Mat 19;13-15 13 Then some children were brought to Him so that He would lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But Jesus said, “[i]Leave the children alone, and do not [j]forbid them to come to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 After laying His hands on them, He departed from there.
Some of the things that we find in the Scriptures may appear small and insignificant in terms of our busy day-to-day focus, but those are actually earth-shakingly important in terms of the far greater matter of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. The passage we see today in Matthew 19:13–15 is like that. It is not very long; it is only three verses in length. It tells a story that most of us would be inclined to dismiss as “cute/beautiful,” suitable for a Sunday school lesson—the “Jesus loves me this I know” passage. It is a little, tiny slice-of-life incident in the earthly ministry of Jesus. We may just read, smile, and move on to things that we think are more significant. Many of the commentaries I have read give only passing attention to it.
The importance of this passage is far greater than first meets the eye. Will you believe if I say the future of God’s kingdom in this world, the future of our church, the future of your family, and the future generation itself depends on what we learn from this passage? It does not look like that to us because, like the disciples those days, our priorities are wrong in our busy lives. With our sense of misguided priorities, if we do not give importance to the truth in this passage and ignore this, I am sure we will upset the Lord and get a very stern rebuke from him, just like those disciples got.
This passage teaches us the importance of bringing children to Jesus. It shows how important children are in the kingdom of God. To the degree it is heeded and we practice it in our life, the kingdom of Jesus Christ is advanced in this dark world. To the degree we neglect it, we not only put the future of the church but even our family itself at risk.
This incident is recorded not just in Matthew, but also in Mark 10 and Luke 18. In fact, in the other two Gospels, something is added at the end that is not found in Matthew’s account. Both of the other accounts have Jesus saying, “Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it” (Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17). Obviously, if we did not see Jesus’ call for each of us to enter the kingdom with child-like faith, we would be missing an important lesson from this particular story.
But it is very interesting that the Holy Spirit did not lead Matthew to include that closing statement in his account. The Holy Spirit, through Matthew’s unique focus with respect to this story, seems to be on the great importance of children themselves. Matthew was writing to Jewish people, uniquely highlighting Jesus as the long-awaited King of the Jews. And in this passage, this King is letting us know that the “little ones”—the children who believe on Him—are a vital element in the spread of that kingdom.
Stop and think of how God has hinted at this importance of children to us in the Old Testament. Think of how God seems to do some great work in one generation, but then expects that this great work be preserved and passed on to the generations that follow. Repeatedly he instructed that they should teach their children.
In Deuteronomy 6:4-9, just before the people of Israel were about to enter the promised land, Moses—speaking by the Holy Spirit—said to them:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
Do you see how vital it is that the great works of God be passed down from generation to generation? Do you see how important “children” are in the plan of God? I believe that this crucial characteristic of God’s program—the essential ministry of one generation to another through its children—is what makes this morning’s passage so significant. In it, Jesus gives us—as His community of followers—a mandate to expand His kingdom through our ministry to the “little ones” He entrusts to us.
May God help us see the truth from this seemingly-unimportant passage. Let us look at this tiny passage together, pulling out some of the principles we find in it. As we do, let us allow our own sense of priorities to be reshaped by our Lord’s example.
We have seen the Lord was making His way toward Jerusalem in order to die on the cross for us. Though focusing on training his disciples, he continues to minister to multitudes. During this ministry, Pharisees attack him, and the Lord rises above their hatred and gives the most profound teaching on marriage. Then, after that, we have this incident of Jesus blessing the children.
Let us understand these three verses with three headings.
1. The Activity of Some Parents
Verse 13: “Then some children were brought to Him so that He would lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them.”
In Mark 10, the discussion between the disciples and the Lord about marriage was inside a house, and no doubt the house was surrounded by people. And it says, in verse 13, “They brought unto Him little children.” We do not know who “they” are, but most likely the parents of these children, driven by natural love for them. What they did was, they brought the children to Jesus. Mark and Luke use the imperfect tense verb, “they were bringing.” The indication is that perhaps some had reached Him, and others were still coming. There was a flow of people bringing their little children to Jesus, and while that flow was going on, the disciples were watching.
“Children” here could mean small children. Luke’s original word used indicates they were bringing small little babes/infants. Mark adds that He took them in His arms and blessed them. These are babies and toddlers that were brought to our Savior—tiny ones that were helpless to come on their own. They are here being presented as the passive recipients of an action performed by someone else.
