Luke 18:15 - 17
15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
Questions:
ReplyDelete1. Why did people want Jesus to touch their infants?
2. Why did the disciples not like this?
3. Does the kingdom of God necessarily belong to children?
4. How do we receive the kingdom of God like a child?
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/09/mark-1013-16-13-people-were-bringing.html continued:
ReplyDeleteThe Disciples were suggesting the children were an ANNOYANCE (disruption) to Jesus in the midst of all the other “adult” things He had to do.
The Disciples were taking their cue on children from culture, to some degree, rather than transforming the way their culture saw children by taking their cue on children from Jesus.
The children were getting in the way of what they wanted......of what they thought they were entitled to.......Power, Success, Fame, Recognition, et
Just like Peter didn’t have the mind of God about Jesus and the cross because of his self-interest, now all the Disciples prove they don’t have the mind of Jesus about children because of their collective self-interest.
Jesus is LIVID!!!
Jesus is indignant when children are seen as an annoyance.......especailly to the people of God, because it distorts the image of God to them at the most impressionable age.
Some of our children are growing up believing that God is annoyed with them because we’re annoyed with them.
If this is you, make sure the FIRST thing you do when you see your kids after church is to apologize to them and ask their forgiveness and tell them that God is not annoyed with them, but affectionate toward them, and that you commit to modeling that better to them.
For some of us this is hard to relate to because we’ve gone to the opposite extreme. Instead of seeing children as disruptions, we see them as Demi-Gods.
Some People See Children As Demi-Gods. Even some religious people, who are claim to be adamently against idolatry, make their children little idols. This is how many people in general, and some religious people in particular, see children in our day.
How much time and treasure do you think we tithe to the worship of our children?
Jesus See’s Children As DISCIPLES
What Jesus is saying about seeing Children as Disciples is also tremendously relevant to their parents, who have the responsibility to disciple them.
The first five years are most important for the development of children physcially, emotionally, socially, etc. Likewise, the first five years of Discipleship are in many ways the most important years spiritually.......the most important years of discipleship.
5 Important Things About The First Five Years of Discipleship:
1. Teaching them it’s all about Jesus
2. Teaching them it’s all about the Cross
3. Teaching then it’s all about Grace
4. Teaching them it’s all about Scripture
5. Teaching the it’s all about God’s Love through Discipline
If we are OVERBEARING with our children, treating them as Disruptions, we distort the heart of God and misrepresent Jesus.
If we are OBSESSED with our children, treating them as Demi-gods, we distort the heart of God and misrepresent Jesus.
If we are OPPORTUNISTIC with our chidlren, always looking for opportunities to Disciple them and teach them about Jesus as His Disciples, we display the heart of God and rightly represent Jesus.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/09/mark-1013-16-13-people-were-bringing.html continued:
ReplyDelete4. Why does the kingdom belong to little children?
Because no one but little children can enter it. We need to be dependent on God's provision / salvation (putting us into the position of a child) or we can't enter.
5. How do we receive the kingdom of God as a little child?
We cannot depend on any part of ourselves to receive the kingdom. We must totally rely on God. This puts us into the position of a little child - dependent, helpless, needy. To God, we must be like a little child.
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/18-15.htm says:
ReplyDeleteNo doubt there was a dash of superstition in the impulse that moved the parents to bring their children to Jesus, but it was an eminently natural desire to win a good man’s blessing, and one to which every parent’s heart will respond. It was not the superstition, but the intrusive familiarity, that provoked the disciples’ rebuke. A great man’s hangers-on are always more careful of his dignity than he is, for it increases their own importance.
What, then, are the qualities which, by this comparison, Jesus requires? Certainly not innocence, which would be to contradict all his teaching and to shut out the prodigals and publicans, and clean contrary to the whole spirit of Luke’s Gospel. Besides, these scarcely conscious infants were not ‘innocent,’ for they had not come to the age of which either innocence or guilt can be predicated. What, then, had they which the children of the kingdom must have?
