This is one of those tiny incidents in Jesus’ life which is recorded in all three of the Synoptic gospels. This tells us that even though it was an small event, it was significant for one reason or another. And perhaps it was significant to Matthew in ways that it wasn’t to Luke or Mark. But no matter what it was to them, the Holy Spirit considers it important for you and me.
There isn’t a natural three point message here, and it doesn’t conclude in a poem, so I’ll have to skip the poetry and create my own outline.
Let’s begin by considering the CONTEXT.
It is generally believed that all this took place in Judea beyond Jordan, ie. in Perea east of Israel’s river. But when it took place specifically it is difficult to say. Matthew gives this event in its barest of bones. Both Mark and Luke add a little more when they say, “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.” Matthew and Mark give it to us on the heels of the Pharisee’s attack of Christ in regard to marriage. But Luke presents it to us after a lesson on the importance of persistence in prayer, followed by the Pharisee and the Publican who went into the temple to pray. “The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” You might say that the publican behaved in a somewhat child-like manner. Afterward, all three gospels move on to the man who asked, “Good Master, what must I do that I may have eternal life.” As we shall eventually see, that man did NOT behave in a child-like manner.
With Luke lingering in the background of our minds, I can’t tell you dogmatically that these children were brought to Christ after His lesson on marriage. But it is possible that some mothers or couples thought to take advantage of that subject, bringing their children to the Lord for His blessing.
Do we know anything more about THE CHILDREN themselves?
Many of us have kids, and we know that there several different kinds of children. Some of our children are infants, while others are middle aged and yet we still call them “our children.” What constitutes a “child” – at least in the context of this event? Matthew and Mark use the same Greek word “paidion” (pahee-dee’-on) which speaks about “a little” child, as opposed to another word which means “child” without the diminutive adjective. Luke uses a different Greek word – “brephos” (bref’-os) – which is most often translated “babe” or “infant.” So all three gospel writers are agreed that these children were small – apparently babies in arms. These were not teenagers – they were not eight, nine or ten years old.
Without specifically being told, we might assume that they were not yet “potty trained.” I can’t tell you if a one-year-old Israelite baby wore diapers, nappies, swaddling clothes or nothing at all. I have several books on general life in Israel at that time, but I couldn’t find an article on that subject. I am reasonably sure these babies were probably still nursing; they were incapable of feeding themselves. They were not reading their parent’s Bibles, they were not practicing their addition and subtraction. They were not parsing Greek and Hebrew verbs. And they were not debating the finer points of theology. In fact, if they were infants, then they were too young to put faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
These parents brought their little children into a solemn or intense teaching situation.
Some of the commentators spoke of these children being naturally drawn to the love and demeanor of the Lord I have no doubt that generally speaking, there was a peacefulness and quiet about Christ, which attracted many people. But I seriously doubt that His demeanor had any affect on these babies. Perhaps if some were three or four, they might have come to Jesus on their own accord, but apparently they were not that old. And what is the likelihood that out of six nine-month babies, they were all perfectly quiet? We have no idea how many there were – was it six, or eight, or a dozen – a gross? There may have been a great deal of disruption brought into an outdoor classroom.
But as the parents approached Christ, the disciples stepped in to stop them. Could that have been a reaction to the disruption of a few screaming babies? Perhaps they could see that if the first two women presented their offspring to the Lord, it would open the flood gates and He would be stuck there for the next two hours holding, praying over and blessing all the children of that village. Luke tells us that “when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them.” Mark says that the disciples “rebuked those that brought them.“ I have no doubt that the disciples meant well in pushing back the parents and their children. But it was not their place.
In my background reading on this scripture I found a very good message about Sunday Schools. It pointed out that even young children need to be taken to Jesus – they need to be taught about Christ. It quoted some statistics which I believe to be true. Very, very few people are ever converted to Christ after the age of 40. There are some who are drawn by the Saviour after their 30th year of life. There are the special people, like Saul of Tarsus who are saved after they become 20. But the vast majority of new believers come from the ranks of children. There are many reasons for this. That doesn’t mean that we should not try to win our adult neighbors to Christ. As I say, there are spectacular conversions like salvation of the Apostle Paul – but they are few. Every conversion is a miracle of God – a miracle of grace – no matter what the age of the person. Perhaps the age – and difficulties that age brings – is why it is said that Saul was “converted” rather than just “born again,” “saved,” or “regenerated.”
But the point is – as much as humanly possible, children need to be brought to Christ Jesus. They need to be taught a respect for the Word of God from a very early age. They need to exposed to the simple events in the life of Christ to and to His wonderful parables. Wait until they are teenagers or college age, and you’ll find that the society from which you’ve tried to protect them, will have seeped through, often time corrupting their hearts and minds, The Word of God is often not be heard by college age children.
How do disciples rebuke the coming of the children to Christ today? They do it by down-playing the importance of Sunday School and child-level Bible classes. They do it by not attending Sunday School themselves. I have had professing Christians tell me that they were only interested in preaching – preferably the hell-fire and damnation variety. There are sects, among even Baptists, who say that Sunday Schools cannot be found the Bible, and therefore they are a man-made waste of time. They say that God will never bless them because they are extra-Biblical. Tragically, the adult children of some of those people are still unsaved, because the only Word of God they ever heard was delivered from the pulpit toward educated adult minds. Christ was inviting those children to be brought to Him in order to be blessed by Him.