Why did they bring them? Verse 13 says, “so that He would lay His hands on them and pray.” They were evidently tender infants, too young to receive instruction, but not too young to receive benefit by prayer. They were wanting the blessings of our Lord by his praying to the Father. We do not know how much they understood about Christ or the condition of their children. They had some kind of faith in Christ and wanted Christ’s blessings, so they brought these infants to Jesus.
In the Jewish culture, it was customary to do that. Parents would bring their children to any great teacher of the law so that he might bless them and pray for them. For example, a father would bring his child in infancy to the synagogue. He would hand that child to an elder, and the elder would pray for the child and then hand it to the next elder. The little children would go along the line of elders, each one praying for the child. Why? Because they believed that these men who specially represented God, who specially served God’s kingdom, who specially taught God’s Word, had a proximity to the heart and soul of God—they had a prayer life that had more faith, more power, perhaps, than some normal folks might have, and they longed to have their children prayed for by such men. This was an Old Testament pattern: a person of spiritual esteem or authority would place their hands on someone else in order to visibly convey a blessing upon them (see Genesis 48:14; Numbers 27:18, 23). We still have that with us today, as we have parents who desire to bring their babies to be dedicated to Christ, to be prayed for by their pastors and elders. That is a very special thing in the heart of a parent.
These parents had heard Jesus and seen his works. They knew He was the unique prophet of God that He was, when He spoke as He spoke, when He did what He did, in His healing ministry and His teaching ministry, and they would have longed to bring their children.
2. The Reaction of the Disciples
Verse 13 (end): “…and the disciples rebuked them.”
The tense is present—They often, as they were coming, were rebuking them. Why? It could be many reasons. In their thinking, this was not important; this was not a priority for the Lord or for them. See, he was healing sick people, and they are bringing these little ones with no indication that they were afflicted, diseased, or ill. They were bringing healthy, smiling babes to him. He is teaching to those who can understand the truth; what use is it to bring these small little ones who cannot even understand language? “The Lord doesn’t have time for all that.” There are sick babies to be healed. He is busy teaching deep truths of the kingdom; these are too small to understand his words. Or maybe it was private time for the Lord with the disciples; they were already shocked about his marriage message and wanted to discuss more. “Now that they had Him alone, they didn’t want to have to share Him with others.” It may even have been that—quite frankly—the disciples did not want the noise and commotion, the nuisance of children. Some say, “Oh, children—a big headache.” Maybe they felt that way.
This was not important in their priority. They were acting as the secretary for an executive. Maybe it was real concern for the Lord, protecting him from unwarranted intrusions of his time and unwarranted expenditure of his energy, as he was teaching multitudes. So they very strongly rebuked them. The tense is: “as often as they were trying to bring them to Jesus, they were met with the rebukes of the twelve.” The word for “rebuked” is a very strong word. The substantive form of this word has been used for the term “punishment.” I mean, the disciples were really going after them, threatening them. It is the same word used when the Lord rebuked the unclean spirit, and the same word used when Peter tried to hinder him from going to the cross, for which Jesus rebuked him. It is a stern reproof. They made it plain: “We don’t want you bothering our master.” It was a desire to protect their Lord from what they thought were nuisance demands, unnecessary interruptions, and distractions.
In any event, they rebuked the people who brought the children. They forgot the lesson of the last chapter, where Jesus taught them who among them was the greatest: he took a child and taught them they had to value little ones. Earlier, they were valuing themselves too highly. Here, they were not valuing the little ones highly enough. They were failing to see the great opportunity that presented itself to them in the form of welcoming these little ones to Jesus.
3. The Response of the Lord
Verse 14: “But Jesus said, ‘Leave the children alone, and do not forbid them to come to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’”
Matthew’s account is mild, but if you look at Mark 10:14, 16, the moment he was aware of what was happening—parents bringing these children, a pattern of serious effort by parents to approach Jesus continually met by resistance and rebuke by the twelve—Mark describes in graphic detail the response of the whole Christ to this situation: His emotional response (what he felt), verbal response (what he said), and physical response (what he did). The response of the whole humanity of the Lord.
Turn to Mark 10:14, 16: “But when Jesus saw this, He was moved with indignation and said to them, ‘Allow the children to come to Me; do not forbid them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’ And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.”
