Saturday 18 August
Matthew 19:13-15
Today’s passage has captured the imagination of countless artists down the ages, and in many Christian homes you will find a painting of Jesus surrounded by little children. But today’s Gospel is not just a cute little story about Jesus hugging and welcoming children; nor is Jesus making a statement about the innocence or sweetness of childhood. Rather, as was his habit, Jesus uses a very ordinary situation-of-the-moment to illustrate an important truth about God’s kingdom.
An old English proverb says, ‘Children should be seen and not heard.’ That’s probably an accurate description of the position occupied by children in ancient Jewish society! In the Jewish culture, children were loved, but they enjoyed no rights or privileges under the law; in the eyes of the law, they were ‘nobodies’, at the mercy of those more powerful than they, totally dependent on others for their well-being. Physically, socially and politically, children were powerless.
The disciples of Jesus were zealous for God’s kingdom, but a kingdom as they understood it. Since they envisaged and anticipated a political kingdom, the disciples were not inclined to waste their time – or their Master’s time! – on anyone who was not politically powerful or influential; and children definitely fell into this category. Jesus not only had time for the children, he points to these little ones and insists that ‘to such belongs the kingdom of heaven’ (v. 14b, emphasis added). In other words, those who ‘qualify’ to enter God’s kingdom are the ones who recognize their weakness and depend on God’s strength, those who recognize their powerlessness and depend on God’s power, those who recognize that they have no ‘rights’ and rely, instead, on God’s grace. And in God’s upside-down kingdom, where the first shall be last and the last shall be first, where the King comes to serve and not to be served, the ‘nobodies’ become the VIPs.
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and marvellous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother’s breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul. (Ps. 131:1-2)
Ezekiel 18:1-10, 13, 30-32 • Psalm 50(51):12-15, 18-19
Matthew 19:13-15
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