Mark 10:13-16

Simplicity Anchors the Christian Community

Mark 10:13-16 – Receiving the Kingdom as Children

Mark continued to reflect on the attitudes appropriate to disciples. Perhaps his previous comment that had immediately addressed the question of the relationship of men and women in the family suggested this second selection dealing with children.

¹³ People brought children to him to touch;

but the disciples warned them off.

The disciples displayed the common attitudes of the patriarchal culture where children, certainly outside their immediate families, were non-persons. The people responsible for bringing the little children to Jesus seemed to have been better attuned to the spirit of Jesus than the disciples were.

¹⁴ When Jesus noticed it, he was indignant

and told them,

“Let the children come to me;

do not prevent them,

for the Kingdom of God is for such as these.

¹⁵ I tell you firmly, anyone who does not welcome the Kingdom of God

as a child does,

will certainly not enter it.”

¹⁶ Then he put his arms around them,

blessed them,

and placed his hands on them.

Jesus’ response of reaching out to the little children and treating them with great affection was significant in itself. To Jesus, children mattered. They were not non-persons at the bottom of any relative honour scale. Jesus rejected the whole culture of predetermined categories of personal honour. However, he treated them at their level of receptivity: he warmly embraced them and blessed them, but he did not spend his time trying to teach them. He taught adults.

The incident, however, gave more than a window into the gentle heart of Jesus. Jesus saw the children as embodying attitudes that were at the essence of discipleship. He had already spoken about the little ones who believe in me in the community, those adult disciples who had made themselves last of all and servants of all. Only those who welcome the Kingdom of God as little ones did would enter it. Places in the Kingdom were not for those who considered themselves at the top of any honour listing but for those who let go of all such pretensions and were prepared to see themselves as servants without claims to anything.

The Kingdom was always pure gift, an experience that was not the reward of merit or of inheritance - as Mark would immediately observe. (The mood of underlying tension was again quietly indicated: Jesus felt indignant at the response of the disciples, and strongly corrected them).

Next >> Mark 10:17-22