Emotional Response
When Jesus saw it, He was moved with indignation. This is a wrong translation; it means very angry, greatly displeased, irritated, became furious. This strong word, “moved with indignation,” is only time that particular word is used of Jesus in reference to the disciples. Mark, who got this information from Peter, never forgot that angry look on the Lord’s face and the tone of the Lord’s voice. He uses a special word: moved with indignation. Earlier, he was moved with compassion; all his bowels moved, melted, and felt pain in the lower abdomen. Here, he was moved with indignation; his bowels burned within.
The same word is used in Matthew 21:15 to describe the agitation of the leaders, who were irritated at our Lord healing on the Sabbath and irritated that people were praising him in the temple (vexation). Mark tells us our Lord’s first response was a response of true inward vexation and indignation. The marvel of it is: if the Lord experienced vexation, there was not one drop of sin in it. In leaders, it is sin, but it was pure and holy emotion in our Lord, pure and unstained. The Lord does not take it easy; he was not relaxed or laid back; his features were ruffled, but it was a holy ruffling. He throbbed and pulsated with holy vexation.
Verbal Response
Verse 14 in Matthew: “Leave the children alone, and do not forbid them to come to Me.”
Jesus spoke two commands to the disciples: “Leave the children alone, and do not forbid them to come to Me.” Don’t put up this wall of resistance; permit them to come to me.
First, He said, “Let the little children come to Me” (v. 14)—which, you might say, was the positive part of the command. And isn’t it interesting that He didn’t say, “Let the parents bring the little children to Me”? Rather, He focused on the children: “Let the little children come to Me.”
And second, He said, “And do not forbid them” (v. 14)—which, you might say, was the negative part of His command to them. Permit them to come to me and never hinder them. This is an aorist imperative tense. It is continuous: permit them and never hinder them, now and in all the coming period. It means, “Right now, let these come, and do not hinder them, and from now on, always permit them and don’t ever make it a practice to stop them from coming.” He takes care of the present and the future.
The Reason for the Command
He gives a reason why you should not hinder them and should permit them. Why? “For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
He is giving two commands and one explanation. The immediate command is, “Leave the children alone, and do not forbid them to come to Me.” The reason is: “For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Now note carefully that Jesus didn’t say, “For of these is the kingdom of heaven.” He wasn’t saying that only children get to heaven. Rather, He said that they should be esteemed because they are examples of the faith of the sort of believer that constitutes the kingdom of heaven. “Of such,” He said, “is the kingdom of heaven.”
This is again the same lesson for the disciples taught in Matthew 18 about child-like humility. He is saying to his disciples: Your thinking and actions are wrong; to forbid them is wrong. Your priorities are wrong. It shows you have not yet come to clear views of who it is that comprises my kingdom. How you respond to these needy, defenseless babes, dependent toddlers coming to me, is a reflection of your understanding of kingdom people. If you would have come to a clear understanding of who is in my kingdom, who comprises my kingdom, then surely, knowing that the spiritual qualities wrought in every member of the kingdom find such clear expression in such helpless babes, you would not have such a hostile, distant, and negative attitude toward these little ones.
Permit them, stop hindering them, for such who bear such character traits in the objective condition of these little ones is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom belongs to such as these because they receive it as a gift. I explained this when we saw this in Matthew 18. It does not talk about any inherent virtue in children. They are born in sin. This talks not of their virtue inside, but their outside, natural condition: they are helpless and dependent. It is not a subjective quality, but rather their objective condition of helplessness.
A little baby in our arms is a vivid, graphic expression of kingdom children. They must be fed, cleaned, clothed, lifted—everything we have to do. It cannot take care of itself. It is completely dependent on us. Its very essence is dependence, is receptiveness, is helplessness. Only men and women in poverty of spirit and brokenness in sin who live in dependence, are helpless, and receive the grace of God as children, are people of my kingdom.
Do not forbid these little ones, do not hinder them, for in their objective condition as children is mirrored the subjective grace in every true member of our kingdom. For of such is the kingdom of God. This does not refer to any inherent grace in a child. The Bible is clear: all of us are condemned, fallen; children are born in sin, totally depraved, all children of wrath. He speaks of the objective condition of that child; more than anything, that mirrors the condition of a child of the kingdom: the internal spiritual state.
His Kingdom is filled with those who are made like babies, who enter like babies, see themselves as babies, and live as babies in the midst of other babies in humility. They are helpless, dependent, humble, who knew in themselves they had no resource.
