Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
In the tenth chapter of Mark, people are bringing children to Jesus to be blessed. The disciples seem to be annoyed by this and even try to keep the children away from Jesus, but he welcomes the children and uses this incident as a teaching moment for the disciples to help them better understand what it takes to be apart of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is for those who are childlike. Not childish, but child like. To be childish means to have fits and throw tantrums when we don't get our way.
To be child like means having honesty, humility and trust. Very young children up to about the age of 3 or 4 have an honesty that adults have for the most part lost. They are generally not capable of lying or deceiving. Children of this age also have a humility that again adults have lost. Very young children think of how others feel and often shy away from being the center of attention. Far to often adults are not like this. The third trait of young children, trust, has to do with authority. Young children trust the adults and authority figures in their lives.
To enter the kingdom of God we must be child like. We need to have those qualities of honesty, humility and trust. We need to not be deceitful. We must give up desires to have attention focused solely on ourselves and our wishes and desires. We also need to trust in the authority of God to lead us and care for us for God will not lead us astray nor abandon us.
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Editor's note: Brian Timmons is the pastor of Pea Ridge and Brightwater Methodist Churches. He can be contacted at 925-0167 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Religion on 10/21/2015