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Mark 10:13-16 Let the Children Come to Me
“Jesus loves the little children” is a song we all have sung. This passage in Mark (also found in
Matthew and Luke) is the basis for this song. It is also the basis for another song: “Jesus loves
me this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak but he is
strong.” Here we have one of the most beautiful pictures in the Bible about those who will enter
the Kingdom of God. And, it is so interesting that the example Jesus uses is children. As we look
around, we have lots of children at GBC. They are so important to us. And, I hope they will
become even more important and more precious as we look at the heart of God through the
words of Jesus. This morning I have 5 truths.
1. We see the motive in bringing our children to Jesus. Look at v. 13. “They (parents) were
bringing children to him that he might touch them.” The first thing we notice is that they
wanted Jesus to touch their children. Mark always reminds of us of how Jesus touched people
and people touched him. In Mark 1, he touched the leper’s hand. In chapter 7, he touched the
deaf mute man’s tongue and ears. In chapter 5, the sick woman touched him in the crowd. In
chapter 6 those who were sick were all touching him that they might be healed. Concerning the
children here, they do not appear to be sick, and we are not told all the reasons why they wanted
Jesus to touch their children. I can reason that, if these people had seen the miracles and the
compassion Jesus had toward all types of people, knowing that at his touch, many had been
healed; surely a touch from the Lord Jesus must be a good thing.
But, you know, there was nothing magical about Jesus’ touch. I think the key to understanding
their motive is found in v. 16. “And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his
hands on them.” It wasn’t simply the physical touch of Jesus they were seeking; I believe they
were coming to Jesus for a blessing. It is interesting to notice that they weren’t bringing their
children to the disciples or the elders, or the priest of their village; instead they were bringing
them to Jesus. They knew that Jesus would bless them, and this was their motive.
I think I can speak for all you when I say that I want my children to be blessed. And, yes, just
like the rest of the world, I want my children to have their needs met. And, I must say that I even
find joy when they get their wants. Something as simple as a Lego Universe game brings some
happiness to my life to know that my children are happy and enjoy this game. The Barbie House
and the stuffed animals that fill Abigail’s room bring me joy in many ways. But, you know, there
is nothing that brings me more joy in my life than to know that my children are blessed
spiritually by Christ, even from a very young age.
2. We see the need to bring our children to Jesus. This follows the last point. There is an obvious
need to bring our children to Christ because we know that only in him can blessing be found.
But, where is this in the text? Notice in v. 14 Jesus says, “Let the children come to me.” Then
he begins to speak about the Kingdom of God. “For such belongs the kingdom of God.” Again
in v. 15 he says, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter
it.” Think about it. Jesus always taught about the Kingdom of God, what it was like, and how
people enter this kingdom. He wanted everyone to know about this wonderful, matchless,
kingdom and how they could enter it. Instead of saying to the disciples and those listening,
“Bring your kids up well. Instruct them. Love them. Send them to school,” He says, “Let them
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come to ME.” He was saying, “The key to the kingdom of God is found in Me.” In fact, “If they
don’t come to me, they won’t enter the Kingdom. How can you hinder them?”
Think about it. There is no place a child or an adult can go to be blessed than to Jesus. “For
there is no other name under heaven for men to be saved, except the name of Jesus.” Here
are some of the words of Jesus. “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father but by me” (John 14:6). “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does
not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36). “For
this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should
have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40). Today, all of us need
Jesus. There is no blessing outside of Christ. And, all of us need to be blessed by him. If you will
enter the kingdom, it will be through Christ.
Now, I would like to ask a question: “How do we bring our children to Jesus?” We certainly
can’t bring them physically as the parents were doing in our passage. But, here are some things
we can do. We can pray for them, expecting God to answer. We can bring them to church to be
with God’s people. We can take them to home group where they will see God’s people meet
together. What is important to mommy and daddy will be important to them. We can teach them
our catechism. We can do all sorts of things, but I think there is a something even more
important than simply doing the right things. It goes much deeper. I believe the key is a gospel
centered home. You might say, “Jon, what exactly do you mean by a gospel-centered home?”