“Don’t you ever hinder these little ones from coming to Me! You have been competing with one another over which of you will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. You have your sense of what constitutes ‘true greatness’ upside-down. Don’t despise them; and don’t stand in the way of these little ones. If anything, learn from them! They are the ones who exhibit the kind of faith in Me that I accept!” If we understood true greatness in Jesus’ kingdom as He taught us, we’d never again be irritated by the presence of children who truly love Him and believe on Him. Rather, we’d be honored. We are spiritual babies, and Jesus expects spiritual babies should love physical babies.
Physical Response
Verse 15: “After laying His hands on them, He departed from there.”
Mark tells us, in Chapter 10, in the parallel passage, that after Jesus said that (Verse 16): “He took them up in His arms, put His hands on them, and blessed them.” One child after the other—He took, He prayed, and blessed, maybe using some Old Testament verses. He would take one child, bless and pray, and give it back to the parents repeatedly. The word for blessed is a compound word. We think of eulogeō, eulogy, the word to bless. He blessed them intensely; He prayed fervently over these little ones. He prayed passionately over them. How interesting it would be if what he prayed for them were recorded! He would have prayed for their physical and spiritual life, their future, and that their parents would fulfill their responsibility to lead them back to the One from whom they came.
What a contrast between Jesus and the disciples! They were forbidding; he was receiving and laying hands, praying, and blessing.
👨👩👧👦 Applications: Bringing Children to Jesus
What are the applications? Such a simple passage, but oh so much of applications! So much we have to change in our mindset. We are most often like the disciples: we don’t give importance to these children, but they are a very important part of spreading God’s kingdom.
I have so many applications. I have also been asked by some to teach a few things about parenting. Providentially, this passage is before us. So I want to bring some direct applications from this passage today, and God willing, bring a few more next week on bringing our children to Jesus.
We may have parents sitting here, or those who may be parents in the future, grandparents here, or young or old people who are in contact with children, relatives, or neighbors. We love children. They are cute; we enjoy their fellowship; they are great joy and entertainment. But this passage teaches you a great responsibility. We have to do everything to bring the children we see to Jesus.
Our country is suffering during this time of crisis. When such things happen, we always think about the effects and don’t realize why God allows this. Revelation says these are God’s loud screams or calls for repentance on a society. Only when we see our sins will we repent. How terribly our society is destroying divine institutions! Last week we saw how marriage bonds are being violated. What about sins against children? Child abuse. They are God’s children given as stewards to us. We need to bring them up as God commands and not treat them as we want. How much of child neglect happens? You sitting here, how much of child abuse—wrongly treating them or even not giving enough attention to them—abusing them? God’s word calls you to examine your heart and repent of that sin during this pandemic.
First Lesson: Be Actively Bringing Our Children to Jesus
We have to be actively bringing our children to Jesus.
We don’t know how much these parents knew about Jesus, how much they knew about the condition of their children as fallen in Adam and depraved, but look at their earnestness. They were continually, perseveringly bringing their children to Jesus in spite of resistance coming from his own disciples. We would say, “What kind of leader? His own disciples don’t allow us to bring our children; why should we?” Nothing offends parents more than hindering their children. “If they don’t allow my children, I will not go. My daughter likes to pick things in the store. They didn’t allow her once, so I stopped giving them business. If someone doesn’t allow my children, get lost; I don’t want any of your discounts.” These parents could have said, “Forget the blessings.” Not these. They persevered. These parents shame us! In spite of their little knowledge, what earnestness!
We know our children are depraved children of Adam; without coming to Christ, they will forever go to hell. The only hope for them is to come to Christ. The greatest wealth we can leave them is the knowledge and grace of Christ in their life. We know Christ has come and died to redeem them. In spite of so much more knowledge than these parents, how earnest are we in bringing our children to Christ? In case something happens to us during this pandemic, with what good conscience can we leave the world if our children are not saved? What a great blessing it would be if they are saved; they are safe in this world or eternity.
If God has entrusted you with the care of children or grandchildren, you have the spiritual duty to actively bring them to Jesus! We obviously cannot bring them to the bodily presence of Jesus—as the parents in this story were able to do. But we can and must bring little ones to Jesus in the “spiritual” sense.
How?
- Through Prayer: Christ is not physically present; he died, rose, and he is in heaven, but we can reach him through prayer. We bring them through our regular prayers, praying for their salvation, bringing them regularly in our prayers to Christ, to the throne of grace. How much do you pray for the salvation of your children?
