Let The Children Come
Let The Children Come
Matthew 19:13-15
I was waiting at the airport for Talitha’s family to arrive. Ahead of them came a young mother with her baby. She had family waiting for her, and as they welcomed her, she commented that her baby had screamed for the last twenty minutes of the flight. She didn’t seem bothered by that fact – that her child had been in such pain that it spent the last twenty minutes, the time of the descent into the airport, crying. She also didn’t seem bothered by the fact that everyone else on that flight had to suffer from the noise of a screaming infant. If you’ve ever been on a flight with a crying or screaming child, you know what I mean.
A social media commentator was fussing about children in restaurants. Parents allow their children to cry, fight, run around, throw food, annoy other diners. He was venting his frustration at both the parents and the children. We just want to have a quiet dinner out and there are out-of control children all over the place. We should be about to have dinner without children present. He wanted restaurants to ban children. I imagine that you’ve been in his situation and felt the same frustration. Children in restaurants can be so annoying.
I grew up hearing things like, “Children should be seen and not heard.” “Don’t speak until you are spoken to.” At Thanksgiving and Christmas, we had an adult table in the dining room, and a children’s table in another room, so that children did not disturb the adult meal. We were taught to not interrupt adults in conversation, but to wait our turn to speak. And many churches do something similar when they shuttle children off to the nursery or to children’s church. Many adults find it annoying when children are in church. If they have to be with us, we give them quiet toys or coloring pages to keep them occupied and quiet.
I’m speaking this morning as a guilty critic. If we had adult guests, we didn’t want the children in the same room. Their noise, their constant interruptions, their attempts to get our attention bothered us. We wanted to have adult conversations without children “in the way.” Because children do get in the way. They are annoying. They are demanding. They interrupt. They need dirty diapers changed at inopportune times. They need runny noses wiped. They need feeding. They climb up on your lap and demand to be heard. They want to be noticed and included, and they want to be loved. Most of all, they don’t want to be ignored. And we adults want to ignore them, to push them aside.
And that’s where our text goes this morning. Jesus is in the midst of adult conversations. Matthew does not tell us what the conversations were. We aren’t given Jesus’ words here, nor are we told what the adults in the room were talking about, or what their questions were. What we are told, though, is that there were pushy parents who wanted Jesus to bless their children.
We need to understand that blessings were important. For a rabbi to bless a child could determine the entire course of their life. Blessings were thought to have power, just as curses did. Here’s the truth: children believe what they are told.Theybelieve in the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, and Santa Claus, because we tell them. They believe the fairy stories. They believe in unicorns and mermaids because they are in the stories we tell them. In the same way, they believe what we tell them about them. If we tell them they are stupid, they believe it. If we tell them they are in the way, they believe it. If we tell them they are ugly, they believe it. We are sometimes quick to curse our children or allow others to curse them this way – and they grow up believing it. They don’t think they are attractive, or smart enough, or worth much.
But if we bless them. If we praise them, tell them they are beautiful, tell them they are smart, tell them they are worthy, they believe that, too. But it takes a lot of blessing to overcome the curses they hear. Blessings are vital. We must tell them they are loved and that they are worthy of being loved. We must lay hands of love on their heads and speak those words into their ears. They must know they are welcome, and included, and precious. And parents wanted Jesus to tell them those things. Lay your hands on my child and tell her she is important to God, and tell him that God has a plan for his life. Give him a promise for his future that he can grow into.
But children are annoying. And we are engaged in adult business here. And so the disciples tried to shoo them away. The church tried to shuttle them off to somewhere so they wouldn’t interrupt the adults. We can’t hear the sermon when they cry, talk, or laugh. We can’t focus when they run around, crawl under the seats, block the aisles. And how annoying is it when they stand in the chair and make faces at the person behind them!
Have I told you that children are important to God? That children are important to Jesus? That Jesus loves the children? We sing it, don’t we – “Jesus loves the little children; all the children of the world” – as we push them out of the sanctuary and send them to the nursery. Jesus loves them. The church, not so much.
But Jesus called the children to him. In the KJV, his words are, “Suffer the little children to come to me.” Language as changed, and the modern translations render it, “Let the little children come to me.” But maybe suffer isn’t such a bad word. It means to put up with, to bear with, to endure. Put up with children coming to Jesus. Endure it for their soul’s sake. Bear with the little children as they find their way to Jesus. But I would use stronger language than that – don’t just let them come, bring them. Don’t just put up with them, regard their noise as a blessing. Don’t just endure their presence, enjoy it. Regardless of their interruptions and irritations, find a way to make sure they find their way to Jesus – even if it means inconvenience and annoyance for us. At all costs and whatever it takes, get them to Jesus. If Jesus calls children to himself, so must we.