A gospel-centered home is not simply a place of religion and works, but a place where the person
and work of Christ is displayed. It is not a place of simple dos and don’ts, but a place where the
gospel is lived and worked out. I could say so much here. But, I will focus briefly on a couple of
truths. Let me ask: “When you think of Christ and a gospel-centered theology, what comes to
mind?” I think of Eph. 2:1-10. Let me read some of these words. “And you were dead in your
trespasses and sins . . . and were children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God,
being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were
dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been
saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Here we see sinful men being saved by the mercy and
grace of God in Christ. As God has shown grace and mercy and forgiveness to us, so must we
also live in our homes. A gospel-centered home is a place where grace and repentance and
forgiveness is normal: a home where the gospel displays the glory of God. This means always
saying, “I am sorry. I have sinned against you. I have asked God to forgive me. Will you also do
the same.” It is a home where we realize we don’t have it all together, but instead live in constant
realization that we are sinners in need of grace, and we do the same to one another.
3. We see the seriousness of hindering our children from coming to Jesus. I will be very brief
here because we saw this two weeks ago when Jesus said, “It would be better for you to have a
millstone hung around your neck and thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little
ones to stumble.” I believe he was speaking generally about any child of God. But, the same
applies in our context here with children. Look at. vv. 13-14. The disciples rebuked the parents
and Jesus was angry. Here they go again, rebuking someone quickly, not understanding what
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they were doing. This is the occasion for Jesus’ teaching on the importance of bringing the
children to him. According to the KJV Jesus was “much displeased.” Our English language
doesn’t do this word justice. It is used only once in the NT. Mark wanted to communicate the
depths of Jesus’ anger.
We have seen other occasions in Mark where Jesus was angry. In chapter 3 Jesus was angry with
the religious leaders and their hardness of heart over the true meaning of the Sabbath; whether it
was good to heal a man or not. In Mark 8 he rebuked Peter when his mind was not on the things
of God, but the things of man. Jesus was certainly angry when he overturned the tables in the
temple court. You can usually tell a lot about a person by what angers him. And, here, we see
that Jesus is more angry with his disciples than at any other time; angry over allowing some
children to come to him.
4. We see that Jesus elevated the value of children to their proper place. In other words, Jesus did
not deal with children merely on the level of what they should do or think but on the level of who
they were in God’s eyes. Jesus loved the little children. This is an implication from the text. Here
is why I say this. We miss something here culturally if we don’t understand the context. Let me
explain. At least on the surface we elevate children in our culture. The Western world for the
most part regards tenderness to children as a virtue. For example: How many relief organization
commercials have you seen where a child from any third world country is pictured as hungry and
needy? And, your heart goes out to that child, or children like them. And, you give your money
to help the children. How many politicians have you seen kiss a child in a crowd to get votes? In
Russia, we could go to the front of any line if we had our small children with us.
This was not the case in Jesus’ time. Children, like women, derived their position in society
primarily from their relationship to adult males. Childhood was typically regarded as an
unavoidable interim between birth and adulthood, which a boy reached at age 13. You will
search Jewish and early Christian literature in vain for sympathy toward the young in comparison
to that shown by Jesus. With this in mind it is easy to see why the disciples were rebuking these
parents for bringing such insignificant little ones to him. They were thinking and probably
saying, “Jesus, don’t you know we have more important things to deal with than children? We
need to be teaching and preaching to all the adults around us. These children cannot enter
debate. They cannot preach the Gospel. They cannot heal the sick. These little ones are a
nuisance and our time is valuable.” Don’t forget! According to Mark, this was the pinnacle of
Jesus’ anger. In receiving these little ones, Jesus valued them as they should have been in that
culture and any culture. He saw them as God saw them. He said, “Let them come to me.”
