.
This is not to say that children possess saving faith; Jesus is simply using what we all have experienced about how children accept what they are told and are more able to exercise simple single-minded trust. Being smaller, weaker and inexperienced, they must depend on their parents for everything. Children are often brushed aside, shushed, ignored and yet they will still endure and trust.
The Lord’s interactions with children all through this scene in ch 9-10 reveals that He regards them as precious, but needy, often helpless and defenseless and under His special care. Adults mistakenly regard themselves as strong and independent, needing nothing, defensive and at times vengeful.
But Jesus sees this situation as yet another way to pound home the fundamental character of those who receive the Gospel – people who possess a certain attitude, like that of a child who must depend upon someone else.
The ‘kingdom of God belongs to such as these’ (14).
Jesus uses their presence as a way to illustrate to his prideful quarrelling disciples that the childlike way is the way into the kingdom.
So, in the face of the parade prideful people coming before Him, His disciples, etc., Jesus commends acting more like a child with their faith; The tables are turned on the adults – Jesus is putting forth childlike attributes as kingdom attributes.
The children in this regard are to be our teachers in the sense of how we receive the Gospel – how we receive Christ.
The child is entirely dependent upon the parent in the very nature of things.
Total trust is the center of a child’s existence.
It is shown in Lisa, a four year-old member, working through her bible Sunday School lesson, with her cookie and juice box – coloring away, (not a picture of Jesus though) and trying hard to draw within the lines, humming “the B I B L E, yes that’s the book for me…” Mrs MacLean watches her and the others, kindly tells them the stories of Jesus — the stories Mrs MacLean has believed since she was Lisa’s age, and Lisa trusts Mrs MacLean and believes what she tells her.
More than that, Lisa believes that her pastor believes the stories too; and (according to Jesus anyway, Lisa has a right to expect that her pastor would not lead her astray…otherwise, a millstone….?
And if her pastor does have that childlike faith, we might ask, why does he? If he does, it is because he has submitted to revelation by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit; he has believed the B I B L E simply and wholly too, for he is in step with the Spirit of God; he knows only his shepherd’s voice, he will not answer another.
Oh, sure the pastor has learned the complications which these stories have which have been produced by sophisticated adult academic analysis – this inevitably happens, but if the pastor is childlike in faith, even for all his education and training and knowledge of the human wisdom of the skeptics, then with that childlike faith operating, there is no hesitation in accepting the Word as Gospel.
But childlike faith is not about being simple-minded or uncomplicated, no amount of study or knowledge can cover the majesty and mystery of the Holy God who is God, He is at the same time incomprehensible, yet intimate, mysterious yet readily revealing Himself to us (as He wills), He is just and compassionate, even giving His own Son to satisfy justice and redeem our sinful nature, thereby winning forgiveness; out of love dying our death-sentence of sin and giving us His life-eternal and righteousness.
Lisa might say, Jesus is my Savior and he loves me. WE might ask: why can’t that be enough?
Well, it is, and yeah, we could we do with fewer distinctions and complications, right? – with all the baggage of experience and cynicism getting in the way of just believing, simplicity would ease the strain.
The thing is, childlike faith is restless and is always seeking to know about what it loves and believes in; a four year old’s belief and knowledge is enough to know Jesus, and yet a 95 year-old’s is not enough to know Him as much as we should want…
As long as we live on this earth, we shall only ever at best have a child’s comprehension of God as He truly is, we shall ever be needy, but provided for, ever increasing in holiness but not arriving at it, learning to follow but never going solo. Would that we adults could as easily as a child – believe purely, all in, come what may, following and trusting Jesus even if all Hell & all the world be against us.
A child of God does not come before His Lord as fat, proud, and demanding, but he comes helpless, needy, dependent, trusting and lowly, thankful and believing. Always.
So it must be for the disciple. As Mark refers childlike faith to disciples, they cannot earn it or deserve it or make it, but only accept it thankfully as God’s gift.
No one is fit for the Lord’s Table let alone the Holy Desk of the pulpit – who sees faith as obligation, something earned or cooperatively won.
This is why here in Mark 9-10, group after group have so far in the story failed to enter in and get what they are after from Jesus. They have all brought their own agenda—religious leaders, family, crowd.
Only those helplessly needing to be healed, and occasionally the disciples, have burst through into the world of self-abandoning trust, like that of a small child.
It is they who receive the blessing (16).
At this point in Mark’s gospel of course, as we must remind ourselves constantly, people have not seen the main reason for total commitment; they are not attuned to the weight of it all. We at least have that.
Hints are being given about the cost of this gift:
8:31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
9:31 For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.”
10:33–34 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles. 34 They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.”
But because they are on their own agenda, Jesus’ hints at what he will do for them serve more to repel people than to attract them.
For the moment, however, Jesus concentration on teaching the disciples has continued; and one by one, on the other side of the cross, they would see the power and glory of Christ.
Romans 8:15-17: For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
As Jesus takes the children to Himself, we have been opened to two old lessons in new skins: The first is about how we love others, the second, how we fear and love God.
‘Don’t exclude the children!’ AND become ‘childlike’ (not ‘childish’) if you wish to know the secret of childlike faith.
It is the faith that lays hold of justification – this is the richness of childlike faith.
These two lessons we must master if we are to enter in as children ourselves, for on these hang the Law and the Prophets.
Brothers, I heard one of our more seasoned, hoary headed trustees explain why he serves the Lord here at [our seminary]: “I support [this seminary] because I am concerned about what type of man is going to preach the Gospel to my great-grandchildren.”
That is what childlike faith sounds like when it has gray hair, I guess.
At some point the books have to be opened, papers written, tests taken. Its a given that in all the studying and arguing and point-counter-point of the ins and outs of fine theological truth which make up a seminary education, a student will be pressed and stretched academically, but he can never ever get the idea that that academic prowess will make up for a lack of childlike faith.
We must think about our great grandchildren too.
I think I am well positioned to speak alongside my colleagues in this: We’re raring to stretch and press the students – and we will enjoy seeing the fruit of it. Even as much fun as that might be, we as their teachers are only qualified to teach if we are possessors of that same childlike faith ourselves, whatever our degrees or abilities as professors.
We must be prepared to place the premium on the condition of the heart. We would rather let a student squeak by with a shortcoming in conjugating weak Hebrew verbs than allow an impious student or faculty member continue to walk in the pride of his own wisdom.
A seminary is the servant of the church of the Lord Jesus – we are not here to be neutral about these matters – this is not that kind of academic institution, and our students & staff know that. If they had wanted neutrality, they would have gone to a state university where the things of God are held to be as interesting and important as a new species of Asian dung beetle.
Let our leaning be Godward always. May we, with confidence in the grace and wisdom of God the Father Son and Holy Spirit, now like our young friend Lisa, take up our crayons, believing the words our Savior has said, and by His grace, maintain ourselves always eager to see that childlike faith grow and deepen through the academic labor in which we join together to do in the days ahead. The Lord Willing. Amen.
*I owe the title (but not the content) of this address to Mark Coppenger, who gave an address at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1995.
Musings from WinDSwept Junction 
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