TEXT [Commentary]

10. Jesus blesses the children (10:13-16; cf. Luke 18:15-17)

13 One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.

14 When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” 16 Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.

NOTES

10:13 the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. The Gr. simply says, “The disciples rebuked them.” They wanted to stop people from bringing children to Jesus for his blessing.

10:14 he was angry with his disciples. Jesus rejected the disciples’ response and their devaluing of these children. Once again in Mark, the disciples have much to learn, and only Mark notes Jesus’ emotion at this event. They had forgotten the point of Jesus’ teaching in 9:37.

COMMENTARY [Text]

That the disciples desired to prevent Jesus from taking time with children reflected a cultural view of children as unimportant. Lane (1974:361) cites a papyrus in which a husband writes to tell his wife that if an expectant child is a boy she should let it live, but if it is a girl, she should cast it out (Oxyrhynchus Papyri 4.744, lines 9-10). In a culture in which children were devalued, they could be callously exposed to death.

Jesus reversed the cultural attitudes by saying that “the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children” (10:14). The Kingdom is made up of people who are as simple and devalued as they are. If children are important to the Kingdom, everyone is important to the Kingdom, and it is “to those who are like these” that the Kingdom belongs (Matt 5:3; Luke 12:32). Children are symbols of what believers are like.

Jesus then added, “Anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it” (10:15). Jesus made an example of the childlike qualities of low social status and dependence. As children have no inherent credentials to make them acceptable, disciples also bring no resume of merited status that will commend them to God (“he is utterly helpless in his relationship to the Kingdom,” Lane 1974:360). Disciples before God are like children who are dependent on adults to make their way in the world. To receive the Kingdom is to welcome it on the terms on which it is offered, which here means realizing that no one has a right to possess it. It is a gift of divine grace.

Jesus thus elevated the stature of all people of any background by welcoming these children. They represent every member of the Kingdom; those who come to God are dependent on him and no stature of their own gives them kingdom rights. The kingdom is to be received as children receive things in their lives.