There are many passages that we often fly through when reading Scripture without fully comprehending. Without taking time to meditate on God’s Word we will often assume a meaning that is not there or fail to grasp the weight of what God would have us know. I think many of us have done this with Matthew 19:13-15. We are tempted to chalk these verses up to a nice teaching about how Jesus loves children.
However, if we slow down then we will be prompted to see some profound themes. In these accounts we notice three points that make this worth more than a passing mention.
1) Man does not determine the recipient of God’s blessing.
There are two stories that surround Matthew 19:13-15 where Jesus interacts with children. These framing accounts seem to expose a principle of contrast in the middle passage. In the one preceding we find the Pharisees, the religious people of the day, approaching Jesus with questions. Those who were pious, studied, and eloquent on religious matters would be the ones that most would expect Jesus to bless. Instead, he knew their self-righteousness of the Pharisees who boasted in the Law and he shamed them in their test by asking, “Have you not read…?”
Further, the story after is of the rich young ruler who asked what good deed he needed to do to have eternal life. Surely the wealthy would be the one who could ascertain the blessing of Jesus and obtain eternal life! However, we see Jesus revealed that the man’s possessions would gain him nothing and the man who had it all could not purchase an ounce of blessing from the Lord.
Sandwiched in-between these two accounts is where we see the embracing of Jesus on an unlikely group, children. Children are brought to him, not running or seeking him. They are without deep, advanced knowledge or immaculate record keeping of the Law. Neither do they have wealth, stature, or position. Yet Jesus laid his hands on these young ones and exclaimed that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as them.
How wonderful a God who dispenses his blessing not on those that only we deem worthy! We are enamored with the outward appearance but the Lord judges the heart and we should tremble at the thought of barring whom He desires to come to Him. Scripture says to do so runs a risk worse than being drown with a millstone.
2) Humility cultivation reaps heavenly reward
The importance of children was not new. In the previous chapter, Matthew 18:2-5, Jesus was asked who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and as the ultimate object lesson he sets a child in the disciples midst. He tells them that those who humble themselves like the child will be the greatest but if they do not turn to become like children, they would never even enter into the kingdom. The disciples were concerned about how they could earn status. Therefore, he did not intend here to require that they would have some kind of ethical virtue of a child such as trustfulness, innocence, or receptiveness. Those characteristics are noble to pursue but the context suggests that status is more in view. Because their concern is how great they can be, Jesus calls the child as representative of one of the lowest on the social, hierarchical scale in order to instruct them that the least will inherit the kingdom. He desires to shift their conception of how God values and rewards. He shows that blessings are poured out on those who stoop down in humility and lead in servanthood. Jesus gives us the same shocking lesson when he washed the disciples’ feet in John 13:2-15).
The natural assumption about our status and importance in heaven is that we must attain greatness on earth. Jesus used a child both in Matthew 18 and 19 to reorient this notion in the disciples to what he concludes about the coming kingdom in 19:30, “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” We need to hear this just as Jesus desired it to ring in the disciples’ ears and be quick to humble ourselves with the help of Holy Spirit.
3) Jesus’ attributes are limited to what Scripture reveals
In this story there is a strong indication that the disciples were unclear about the nature or desire of Jesus. Whether they thought that the children were unworthy to be brought to Jesus or else their master was concerned with greater things, we are not told why they forbid the children. Either way, they had imposed improper attributes on Jesus and his kingdom. They likened him to an earthly king who does not need to be bothered by the immediate presence of children. John Calvin says, “If a crown had been put on his head, they would have admitted it willingly, and with approbation; for they did not yet comprehend his actual office.”[1] Jesus rebukes them for this grave mistake and shows them that He is a king that beckons the children to come to him and into his kingdom. Although the children are the immediate examples, Jesus extends his kingdom to those who are like them. Both in this passage and in Matthew 18, Jesus uses “such” to include those who are spiritually children, the undervalued, the helpless, and the vulnerable. He broadens their view of who should be welcomed and encouraged to come to himself. His kingdom belongs to such people and he gladly blesses them as he does the “poor in spirit” and persecuted similarly mentioned in the beatitudes.
Who the disciples allowed to come to Jesus exposed what they truly thought about Jesus and his kingdom. That proves true for us as well. And because Jesus reveals himself as the one who will exalt the least, let us not make Jesus into our image or give him contrived attributes of a king we want to see. We see the end story and a glorious revelation of the person of Jesus in God’s Word. Let’s hold to that with grateful and molded hearts.
[1] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 389.