- By Teaching Them God’s Word: Secondly, bring them to Jesus by teaching them about God’s word and teach them about it as early in life as we possibly can. When they are tiny, and you hold them in your arms, you must whisper to them about the God who made them. You must take them on walks or let them look out the window; and tell them about the God who made the world around them. Teach about God’s creation; they have to be thankful for how God made them. Teach them about God’s providence; everything they get is from God’s hand. You must teach them that he not only created you wonderfully and provides life, breath, and all things, but also, as they learn about God’s love for them, you must tell them about His Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem you from your sins. When they disobey, you must tell them about the reality of sin and about how Jesus paid for our sins on the cross. And you must tell them about the eternal home Jesus is preparing in heaven for those who trust Him. Teach them about hell.
Bring them to Him! Get a copy of some great children’s book like The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes or My Very First Bible; and read to them from it, talking to them about the pictures they see. Do your best to get the great stories of the Bible into their little minds as early as you can—and especially the story of Jesus’ birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His cross, His resurrection, and His ascension to His Father in heaven. Teach them Bible songs. Teach them the catechism; mold their mind repeatedly by catechizing them.
Pray with them. When they get up in the morning and see you reading the Bible and praying, they may come. Do not see them as a disturbance, and rebuke them, or chase them away. Permit them to come, and let them jump up into your lap and listen as you read aloud and pray.
This certainly teaches the great importance of having regular family prayer. How carelessly we neglect that, and hinder our children from coming to Christ! It is a great means to bring them to Christ. Discuss with them about coming to Christ. Guide them, teach them, make them pray. Ask them questions about the Gospel. Find out their struggles. Pray with them as you tuck them in at night.
Bring them to church regularly, and make a special effort to bring them to Sunday School.
Bring them to Jesus in the details of everyday life at home—talk of Him “when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” Do not buy into the philosophy that says that you should leave them alone in the hopes that they will “find their own way.” That is a ploy of the devil! There is no other way! They need your help to come to Jesus. Actively bring them to Him!
Do you see how important Sunday School is in our church? Support the Sunday School ministry. It is a very important ministry. We need to see how we can have Sunday School for them, even during these current times.
We can all pray for the kids and for those who minister to them, and volunteer to help in whatever ways we can. We can all invite our relatives’ children and neighbors’ children to attend Sunday School, and encourage our neighbors to bring their children and come.
We can all pray that our church becomes increasingly a place that Jesus would be pleased to bring little ones into—because He knows that they will learn about Him here.
Those little ones are vital to the kingdom of Jesus. By His grace, they may grow up to become big ones who teach other little ones about Him. My first lessons as a Hindu were in Sunday School. If nobody would have taken me to Sunday School, I am not sure how my mind would have been molded. And so, while they are little, they need us to bring them to Him.
Let us not break the chain of “faith” that runs from one generation to another. Let us make it our commitment to follow the example set for us in this passage and actively bring the little ones to Jesus!
As we read on this passage, we see another aspect of our ministry to the little ones we are to bring to Jesus; and that is that we are to:
2. Earnestly Seek Jesus’ Blessing Upon Them (v. 13)
See these parents—with so little knowledge. They did not just come to be spectators and go home. No, they earnestly sought the blessing of Jesus. A personal blessing from Christ. This demonstrated their faith in Him.
May I suggest that something of your and my faith in Jesus is exhibited in how earnestly we will seek His blessing on the little ones He has entrusted to our care? If you have children—or grandchildren, or nieces and nephews whom you love—but you don’t pray for them regularly, and plead with the Father that they believe on Jesus and live for Him, then what does that inactivity say about your sense of who Jesus is? If it doesn’t much matter to you whether or not the little ones in your life come to know Jesus Christ, then what does that indifference reveal about your faith in Him? It may be a dead or fake faith.
When we look at little children, we need to see them as Jesus sees them. He looks upon them—even the tiniest of them—as souls of so much eternal value to Himself that He willingly died on the cross to redeem them. They are among that mass of fallen humanity; they will grow up to be sinners and finally burn in hell.
And if we believe the truth about Jesus, and if we see those little ones as He sees them, then we will earnestly seek to bring those little ones to Him so that His blessings might rest upon them. Do not be satisfied, as some parents are, if their children are just decent and disciplined. No, do not be satisfied until they are blessed by Jesus Christ by regeneration and new birth. Our priority for children, more than they become a doctor, engineer, or whatever, must be that they must be saved. And we should seek the blessing of salvation for them most of all!