Psalm 131:1 - Psalm 131:3 puts us best on the track of the answer: "My heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty. . .. I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother." The infant’s lowliness is not yet humility; for it is instinct rather than virtue. It makes no claims, thinks no lofty thoughts of self; in fact, has scarcely begun to know that there is a self at all. On the other hand, clinging trust is the infant’s life. It, too, is rudimentary and instinctive, but the impulse which makes the babe nestle in its mother’s bosom may well stand for a picture of the conscious trust which the children of the kingdom must have. The child’s instinct is the man’s virtue.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-18-commentary says:
ReplyDeleteJesus’ words about little children provide Luke’s second example of the attitude essential for receiving God’s grace. In its placement in this gospel, this passage not only further explores the theme of reversal (cf. Lk 18:13–14), but it also introduces the stories that follow, in which various characters are portrayed as either having or lacking this childlike faith.
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J C Ryle comments that "The connection between this passage and the parable preceding it should not be overlooked. Our Lord had just been speaking of humility. He now gives a practical illustration of His delight in humility, by His treatment of little children."
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William Barclay - It was the custom for mothers to bring their children to some distinguished Rabbi on their first birthday that he might bless them. That is what the mothers wanted for their children from Jesus....It is one of the loveliest things in all the gospel story that Jesus had time for the children even when He was on the way to Jerusalem to die!
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J C Ryle on touch them - There is reference here in all probability to the Jewish habit of laying hands on a child and blessing it. We have an instance in the case of Jacob blessing Joseph’s children. (Ge 48:14.)
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Wiersbe - It was customary for the Jews to bring little children to the rabbis to receive their special blessing, so it is strange that the disciples would stand in the way...However, this was not the first time the disciples had attempted to “get rid of” people. They wanted to send the crowd away hungry, but Jesus fed them (Mt 14:15ff); and they tried to stop the Canaanite woman from asking Jesus to heal her daughter (Mt 15:21ff), but Jesus answered her prayer. The Twelve did not yet have the compassion of their Master, but it would come in due time.
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MacArthur - No one better illustrates the reality that only the lowly who have achieved nothing of merit enter the kingdom than infants. No one has achieved less morally and religiously than them; no one has less knowledge of or obedience to the law, or less devotion to God. Thus, infants perfectly illustrate the principle that God saves sinners apart from their achievements. While the proud and self-righteous are excluded from the kingdom, infants—and those who approach the kingdom like infants—are included.
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David Gooding - A little child takes its food, its parents’ love and protection, because they are given, without beginning to think of whether it deserves them or whether it is important enough to merit such attention. So must we all receive God’s kingdom and enter into it (Lk 18:17).
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How are we to understand and apply this? For starters, coming as a “little child” does not infer innocence. Any two-year-old dispels such a notion! Neither does “like a little child” suggest the wondrous subjective states we often find in children such as trustfulness, receptivity, simplicity, or wonder, beautiful as these are. What Jesus has in mind here is an objective state which every child who has ever lived, regardless of race, culture, or background, has experienced—helpless dependence. Every single child in the world is absolutely, completely, totally, objectively, subjectively, existentially helpless! And so it is with every child who is born into the Kingdom of God. Children of the Kingdom enter it helpless, ones for whom everything must be done.....There is no other fundamental meaning for Mk 10:15. Have you come to Christ like this? Is it his grace plus your nothingness?...No one will receive the Kingdom of God without this helpless dependence and humility.
Questions and findings:
ReplyDelete1. Why did people want Jesus to touch their infants?
It may be that there was a tradition of rabbis blessing children.
2. Why did the disciples not like this?
They thought Jesus had more important business. Although, the real reason is that they were looking out for their own self-importance. These children could not bring them more importance, so they didn't want to spend time on them.
3. Does the kingdom of God necessarily belong to children?
Not to children in particular, but to those who, like a child, can approach God knowing they are helpless and needy. Are all children saved? I don't know the answer to that.
4. How do we receive the kingdom of God like a child?
By coming to God in total dependence on Him. We have to understand and realize our own helplessness before we can receive His help. Even having the child-like attitude requires His help. We can't generate it on our own, and can't enter His kingdom without His help.