What Do Children Teach Us. (Matthew 19: 13-15)

As we all know it is the job of adults to teach children, any parent knows that’s. But that is not always the way it works; children often teach us also. In the life of Christ there was an incident in which he had children brought to him and he used that as a time to teach some spiritual truths What I want us to do in this chapter is think about what children can teach us or to be a little more specific how Jesus used children to illustrates the truths that he wanted to teach us. So, with that in mind would you turn with me to that event which is recorded in Matthew chapter 19 beginning with verse 13.

 Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” And He laid His hands on them (which means he probably verbally blessed them and prayed for them) and departed from there.  (Matthew 19: 13-15)

This happens just as Jesus has turned and headed toward Jerusalem, along the way he will meets different people, he meets religious leaders, he meets a rich young ruler, which will happen in a moment he will meet political leaders and on this occasion, he first meets parents who are bringing children to him. The storyline is very simple they bring the children, and the disciples reprimand them for doing that, and Jesus says no, it’s okay, bring the children to me. 

This short 3 verse story naturally falls into those three parts, but it seems to me that those three parts each have a different spiritual lesson that we can learn from, in the way Matthew uses Jesus’s words to illustrate three spiritual truths. For example, the first thing that  happens in verse 13 is that it says the little children were brought to him. So, this is the phase of the story these parents are bringing their children to Jesus.  

Let me make a couple of comments about that first of all it says he brought, “little children” and he uses a particular Greek word that just refers to children. However, when Luke records this same story and he uses a slightly different words which are better translated as infants. The text tells us they brought children to him so that he might put his hands on them and pray for them. So, they recognize the need to have Jesus bless them and lay hands on them and pray for them.

Before I comment about that specifically, let’s back off for a second and remember what’s happening already in this chapter. You’ll recall that what we’ve looked at so far in this chapter is the subject of marriage and divorce. It’s rather fascinating that the way Matthew arranges the material that first he talks about marriage when the Pharisees came challenging Jesus about divorce. Then he talks about divorce, and then immediately after that he talks about children. So, there is a somewhat of a unified theme of family here, having him talk about marriage divorce and then children. Some have even observed that perhaps he inserts children here, right after he talked about divorce for the simple reason that divorce has a negative effect on children and he’s trying to make that point. But be that as it may, what the text says is they brought children to Jesus so that he could bless them and pray for them. What are these parents wanting was they wanting Jesus to bless these children and they’re wanting Jesus to pray for these children.

I don’t think you have to go any further than that to suggest that there’s a simple spiritual lesson here, and that is simply that we should pray for our children. I don’t think I have to tell that to any parents listening, you can’t have children without being driven to your knees in prayer at times. That just sort of happens, it’s not something you usually have to tell people. As a church, as parents, and as individuals we should be praying for children. Children need prayer. and the worse society gets the more that is true.

There’s a second truth here because when the parents brought these children to Jesus, the text says of all things the disciples decided to do was rebuked them and try and send them away.  Imagine the disciples saying we don’t want you to bring children to Jesus, seems incredible, well actually this is not the first time that happened. If you will remember as we've gone through the Gospel of Matthew when we got to chapter 14, there were people who were hungry and the disciples wanted to send them away also, we don’t have food to feed them they said. Jesus said sit them down and he fed them, 5000 of them. There was another incident in chapter 15 where a Canaanite lady came and wanted Jesus to heal her daughter and again the disciples tried to send her away and yet Jesus still responded and answered her prayer. This is not something new, but why would the disciples do that why would they send people away from Jesus, including children. Well the suggestion that’s most often given is that they did that so that they could protect Jesus. They were acting like bodyguards, perhaps they thought he has been teaching all day and he has been going around healing people and he will be tired. These children were considered an interference, and they were simply trying to protect him. But Jesus says to them, “let the little children come, do not forbid them. for such is the Kingdom of heaven”. Jesus rebukes the disciples for blocking the children and I am suggesting that he does that because he has compassion on them. The parents wanted them to come, and he simply had compassion on the children as well as the parents and said let them come to me.

What is significant about that and critical is that in that day children were not considered to be important. This was an age where children were regarded as insignificant and unimportant. Other bible commentators suggests that Jesus reversed the conventional order of the day here by accepting as important what most people of that day considered important, i.e. children who were considered just a nuisance and an interference to adult activities. But Jesus said, no, let them come to me. So again, Jesus demonstrated compassion on those who were considered unacceptable, he did not consider them a burden or a nuisance or an interference, he simply said let them come to me.