This is not the first time that Christ has said that the Kingdom of Heaven was for the child-like heart.
Just a chapter earlier, “Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of (the disciples), And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
How is a little child – a “paidion” (pahee-dee’-on) – an illustration of a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven? Well, in order to be a citizen in the Kingdom of Heaven, someone must be born in or into that kingdom. No one can just walk across the southern border and declare himself to be a citizen. Like children, saints of God must be born – born again – re-generated. As Christ told Nicodemus – “Verily, veitly, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Or as He said in Matthew 18 – “except ye be converted, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven.” A somewhat common characteristic among children – those children of God’s kingdom – is humility. Now, I will grant to you that a lot of children are not humble creatures. Many of them – most of them – quickly learn to be stubborn, argumentative and rebellious. But the child which Christ used for His example, was not yet to that point in his life. “Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
A third characteristic of a child of God’s kingdom is a simplicity of mind. Thursday, Judy and I got to spend a few minutes with our 6-year-old grand-daughter. When she arrived, the first thing she did was run over to me with a new treasure behind her back. After asking me to guess what it was, she pulled out a black, shiny piece of volcanic rock. I told her that it was obsidian, “just like the street where she used to live.” A few minutes later, she asked me to explain how her rock was the street where we live. Sahalie took literally what I had said and it confused her, because I worded my statement poorly. Children have uncluttered minds, and often they interpret things literally. They don’t have the background that adults have to either explain or confuse simple ideas. In Matthew 11:25 we have the record of a brief prayer – “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” The Kingdom of Heaven often makes sense to children, while their parents fumble over it, because those adults have years of atheistic education, Satanic deception and societal confusion. making their sin-cursed brains cloud what their hearts yearn to believe. Children quite often don’t have the problems understanding things that their parents can’t grasp.
Christ then laid His hands on them, before departing towards another community.
When a mind is thoroughly made-up, it can make the mouth speak some very stupid things. I did not count them, but I read several otherwise sane Bible commentators who suggested that what Jesus did here was to approve of infant baptism. Granted, these were babes in arms who were brought to Christ. And they were brought for the blessing of the Lord. But it is total imagination to suggest that there was anything said here about immersing, sprinkling or pouring of water on these baby’s heads.
And let’s assume for a second that was the case – that this was all about eventually christening these babies. For most of the people who say such things – that “baptism” is considered a part of their salvation. But if that were the case, then it would make no sense for the disciples to be pushing their parents away. It would be like denying the salvation of those children – unthinkable. This has absolutely nothing to do with baptism – either directly or indirectly.
What actually took place leads us to something not common in our society. Throughout their history, Israel venerated elderly people, godly people and sometimes people in authority. It wasn’t the hero worship of today – the maniacs screaming to catch a glimpse of some rock star and then fainting when he looks at them. This was a belief that, if they could they could speak with or touch that person, something would be shared. Remember the sick woman who crept up behind the Lord and touched the hem of His garment? “For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.” We see a bit of this sort of thing back in Genesis 48 when Joseph brought his sons to be blessed by Jacob. The old man reached out to put his hands on their heads and proceeded to pronounce the blessing God. This was probably related to the blessing of the High Priest which was pronounced over Israel. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them” – Numbers 6.
These parents, for whatever their reason, thought that Jesus was very special. Perhaps some of them considered Him to be the promised Messiah – which indeed He was. Perhaps some of them even believed Him to the Son of God, as the disciples had knew Him to be. Perhaps they just thought that He was an important rabbi. They believed that if this important man touched their children, or if He prayed for them, those children would be granted the blessings of Jehovah. “For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.” Both that sick woman and those parents were quite right.
There is a hymn which we sing from time to time which says, “He touched me, Oh, He touched me. And oh the joy that floods my soul! Something happened and now I know, He touched me and made me whole.” In Matthew 8, Peter’s mother-in-law lay dying of something which caused a high fever. Jesus touched her hand and the fever left her. In that same chapter, a leper came asking for healing, and Jesus touched him, curing him. Christ touched blind eyes, and those eyes could see once again. Jesus picked up the hand of the dead little girl, and she regained her life.
I cannot tell you that those babies which were brought to Christ were all sick, but if they were, then the touch of Christ healed them. And I will not tell you that those children were regenerated – given eternal life – when Jesus, “took them up his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.” But at the same time I will not tell you that later, as they learned about Christ and their desperate need of Christ that the blessing of God didn’t bring them to repentance and genuine faith in the Lord. No, Christ didn’t christen them, and they were not instantly made children of God by His touch. But if the Lord prayed for their salvation, then at some point later in their lives they were blessed by God with eternal life and deliverance from their sin.
There is not a person on earth, who does not need to be touched by the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every one of those children presented to the Lord that day have long since died. Most of our grand parents and great grand parents have joined them. And we will die as well – barring the miraculous intervention of the Lord. “It is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment.” And because of this, as Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.” You must have the kind of life which is bestowed miraculously by God – not the kind received from your parents. The proof of that new life is your repentance before God – of your sin, of your sins, of your rebellion, of your self-righteousness. And you must put your love, trust, faith and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just in Jesus the rabbi, Jesus the babe of Bethlehem, but the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who gave His life as a ransom for your soul. If your faith for salvation and eternity is not in what Christ accomplished on the cross, you will spend eternity in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.
“Ye must be born again.” Why shouldn’t this be that day? Come speak to me after the service today, or talk with your parents or your friend about Biblical salvation. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”