I love to be hugged by a small child don’t you: To be quite honest, there’s nothing I enjoy more than having a child run up to me and bug me. That’s why I can identify with today’s text. As we read about Jesus we quickly discover that children were special to him. He loved children and children loved him. [Matthew 19:13-15] In today’s text a group of children come out to see Jesus as he is walking toward Judea. At first, the disciples tried to keep them away, not because the disciples were hard or rude but because they wanted to protect Jesus’ valuable time. Jesus was busy and everybody wanted a piece of him. That is the same reason I tell all my new face book friends I can’t do one on one chat any longer. I simply do not have the time with about 3500 seemly all want to chat personally. I just can’t do it . So I understand a little bit why the disciples were trying to keep the children away from Jesus. The disciples often took it upon themselves to monitor the crowds that surrounded their master. But when the disciples tried to keep the children away, Jesus told them to let the children come to him. Then as he blessed the children he made this interesting observation. He said “no one could be part of the Kingdom of God unless they entered it like one of these children!” Now what did Jesus mean by that? He probably meant a lot of things, but today I want to share with you two – two reasons why Jesus used children as his model for citizenship in the Kingdom of God. The first reason is this: Children are without hypocrisy. What you see is what you get. I don’t know about you, but much of the religion I see is filled with pretense. When it comes to religion, so many people try to be something they are not. People with doubt pretend they have flawless faith? People with questions pretend they have all the answers. And people with dirty, little secrets pretend they live lily-white lives. Now, I have nothing against wearing our best to church. In fact, my best clothes have always been my “church clothes.” And when I was growing up, my parents taught me that wearing my best clothes to church was a way of honoring God. But sometimes I think we wear our “Sunday best” when we come to church because it helps us to pretend, to hide the ugliness inside by being neat and pretty on the outside. Pretense. It’s all around us, especially when it comes to our religion. But pretense is not a characteristic of children. Except when it’s obvious their pretending, children are just who they are. All one needs to do is hear the prayer of a child to realize their spiritual honesty. But secondly, Jesus wants us to come to him like a child because children love you even when they don’t understand you. That’s why Jesus said we must come into the Kingdom like a child. Like a child, we won’t understand exactly what the Father’s up to. He’s the Father and we’re the child. Children seem to understand how to walk with Christ. Children understand that God loves them just like they are, so there’s no need to pretend. And children have no problem loving a God that they can’t understand. Do you?
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 17:06:47 +0000
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