Section Ten

Let the Children Come

Another set of parallel passages from Matthew, Mark and Luke record some more words of Jesus concerning children. In these passages, people are trying to get Jesus to give a blessing to their children. In response to the disciples trying to prevent this, Jesus rebukes them and repeats the point that children belong in the kingdom of God. Two key points emerge from these passages: 1. Jesus warns the disciples not to prevent little children from coming to him. His point was that the children were just as important to the kingdom as anyone else (Question: Is there a modern day equivalent to this? Do we prevent children from accessing spiritual things and so say to them that thay are not as important in God’s kingdom?) 2. Jesus wanted to bless children - he remakes the point that child-like qualities are highly valued in God’s kingdom. In these passages it is likely that these children were very young (i.e. babies). (Question: how often do we look to bless children?)