Mark 10:2-16
October 6, 2024
There is an old story of two young children talking to each other about some problems they were having with their parents. One of them complained to the other saying, “First they teach you to talk; then they teach you to walk; and as soon as you learn how to do both, they tell you to ‘Sit down and be quiet.’”
In our Gospel lesson for today it appears that Jesus’ disciples were attempting to keep children from coming to Jesus. In a sense it appears that they wanted children to “sit down and be quiet.” Why did the disciples act this way? Did they view Jesus like a rock star or a politician, and felt that they needed to protect Jesus from people touching Him? Did they think He was too busy to take time for children? Did they feel that children were just not important to Jesus, that children did not belong in God’s kingdom? The disciples’ behavior was definitely strange, especially since they saw Jesus bring a 12 year-old girl back to life, they saw Jesus take the time to heal a woman’s daughter from demon possession, and just a few days earlier – when the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest among them – Jesus had a child stand before them and said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.” So why would the disciples try to prevent parents from bringing their children to Jesus?
Sadly, over the centuries, and even today, there are still some Christians who have adopted the same attitude as the disciples. They try to send children away or they don’t consider children to be valuable members of God’s kingdom. I think it is important for us to listen to children. They hear things that we do not hear. They can figure out how all of the functions on our cell phones and tablets work without instructions. Their faith is simple and sincere. We see that each week right here during our Children’s Message and I see it every day at our Open Arms Christian child development center.
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.” Worship is certainly livelier and richer with children present. Children worshipping alongside adults learn lessons they will remember all their lives. But when Jesus went on to say that, “…the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these,” and “…whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it,” we need to understand that this invitation from Jesus is not just for “children” under the age of 18. It is an invitation that goes out to children of all ages, whether you’re 2 or 92, to come to Him. Jesus stands among us today and He personally invites each one of us to come close to Him. He longs for an opportunity to work in each of us – to mold us and shape us into the kind of people He wants us to be.
The invitation is there and the opportunities for us to grow close to Jesus are numerous, especially in times of tragedy. I know we were all shocked last week as we learned about the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in the western part of our state. We mourned the death of innocent people who could not get out. While Jesus said in His Word that these tragedies would happen as the result of living in a sinful world, He also promised to never leave us. So now we are beginning to see the good that can come from these catastrophes as Jesus is touching people in need through relief organizations and volunteers who are working in the western part of our state to provide care, love, and support. He is working through all of us to provide supplies and financial assistance to help those who have lost everything.
Tragedies and devastation, and the opportunities to help others as the result of them are nothing new. In the OT book of Nehemiah, when the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed, Nehemiah was filled with grief and said, “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven” (Nehemiah 1:4). I’m sure we can relate to those words. Nehemiah had this compelling urge to do something. He couldn’t just sit around. So he went to Jerusalem and cared for the people, and with the love of God radiating through him he said, “We are God’s servants, and we will arise and rebuild” (Nehemiah 2:20). And they did.
After Jesus told the disciples to let the children come to Him, our text says, “…He took them in His arms and blessed them, laying His hands on them.” I always love the fact that Jesus often touched people, especially those that society shunned, like the sick or those caught in adultery, and those who were not considered to be important – like children and the poor. This text reminds us that Jesus wants to touch you, as well. He wants to reach out to you with His amazing grace and touch you with forgiveness, hope, healing, and new life to help you grow in your faith and in your walk with Him.
Do you remember the first time you were touched by Jesus? For many of us we might say the first time Jesus touched us was in our baptism, when He made us members of His family. Our parents heard the invitation, “Let the little children come to me,” and they brought us to be baptized, because God promised us the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and everlasting life. While I may not remember my baptism, I know that on October 18, 1964, when I was just 7 weeks old, Jesus laid His powerful hands and blessing on me and made me His own. On that day He began a good work in me and promised, on His part, to be faithful to carry it out to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. And now what He wants me to do is to keep myself close to Him so that He can touch me over and over again with His forgiveness and grace. And one of the best ways to do that is through prayer, through a daily conversation with Him. Someone once told me that one of the greatest things about prayer is that the most discouraging circumstances do not crush it, and the most damaging scientific theories do not prevent it. The first thing Nehemiah did when he heard about the destruction of Jerusalem was to pray, and I’m sure when many of us heard about the devastation in the western part of our state from Hurricane Helene, one of the first things we did was to pray for all of the people affected by storm and that God would use us in some way to care for those in need.
But our world, along with Satan’s influences, would love to keep us away from Jesus – just as the disciples did to the parents who were bringing their children to Jesus. Satan working in our world will try anything and everything to get us to stop praying and to keep us out of worship, Bible studies, and from using our gifts to serve our community and love our neighbors. He will tempt you with all sorts of activities – your job, sports, yard work, and family outings – things that are not bad, to get you to misplace your spiritual priorities. He will use the destruction of a hurricane to convince us that there is no hope to help those people in the mountains, so why pray. Jesus doesn’t care about those people. But we know that with Jesus there is forgiveness for all of the times we have failed to put Him first in our lives. We know that He cares for all people and He will use us to show others how much He cares and that He will never leave us.
So today is a call and an invitation for all of us, children of God of all ages, to focus again on Jesus, who suffered for all of us and died on a cross so that we might experience His grace for our misplaced priorities and our wayward actions. I have never met anyone who, at the end of their life, regretted spending Sundays in worship, but I have met plenty of people who, at the end of their life, regretted missing worship because they were too tired or too busy doing other things they thought were more important for their family.
God has placed His hands on us, He saved us, and He’s sending us out with great things to do that will help our families, our neighbors, and many others to come into a relationship with Him and to understand how much He cares and loves them. The invitation has been given. So as God’s children, who have been touched by Him, and have been clothed with His forgiveness and life, let us go out and extend His touch to our community, our state, and our world by Sharing His Word and Living His Love.
