Jesus does not necessarily
meet the expectations of others, including the disciples. Indeed, the Kingdom
message that he proclaims frequently turns things upside down. In the society of
Jesus’ time children did not play a prominent role. They would be there, but very
much in the background. So, when some of the people started bringing their children
to Jesus, presumably for a blessing, the disciples told them, in no uncertain
terms, to go away.
How dare these parents
encroach upon Jesus in this way! The disciples spoke sternly to them. But Jesus
takes a very different view. He is always open to those whom society thinks should
stay away. But, actually, it is the little ones, the marginalised, and the
outcasts who are the frontrunners for being Kingdom people. Jesus wants to
engage with the children for precisely that reason.
As Joseph O’Hanlon (Mark My Words) points out – “The child is, for would-be
disciples, a model, an image of what a disciple should be. To be where the will
of God is, to be in the realm of God, is not something to be grasped; it is not
a possession which can be acquired. It is a gift. A child is a gift. … To be
like a child in the ancient world was to have nothing, to be nothing. To be a
disciple in the kingdom is, at once, to lose everything and to gain everything,
to die and to live.”
I wonder what are our greatest expectations
in terms of how God wants us to live. I wonder whether we are able and willing
to see things as differently as God does.
Jesus gladly receives the little children because
he sees them as leaders. They show the way to the Kingdom. They are blessed and
Jesus emphasises that as he blesses them. I wonder what childlike qualities we
need to rediscover in order to get a better idea of the Kingdom and the kind of
behaviour that will help us glimpse it, and even enter it.
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