As you work through this Gospel account, we repeatedly see that to Jesus no one was unimportant or ever a nuisance, Jesus was never too tired, never too busy, to give all of himself to anyone who needed it. There is a real difference between Jesus and many of the famous people today. It is often next to impossible to get into the presence of these famous people, they all have a kind of security and bodyguards who job it is to keep the public away. However, the presence of Jesus is open to the humblest of people and to the youngest of children. A preacher that lived in the 4th century named John Chrysostom said in responding to this passage, and I quote, mercy imitates God and disappoints Satan. That’s what Jesus did, and I suggest that that’s what we do when we care for those that no one else cares for. There are people that are different to us, but we can always be compassionate and show a little mercy toward people. I think there are people that society or even we may view as unimportant or insignificant to us but those are the very kinds of people that Jesus reached out to here. This goes across all kinds of barriers, whether it be a race, or economic, or social, or educational, we all have the tendency to judge people, however, Jesus did not do that. Jesus was compassionate toward all kinds of people.

I submit to you is that the two things this incident teaches us we need prayer and children, and it should teach us to be tender hearted merciful, l and compassionate to people, even those we deem as an irritation or just unimportant. In this short 3 verse passage I think the Lord teaches three things. One, that children need our prayer. Two, that we need to demonstrate compassion to other people society deems unimportant, but there is a third thing in the last verse.

Let the little children come to me and do not forbid them for such is the Kingdom of heaven.

Jesus uses the children to make another spiritual point. By the way he did that all the time, he made a spiritual point out of what was going on around him. Walking through the countryside he would see a bush or a tree and he says, let me tell you about that fig tree, or let me talk about that vine. See that farmer over there. I mean he saw spiritual truths everywhere he went. He saw everything as if it illustrated some spiritual truths and I think the most spiritually minded people I’ve known are those who can do that. Those who no matter what happens they see something in it that illustrates some spiritual truth. That’s what Jesus did, so he says, “no”, bring the children here they for they are what we are to be like in order to enter the Kingdom of God. As a matter of fact, in Luke’s version of this he flat out says if you aren’t like a little child you’re not going to get into the Kingdom of God.

What is about these children that illustrates what we need to be like in order to enter the Kingdom of God, and the answer to that is to trust in Jesus like they did, what in the world does that type of faith look like. Well, I can tell you what it is not like. A lot of people think that faith is illogical and it’s believing something that is myth or something that’s impossible, Mark Twain has one of his characters say that faith is believing what you know “ain’t true”. That’s what a lot of people think faith is, but real truth is it is the exact opposite of that, faith, faith is nothing more than trusting in someone you know and trust because you know their character. Let me give you an illustration, imagine a father trying to teach his son how to swim he gets into the swimming pool and the little boy is on the edge of the pool the father holds out his arms and says jump. What’s the little usually do, he jumps. That is childlike faith, it’s not irrational it’s not impossible, it’s not believing something that you have now rational evidence of. It’s I understand that’s my father wants what is best for me and I’m going to trust him and throw myself upon him. That’s all it takes to enter into the Kingdom of God, a simple childlike faith, that trusts Jesus Christ for the gift of eternal life period. We live in a day where Christians are really muddling with this message, and they want to make it something more complicated. They add all kinds of things to faith, but it’s simple. Some religious people want to make it so much more complicated than that, so they lay all kinds of things on people that they have to do in order to get to heaven. The truth of the matter is we just ought to keep it simple and have a childlike faith in God our father.

There is a story of a family whose house caught on fire and the young child in the family could only escape by going to the roof and the father ended up outside and by this time the whole place was in developed and smoke and the father looked up and said to the son jump I’ll catch you. But the boy on the roof eyes were blinded with the smoke and he said, but daddy I can’t see anymore, and the father still said jump, because I see you and trust in me, I will catch you.

Understand that friends, jump, and have childlike faith, that’s what Jesus is saying.

In summary this little story of Jesus’ encounter with these children teaches us, to pray for children, to be compassionate toward children and all others that are unimportant by today’s standard, and thirdly to have childlike faith in ourselves. God wants to catch you and save you and take hold of you and bless you. God welcomes us just like that, and God wants to bless us, do not ever doubt that God wants to save you and that God wants to welcome you into his arms of embrace and that God wants to bless you. God also wants us to do that to other people, if that’s what we learn about our being his children, we ought to turn around and do that to other people. By showing a little compassion to other we can actually be used the blessed others and that’s what we ought to doing….