The Children of His Kingdom

An ancient Jewish tradition was for a rabbi to bless the lives of children brought before him. And Jesus obliged:

“Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray…“

But, apparently, some of those disciples thought all this was beneath Him:

“ …and the disciples rebuked them.“

“But Jesus said, ‘Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me, for the kingdom of the heavens belongs to such as these.’” [Matt. 19:13-14; see also: Mk. 10:14, Lk. 18:16]

So, Jesus certainly loved the little children.

On the other hand though, I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s become popular to point to these passages and suggest that some untapped cache of juvenile insight exists in the credulous nature of children, or even that they are somehow qualified to interact on the same level as adults simply because Jesus incorporated their presence in the dialogue.

Nor should I acknowledge this nonsense has any basis in the Scriptures.

It’s often fabricated from the residue of a ludicrous 1989 global initiative known as The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

And, unfortunately, when it comes to interpreting the Bible, tradition will often trump proper context. But in this case, perhaps it’s more of a reflection of ignorance rather than political correctness, because the context was the kingdom, not some cryptic form of discernment that Jesus wanted to reveal in children.

Nor was He trying to demonstrate that children were going to rule with Him in the coming millennial kingdom.

He was, rather, simply confirming that unwavering, unquestioned faith in Him was equivalent to the innocence and dependency found in children, and makes one worthy of partaking in His reign. [see: Rom. 8:16-17]

That’s not something we have to convince children of.

Only ourselves.