George MacDonald said that he doubted a man’s Christianity if children were never found
playing around his door. Since Jesus was a lover of children, and since his Spirit dwells in us, we
are very near the heart of Christ when we love children. Concerning their spiritual life Charles
Spurgeon said, “I will say broadly that I have more confidence in the spiritual life of the children
that I have received into this church than I have in the spiritual condition of the adults thus
received. I will go even further than that, and say that I have usually found a clearer knowledge
of the gospel and a warmer love to Christ in the child-converts than in the man-converts. I will
even astonish you still more by saying that I have sometimes met with a deeper spiritual
experience in children of ten and twelve than I have in certain persons of fifty or sixty.”
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What about us? Have we hindered our children from coming to Jesus by not seeing them as God
sees them? I will make a hard statement. Some of your comments coming out of home groups
may be an indication of your hearts toward children at GBC. “Can you believe those kids at
home group? They are keeping ME from learning.” In all fairness, some of our kids are not
disciplined as they ought to be and they are naughty during home group. But, that is for another
time. Today, our text is dealing with our attitude toward our children. I don’t care if you know
more theologically than anyone in this place. If you don’t love all the children at GBC, especially
those in your home group, you do not yet understand the value of a child. There is nothing that
made Jesus angrier than this type of attitude. A mature man loves children. A wise man loves
children. A spiritual man loves children. He understands their value and his actions prove his
heart.
I would argue that our children are more important in the grand scheme of GBC than our adults.
They are the future. They are the ones who will be husbands, fathers, wives and mothers. They
will be the leaders, the teachers, the servants of GBC. They will be the future disciple makers.
Taking care of children. Watching children, praying for children, teaching children; all of these
we must do better as a group. And, it must start with our attitudes, seeking the heart of God for
our children.
5. We see that children are a picture of those who make up the Kingdom of God. Verse 14 says,
“To such belong the kingdom of God.” Then, in verse 15 Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you,
whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Clearly, this is
the main point of the text.
This week I have given this a lot of thought, thinking about what it is about a child that pictures
those who enter the Kingdom and many characteristics come to mind. On Wednesday Abigail
came running into my room (she didn’t knock) as I was studying and said, “Daddy, can I sing my
14s to you?” I hesitated and thought to myself, “maybe another time. I’m studying.” But, then I
looked at her face and saw how excited she was. So, she sang her 14s. She was so happy that
“Daddy” heard her song. I thought about her motivation after she left and it was simple: She
simply wanted her daddy to hear and be proud of her, no other motivation. She had no other
cares. She simply wanted to please her Father. Now, Is this the quality Jesus wanted to picture?
What about humility? Children are humble. They haven’t grown to be as proud as an adult in the
ways they think. What about some type of innocence? They haven’t been exposed to the world
and all its ways. They don’t care about politics. They don’t consider whether the stock market is
going up or down. They aren’t concerned with money to buy things they want. What about the
motive of their works? They simply want to please their parents or their siblings. They may even
have some kind of purity? Are these the things that Jesus wants us to understand about children
and the Kingdom of God? Although these are all humble qualities that a child of God should
have, I don’t think these are primary reasons Jesus pictured children.
Jesus is not saying that children enter the Kingdom because they are children, or because they
have certain qualities like humility, or some kind of innocence or purity. The key to
understanding what Jesus means by this picture is found in the word “children.” It actually
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means “very young children” and can be translated as “babies” or “nursing infants.” So, what it
is about a nursing infant that pictures those who will enter the kingdom of God?
They are helpless. They can do nothing unless someone else does it for them. In this story
children are not blessed for their virtues but for what they lack: they come only as they are—
small, powerless, and without sophistication. A little child has absolutely nothing to bring, and
whatever he/she receives, it is simply by grace. There is only neediness and no inherent merit or
works in them. They are simply empty hands waiting to be filled.
Listen to the words of Jesus right after he rebukes the people of Capernaum and other places he
had preached, where the masses rejected him. At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and
understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious
will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son
except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the
Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”
(Matt.11:25-30).
So, this is our picture as we conclude with v. 16. “And he took them in his arms and blessed
them, laying his hands on them.”
As a non-Christian, all you can do is stand helpless on the side of the road and lift your hands to
the Father of mercy to pick you up and save you. As a Christian, all you can do every day is say,
“Lord, I need you. Give me grace!” For such is the kingdom of God.