Jesus the Child Blesser

  Posted on Jul 30, 2017  by Shera Payne  No comments

Reading: Mark 10:13-16

13 People brought their small children to Jesus so that he could lay his hands on them to bless them. But the followers told the people to stop bringing their children to him. 14 Jesus saw what happened. He did not like his followers telling the children not to come. So he said to them, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people who are like these little children. 15 The truth is, you must accept God’s kingdom like a little child accepts things, or you will never enter it.” 16 Then Jesus held the children in his arms. He laid his hands on them and blessed them.

Story: Jesus and the Children (The Lion Storyteller Bible page 98-99, Bob Hartman)

“I can’t see!” called a blind woman. “Can you help me Jesus?”
“I can’t walk!” called a lame man. “Heal me, Jesus, please!”
“He can’t hear!” called a deaf man’s friend. “Touch him, Jesus, and make him well.”
They were everywhere – people with every kind of sickness. And Jesus felt sorry for them all. So he did what he could to help the crowds that day.

“I can’t see, said a little girl to her mother.
“There are too many people in the way”.
“I can’t move”, said her little brother.

“We’re all squashed in here”.

“What did you say?” asked her father. “I can’t hear. This crowd is so noisy!”
“Excuse me,” said their mother to one of Jesus’ friends. “We were wondering if Jesus could pray for our children.”
“Are they sick?” asked the friend.
“No,” the mother answered. “We just wanted Jesus to ask God to watch over them and protect them.”
“I see, “ said the friend impatiently. “Well, as you have noticed, Jesus is a very busy person. He has important things to do. Lots of sick people to make well.”
“That’s right!” added another of Jesus’ friends. “There are grown-ups here who need his help. He can’t be bothered with children.”
“Particularly children who aren’t even sick!” chimed in a third friend. “It’s just a waste of his time.”
The mother and the father and the children looked at each other. Then they looked at the ground and turned to leave. They were sad and embarrassed.

“Does this mean we won’t see Jesus?” asked the little girl, rubbing the tears from her eyes.

But before her mother could answer, another voice called out across the crowd.
“Wait!” It was the voice of Jesus!
“Bring your children here,” Jesus called. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of.” And he gave his friends an unhappy look.

Jesus picked up the little boy and the little girl and set them on his lap. He gave each a hug, and then

from me. They are important to me as anyone else. And I want to be their friend, too.

“Don’t you see? God wants us all to be like these children. To love him like a father. To trust him completely. And to long to be with him.”
Then Jesus prayed for the children, hugged them one more time, and sent them beaming back to their parents.

Talk Summary

On the face of it this seems an innocent, simple story doesn’t it? Well it isn’t.

Jesus’ actions, once again, runs in the face of dominate thinking in Israel at that time, because the Jews were convinced that you earned your way to heaven. You earned your way to heaven by good works. They thought children couldn’t do that. They couldn’t accomplish good works. They couldn’t do good works. They didn’t know the difference between good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness. They were therefore not even to be considered as viable in discussions of the Kingdom of God. And I think it is against that background that our Lord does something here that is absolutely shocking. And it is shocking not only to the crowd that is watching and the Pharisees who were in the crowd, but it is even shocking to the disciples, who themselves, had false notions that saw children as irrelevant to spiritual life, and excluded from the Kingdom. But here, Jesus is having none of that. Here Jesus is identifying people who are part of His Kingdom; who couldn’t do anything to earn it, to gain it. It then becomes for us a powerful illustration that salvation is by grace.
Jesus turns false notions on their head.
Firstly, it is a great example of God’s salvation by grace; children/babies are included in the Kingdom and they have done absolutely nothing to earn it.
Secondly, they are an example of all those who are also part of the Kingdom because unless you come like a child, our Lord says in verse 15, self-confessedly weak, helpless, dependent, humble with nothing to commend yourself, you can’t enter the Kingdom. Money can’t get you in, class can’t get you in, who you voted for can’t get you in, fame can’t get you in, race can’t get you in, gender can’t get you in. Having a brain as big as a planet – can’t get you in.

So two things go on in this passage. One, the Lord reminds us of a principle that’s repeated several times in the New Testament, that the way you enter the Kingdom is in childlike faith. But beyond that, not only do believers come as children, but children themselves have a special place in the Kingdom.

What does it mean for us and our personal story?

Has there been someone in your life who brought you to Jesus, who guided you, nurtured your spiritual self, a role model, someone you looked up to that pointed to Jesus?

Or may be you can be such a person to some one else?

Whether a child or an adult you are precious and unique in God’s sight, wonderfully made, loved, blessed; a child of God.