Making a Way For Children

Notes for the Ekklesia Meeting
Sundays @ 10:00 a.m. Info: (651) 283-0568 www.dtminc.org Today’s Date: November 27, 2005

Making A Way For Children
by Dan Trygg

"And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. 14 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. 15 Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.’ 16 And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them." Mark 10:13-16

Jesus and His disciples had just crossed over from the eastern side of the Jordan into Judea, and, being at the fords of the Jordan at a festival time, there were many people there. Many crowds were following Jesus, and He was healing them there (Matt. 19:1). This was the setting for the attempt by the Pharisees to entrap Him in a controversy over divorce. Instead, He both affirmed God’s original plan for marriage, and exposed the hypocrisy of His opponent’s attempts to justify their hard-hearted, hypocritical behavior. Immediately following this discussion, parents began to bring near their children, so that He might touch them, and bless them. The disciples, however, rebuked them, wishing to not bother their Master with what they probably considered an inane, troublesome waste of time.

Mark records that when Jesus saw the disciples’ treatment of these parents and children, He was "indignant". The Greek word indicates that Jesus first felt pain at their actions. His emotional response was displeasure, irritation or anger at the insensitive and uncaring manner in which they were treating these "little ones". This is a great word picture to help us understand how anger can be a healthy, appropriate emotion. Anger is a human emotion which God enables us to experience. God is an emotional Being, and we are like Him. The Lord wishes for us to be able to understand, appreciate and utilize our emotions in healthy ways. Jesus is our preeminent example, as we shall see.

Paul wrote in Eph. 4:26, "Be angry, and do not sin." This is a direct quote from Psalm 4:4 in the Greek Septuagint translation of the OT. The words for "do not sin" mean "don’t make a mistake" or "don’t miss the target" with your anger. David, in Psalm 4, had to deal with people who were mocking him for his faith, while they were carousing and partying (cf. vss. 6,7). His hurt and anger may have been appropriate, but there was no healthy outlet for his anger, so we see how he dealt with this situation. First, he cried out to God in his hurt and anger. Then, he recognized that these other people were focused on things that were deceptive and empty. God had called him to separate himself to serve Him, so David reminded himself of that in order to strengthen his resolve to not cave in to social pressure. He got away from those people who were attacking him. He went to his own room, and laid upon his bed. He had to quiet himself emotionally (vs. 4). Then, he offered himself afresh to God by renewing his commitment to do the right thing, and resolved to entrust himself to the Lord. He recognized that what these other people were looking for was simply to experience something good in life. They were focused on something much less than what was available in the Lord, however, so he asked God to show His beauty and glory through the joy and peace of his life. God had given him much more joy and gladness than his detractors would ever experience at even the best of their parties. (And no hangovers!) Furthermore, when he went home to bed, he was able to sleep in peace and safety. From David’s example, we can observe helpful pointers on how to deal with hurt and anger where it would be dangerous or unprofitable to speak up or to take action.

What we learn from Jesus’ example here is different. He felt the pain (either by empathizing with the parents and children being rebuffed, or by observing the inappropriate behavior of the disciples in light of what He knew would be God’s heart), which led to the emotional response of anger. The indignation motivated Him to action, and the time was appropriate to deal with the issue. He spoke up and corrected His disciples. (Paul wrote about how we ought not to allow the sun to go down on what provoked our anger [Eph. 4:26,27]. We are to deal with anger in some way, not just let ourselves stew about things, and give the devil an opportunity to aggravate the situation further in our emotions.) Jesus’ response in this situation was both immediate and appropriate. He dealt with the issue. He did not speak disrespectfully to His disciples, or chew them out, nor did He hold back and allow the mistreatment to continue. He simply spoke up and directed His disciples to allow the little children to come to Him. While doing this, He alluded to a principle which He had taught them previously, "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a child shall not enter it at all" (Mk. 10:15). Matthew’s account adds, "…for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" (Matt. 19:14).