“... and do not hinder them ...” Let nothing stand in their way. Open doors. Give them your lap. Don’t allow anything to prevent them from coming to Jesus – even Little League. Whatever you do, don’t take them out of church for any reason except illness. And even then, give them Jesus. While you wipe runny noses and cool fevered brows, tell them Jesus loves them – and you do too.
“... for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” And this takes us back to a previous text, and part we skipped. Recall Jesus’ teaching the disciples at the beginning of chapter 18. They were arguing over kingdom greatness. As I said then, they were likely arguing over which of them was the greatest, or the most important. Jesus called a child to stand in their midst, and told them that whoever would be great in the kingdom must be like a little child. In fact, if you even want to enter the kingdom, you must be like a child. Not childish, but child-like. Not immature, but fully trusting and taking the “Adult in the room” at His Word. He warned against causing children to stumble, to lose faith. There is plenty in this world that keeps children away from Jesus, but a special woe, or curse, is upon those who do that. We are not to be among those who keep children from Jesus or cause their fragile faith to crumble. The kingdom of heaven belongs to children and to those who come to Christ in simple, child-like faith.
We skipped over this, but Jesus then told a parable that particularly illustrates God’s concern for children. And it began with a warning that we not despise them. We are to love what God loves. If God loves children, so must we. If God is concerned about the faith of children, so should we be. If God protects children, so must we. Matthew 18:10 – “See that you do not despise one of these little ones.” Make sure. Guard your heart. See to it that you do not, do not, despise a child, that you are not responsible for their loss of faith, that you do not place a stumbling block in their path to salvation. Guard your heart against anger or disgust or revulsion toward any child – as hard as it may be. That unruly child in a restaurant, that screaming baby on the airplane, that crying baby in church, is a beloved child of God. “For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”
This is at least partly where we get the idea of guardian angels. Psalm 91:11, which Satan quoted to Jesus at the temptations, says, For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. But here, Jesus applies it specifically to children. The point Jesus makes, though, is not that the angels watch over the children, but that they are in the presence of God interceding for the children. There is an angel conversing with the heavenlyFather about your child. There is an angel taking the concerns of that child to the Father. There is an angel praying for your child. Shouldn’t you be also?
Why is this important? Because, Jesus says, they are like little lost lambs.
“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?”
I’ve heard all sorts of explanations and interpretations of this parable. I’ve heard criticism of the shepherd for leaving the 99 unattended while he looks for the lost one. I’ve heard all the talk about how this demonstrates God’s love for the sinner. I’ve never been satisfied with any of the sermons or explanations of the parable. Here’s why:
First, the wandering sheep was already part of the flock. This is not about Jesus leaving the church, or the pastor ignoring the faithful members to go evangelize the unbeliever. Notice the first line – if a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away. This wandering sheep was a part of the flock; it was not a stranger. It was not an outsider.
Second, the context is Jesus talking about the importance of children and those who cause them to stumble. Whenever we take a parable and separate it from it’s immediate context, we are almost certain to get it wrong. Whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble, or entices them to wander away from the flock. Their angels intercede with the Father for them. A sheep wanders away from it’s flock. All connected. All part of the same story. Even the next part, the part about dealing with sin in the church. How many times has sin in the church caused a child to turn his back on God! High school friends of Marsha are no longer Christian because of the sin of their youth pastor. They couldn’t connect the behavior and the preaching, the example with the words. The sin of the elder caused them to stumble and to wander away.
Third, the cultural context is this: shepherds were generally not alone with the flock. There was often a master shepherd with his children or hired men helping to watch the flock. The shepherd did not leave the 99 to face the wolves without protection. He left them in the care of his helpers while he went looking for the lost one. God never abandons the church to search for the wanderer.
What the parable is about is the importance of each child. Children who are not settled in their faith, who see inconsistencies in the lives of the adults, may wander away. They up and leave. But the Good Shepherd loves them. Each one is valuable. It’s important to note, also, that sheep were like money in the bank to the shepherds. That was the wealth of the family. Each one represented potential value, potential food on the table, value to trade for goods or services. Not so in Jesus’ parable. Each lamb has innate value of it’s own. It’s worth is not based on what goods or services it might be traded for. It is precious in it’s own right. Children are not commodities, but are valuable simply because they exist, and because they exist in the imago dei, the divine image.
This is why we oppose abortion. This is why we fight to protect children from pornography, from exploitation, from child slavery, and from the evil influences of a corrupt society. That child has innate value that cannot be calculated economically. “They are precious in his sight.”
And because they are precious, the Shepherd searches for the wanderer until he find it. Wounded or frightened, the Good Shepherd, carries the lost lamb close to his heart. Isaiah 40:11 - He tends his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. And he comes rejoicing for having found the wanderer, celebrating the rescue.
“In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.” As the shepherd guards the lambs, so the Father guards the children and gathers them in his arms. If we love what God loves, we will love children. And if we love children, we will bring them to Jesus. We will suffer the little children and place no hindrance in their way to Jesus.