If we truly love them, then we could want no greater thing than for Jesus to—as it were—lay His hands on them and pray for them. So, let’s follow the example of these believing mothers and fathers in Jesus’ day and seek to bring our little ones to Him that He might bless them.
3. Do Nothing to Hinder Them As They Are Drawn to Jesus (vv. 13-14)
I wonder if one of the things that the Lord Jesus loves about little children is that they are uninhibited in being drawn to Him. Children, though born in sin, have still not grown proud or hardened by the love of sin. When we talk to them about Jesus, they easily seem to believe in God and Christ. It is only when they grow, they become arrogant—the flesh will begin to rebel against the grace of God. But as tiny children, they are drawn to him easily. It is a prime time for them to draw near to the Savior and learn of Him.
And yet, though they may be relatively uninhibited in coming to Jesus, they can be hindered—by us. We can hinder them by:
- Refusing to bring them to Him when they want to know about Him.
- Refusing our duties to bring them as parents.
- Failing to pray for them and teaching them like I said earlier.
- Failing to bring them to church, and we giving excuses not to come to church ourselves.
- Allowing the things of this world to crowd out their vision of Him.
- Not leading daily family prayer.
- Our sinful, disobedient life.
- Not living a consistent Christian life at home before them.
- Treating their budding love for Jesus as if it were something that didn’t matter—or that was to be made fun of.
When I think of Jesus’ rebuke of the disciples here, I think of the dreadful words He spoke in Matthew 18:5-7: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!”
We all know that it would be dangerous to get between a mother bear and its cub. But how much more dangerous it would be to get between Jesus and one of the little ones who believe in Him!
May we never do anything to hinder little ones who are drawn to Jesus! It is a fearful thing to be on the “wrong side” of the One who gave His life for them (Hebrews 10:31)!
4. Place as High a Priority on Ministry to Them as Jesus Does (v. 15)
We see this in the very last verse of this passage. It may not seem very important at first, but it is actually enormously important in its implication.
In verse 15, we read, “And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.” Now, where was it that He was going “from there”? We find the answer in Matthew 20:17—that Jesus was “going up to Jerusalem.” And what was it that He was going up to Jerusalem to do? We see the answer in 20:18-19, when He tells His disciples: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.”
Can you think of anything more “pressing” in the earthly ministry of our Lord than that? Can you think of a higher priority for Him than the cross? Can you think of Him having a greater burden on His mind than what was before Him? And yet, look at what He does! In spite of the great and dreadful task that was set before Him—knowing what lay ahead of Him—He nevertheless stopped in His progress to the cross, and prioritized the time of welcoming the little children in His arms, one by one taking them in his arms, laying hands on them, blessing them, and praying over them. I have no doubt that, for the rest of their natural lives, those children and parents never forgot that Jesus gave Himself to them in that way, on the way to the cross; do you?
Now, I don’t know what it might be that you and I think we have to do that is so earth-shakingly important that we don’t spend time with our children. We neglect them so much—always sitting with the “small box” (device), or just giving them a mobile device and allowing them to play with it—and even in respect to ‘ministry’. But we can be sure that, whatever it is, it is nothing compared to the task that was set before our Savior. And if, in that context, He prioritized giving His time and energies to the care and ministry of little ones, then as his followers we had better do the same!
Summary of Lessons
- Be Actively Bringing Our Children to Jesus.
- Earnestly Seek Jesus’ Blessing Upon Them (v. 13).
- Do Nothing to Hinder Them As They Are Drawn to Jesus (vv. 13-14).
- Place as High a Priority on Ministry to Them as Jesus Does (v. 15).
Can you see now why this passage is so important? In it, our Lord Jesus gives us a mandate to minister to the little ones He entrusts to our care. We are to place a high priority on this ministry, because in doing so, we are following the pattern our heavenly Father set in the Old Testament for the expansion of His plans and purposes on earth. To minister to the little ones who believe on Jesus is to do the work of His kingdom!
So, let’s be sure that we do those things Jesus teaches us to do in this passage: that we actively seek to bring little ones to Him; that we earnestly seek His blessing upon them; that we do nothing to hinder them in drawing near to Him; that we humbly recognize the great value He places on them; and that we place as high a priority in ministering to them as He does.
And as we do so, may those “little ones” He has entrusted to us grow up to be “big ones” who love Him greatly, serve Him faithfully, and expand His praises widely!
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 