Jesus Blesses Children: Mark 10:13-16
In Mark 10:1-12 Jesus was asked a question about divorce by the Pharisees. Their question was, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” (Mark 10:2B NIV)
Jesus shot a question right back at the Pharisees, “What did Moses command you?” (Mark 10:3A NIV) The Pharisees answered with what Moses permitted, which was a man was permitted to write his wife a certificate of divorce.
Jesus then proceeded to tell them what Moses commanded, explaining God made them male and female and for that reason a man was to leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they were one flesh, or were one!
When asked about divorce, Jesus answered by taking the Pharisees to marriage for the answer! I call it 1+1=1. That man and his wife make the basis for a family!
In natural progression, Jesus moves in verses 13-16 of Mark chapter 10 to children.
In fact, verse 13 the original Greek has a conjunction that’s untranslated in the New International Version. It would be like this, “and the people were bringing little children to Jesus…” Verse 12 is connected to verse 13 with the conjunction, making a natural transition to the thought of children, putting the finishing touch on the family! Look at Mark 10:13-16. Notice Jesus would not tolerate down-playing children!
People were bringing children to Jesus for Him to touch them and bless them. What did the disciples do? They rebuked the people, treating it like this big shot doesn’t have time for a bunch of kids!
How did Jesus respond? Verse 14 says Jesus was indignant! Why did Jesus respond like that? He tells them why. Because the Kingdom of God belongs to folks like little children!
It’s easy to downplay children. As a child myself, I remember adults saying children should be seen but not heard. Jesus wanted the children hanging around Him! Why? They mattered. He wanted them to be seen and heard!
In Mark 10:13 the word for child is used, the Greek word “PAIDA” usually referring to a child under the age of 12, or so. In a parallel passage in Luke 18:15 the word for baby, “BREPHE” is used. Why are the words important? Because Jesus wants babies and children to come to Him, He doesn’t downplay babies or children. They’re all important to Him.
I was in a church service in Phoenix, Ariz., one Sunday in the early 1970’s when the Governor of the state came into the service with his security squad and staff. A row in the auditorium was roped off for them. They were seen as important. Jesus sees children the same way that church saw the Governor!
Jesus wouldn’t tolerate downplaying children then or now!
Notice the Kingdom of God belongs to such as children!
Jesus went so far as to say if you won’t accept the Kingdom of God like a child will, you will never enter it!
Here’s how to see that. If you won’t accept the rule of Jesus like a little child will, you can’t get in! The Kingdom of God is the rule of Jesus as Lord! We need to be willing to volunteer for it like a child would!
We spent 12 years pastoring a church in Lemon Grove, Calif. We had a pre-school and day care ministry there. We served babies through kindergartners.
As a part of play time, you can get a group of toddlers to dance around like wild people with reckless abandon! Try that when they’re 13 or 14 years old. It won’t happen!
Little children are not self-conscious and will do almost anything when someone they trust is influencing them.
Jesus cares about children and wants them blessed. Before we are done with this passage, He takes them in His arms and blesses them.
From time to time, you will see in the news stories about someone alone with children abusing them sexually! By nature, they are not selfconscious, making them vulnerable to someone who would want to take advantage of them.
In our perverse culture today, we need to make sure children are only with people who can be trusted! Churches should never allow children to be alone with just one adult in church children’s programming.
Children are receptive. They believe what you teach them. Jesus would want them to be taught about the Kingdom of God, or the things of God. I was taught those things as a child and believed them, then wandered as a teen and young man, but came back to them strong in my early 20s!
Kids can get confused by changes going on in their lives and bodies as they grow. Hormones can rage in pre-teens and early-teens, causing all kinds of confusion.
Loving parents who take time with the kids can teach, communicate and love them through these times of change. They’re receptive and teachable.
Some school systems want to teach gender selection to kids between the age of 5 and 8! Remember they’re receptive and can be influenced by people they look up to.
If they’re taught they could be a girl caught in a boy’s body or a boy caught in a girl’s body, or they can move back and forth between feeling like a boy or a girl, regardless of their body, they can be influenced to go in a direction that will destroy them!
Schools have no business teaching this kind of stuff at any age! I heard an interview of a young lady of 23 years of age. She felt confused about her body and her gender at a young age and was taught she was really a boy caught in a girl’s body! She went back and forth on the issues, always confused by influence from teachers. She transitioned to a boy with surgery and drugs.
At the age of 20 she figured out she was a girl and had been influenced in the wrong direction and started to transition back to being a girl. She knows now she had been abused by the teaching she received at school. Many people never recover from this deception!
Schools shouldn’t be teaching any of this vile deception! If you have school aged children, you should know what the schools are teaching and make sure your children are not being deceived.
I MEAN, MAKE SURE THAT GENDER STUDIES IS NOT BEING TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOLS! IT IS CHILD ABUSE!
Children are content to be dependent! They depend on parents and grandparents. Make sure parents and grandparents are the main people they depend on.
In Mark 10:16 Jesus took the children in His arms, and He blessed them. Jesus wants to bless children, especially with His Kingdom. He wants children to come willingly under the rule of Jesus as Lord and enter the blessings of His Kingdom.
In Luke chapter 1 Mary had been visited by the angel and knew she was pregnant with the Messiah. She went to visit her relative, a woman named Elizabeth. Elizabeth was pregnant in her old age with her first child, who would be John the Baptist.
Mary was newly pregnant while Elizabeth was further along in hers. In Luke 1:41 Mary greets Elizabeth, and she hears her greeting, and the Scripture says the “BABY” leaped in her womb. Elizabeth uses the same word of the BABY leaping in her womb again in verse 44.
The word translated “BABY” is the same word translated “BABY” outside the womb in many other places in the New Testament.
Biblically, if you abort a fetus, you kill a baby! We call this women’s health care! If you kill a child, it becomes the exact opposite of Jesus taking a child in His hands and blessing him or her!
It’s possible that the Supreme Court could overturn Row vs. Wade in June of this year. That will not rid the country of abortion. It just sends the legality of it back to the states.
California has made it clean if that happens, they plan to pass laws to make California the abortion capital of the United States of America. Wrong a thousand times over! Jesus wants those kids to be born, be nurtured in the things of God and volunteer for the Kingdom of God as adults.
Jesus wants to bless children with His Kingdom. Our mission must be to protect them with Godly families so Jesus can bring on His blessing to them.
Back in the late 1980’s a helicopter landed in the road outside our home in Lemon Grove, Calif. I wondered what was going on.
The next day, I got a call from a lady in our church asking me to help with the funeral of a 7-week-old baby girl whose single mom lived next door to me. The baby died from sudden infant death syndrome.
I took care of that funeral, one of the most difficult services I have ever done!
I made it clear in the service Jesus took care of the baby, who was not old enough to be responsible for sin and the baby was in His Kingdom.
Jesus will take care of children in that kind of situation, but He has delegated to us the job of taking care of children now and protecting them so He can bless them with His Kingdom.