We have the advantage of seeing the relationship of this incident in close proximity to Matthew 18:1-14. For the disciples, however, days or even weeks may have transpired between these separate incidents. You remember the incident? The disciples had been arguing about which of them was the greatest, competing with each other for a higher position in the leadership pecking order. Jesus stood a little boy in their midst, saying, "Unless you turn around and become as the children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever might welcome one such child in My name welcomes Me. But whoever might stumble (offend, dishearten, reject, lead into sin) one of these little ones who believe in Me, it would be better for him to have a millstone put around his neck and be cast into the sea." Whoops! They forgot! Here, just a short time later, they are shooing away "little ones who believe" in Him. Instead of welcoming them, they were actually blocking them from coming to Jesus, and sending them away!
How could they be so thick-headed? Why didn’t they see what they were doing? They still did not grasp the nature of God’s kingdom. They were thinking in terms of an earthly kingdom, where pomp, propriety and formalism were ingredients of the king’s court. In this environment, the more important a person was, the more removed and protected he was from "commoners" and the noise and disruption of everyday life. Appointments were necessary to see the king, and only those considered important were permitted to have an audience with him. The royal guard would prevent any unwelcome guests from coming into the king’s presence. Important business was conducted by important people in special meetings. This was no place for children to be playing or interrupting. Besides, kings and important people were far too busy to be bothered with chucking children under the chin, or patting them on the head.

We have the same kind of thinking in many churches of our day. The entire environment often reeks of formalism, spit-and-polish, institutional thinking. Kids are supposed to be little adults. They are not supposed to run in church, nor raise their voices. Dressing up in special "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes, and being on their "best behavior" reinforces this mindset. Some pastors even are separated from the people, and use ushers as bodyguards (sometimes called "armor-bearers") to keep the "unimportant people" away, so as not to disturb "the anointing". (Apparently that was not a problem in the early church. At least, you never read about Jesus or the apostles requiring a buffer zone in the midst of their times of ministry. The anointing was there, crowd or not.) Pleeeze! Can’t you see that is the same kind of "put-him-on-a-pedestal" type of thinking that the disciples had in their minds? Can’t you see that people that need to be loved and affirmed get pushed aside in this kind of environment?

Jesus came to turn this kind of thinking on its head. Jesus came to display the heart of the Father, the King of the universe. In God’s economy, even the lowliest creature has its important place. He is fully aware of even the smallest of them. He knows when a sparrow falls to the ground, and even the number of the hairs upon our heads (Matt. 10:29,30). The whole point of the Father sending His Word to become human and live among us is to forever proclaim and clearly demonstrate that He considers us all important to Him, …even the lowliest, the poor, the powerless, and the weak (Rom. 5:6-8; I Cor. 1:25-28). We don’t have to jump through hoops to earn access to God’s presence (Rom. 5:1,2; Eph. 2:8-19). He has traversed the distance that was between us, so that we could simply open our hearts to Him. He cares nothing about the valuation of the world regarding our status, position or importance. He has come in search of us (Lk. 19:10), because He wants us to be part of His forever family. He is a Father. He made children to be children. Noisy, rambunctious, curious, squirmy, and wiggly, as well as teachable, humble, clingy, vulnerable, dependent, and in need of care. He loves the sound of children. They are not an irritation to Him. He wants to win their hearts.

You see, that is the difference in paradigm that we must get in our heads. We are not outsiders or foreign dignitaries coming to a King’s court to have an audience with the Almighty. He is awesome and holy, surrounded by angels and majesty, but that is not the primary relationship He has with us. That is not what we are to recreate when we meet together. God has called us to be members of His household. We need to envision a large table, with a huge family gathering. The older ones are to help serve the younger ones. They need extra attention. We are to cut up their meat for them. Dish up their food. Furthermore, it is our Father’s delight to come to each one, to offer them more of the abundance of the table, to speak to each one personally. There is not chaos, but neither is there formalism. This is family time. He has time for each one. Each one is precious to Him. He is especially blessed when we help each other, …when we don’t hog the food, or disregard others so we can eat first. There is plenty to go around. The more mature ones help in the kitchen and bring out the food to serve the younger ones. They are not secluding themselves because they think they are more important. They come earlier to help with the preparation, but they are not more special than the others. They understand that their task is to get food out for every last child, and they utilize their strength and understanding to serve. They don’t sit at some higher table. They join the rest, and everyone shares in the Father’s table together. And so we see, here in Matt. 19, our Elder Brother modeling the Father’s heart, as He takes each child in His arms, speaks to them personally, lays His hand on their head and blesses each one.