You have to love this gospel text. Children are blessings. I know, I know, ……it may not always seem that way…but they are truly blessings.
Little children, so cute and adorable, so innocent and inquisitive…they are so dependent…so needy. Little children are so trusting. They are gifts from above.
Their tears and their cries can pierce your heart. Each and everyone of them is so precious and so unique.
If you want to pull at heart strings –show pictures of little children. Show pictures of starving children or malnourished children…or children laughing…
This is what we know – in the time of Jesus, as is pretty well known, children were not held in high regard.
People loved their male children who would one day be heir and pass on the family values. history and names…but female children not so much.
Yes, people loved their children, but that was dependent on their age and gender and whether or not they could work – it was clearly a “children-are-to-be-seen- and-not-heard-kind-of-culture.
All children belonged to the head of the household. Children were cared for by the women, and were considered to be second class (if not third or fourth class citizens.) Children and women were considered to be property. The family cow or oxen were much more important.
And as we also know, infant mortality in the first century was extremely high…perhaps being as high as 1/3 of all children being born. Another 1/3 of all children died during childhood.
Children were expendable. They could also be bought and sold.
When Jesus spoke about children or little ones…he was talking about some of the most vulnerable in society. Children were for the most part totally and completely insignificant. Children are among the most marginalized in most societies. Children are without voice. They have no vote.
As a matter of fact, children are a symbol of those who are not great. Children are the least of all in society. Children are at the bottom of the ladder.
So for Jesus to place a child in the midst of the disciples did not make much sense…at first.
Children are power-less.
Has anybody noticed that Jesus seems to be affirming the dignity of all people? And that he did so, over 2,000 years ago?
Women, children, prostitutes, lepers, the lame and the blind, foreigners, non-believers, Gentiles, tax collectors and other sinners…it was as if, Jesus was on a one man crusade to lift all people up!
He gave them a sense of dignity, a sense of importance. He empowered people before empowering people was cool.
Jesus did not promote himself, but he certainly advocated for and promoted others.
Jesus was the leader of a movement – primarily of poor people, that the religious and political leaders correctly saw as a threat to their power.
The disciples had been discussing their own personal reputations and their own individual prestige. They did not get it that it was all about serving others… They were glory seekers…seeking glory for themselves…
It is good to be the top dog, the leader of the pack, the king of the hill, the top banana, the head cheese – it is good to be number one! There is nothing wrong with strutting your stuff.
That’s when Jesus brought a young child Into their midst.
This is all about a radical reversal. This is about changing the paradigm. Jesus is using a shock technique here…and is shaming those who think they are so great and so powerful and so full of prestige.
Jesus went so far as to suggest – that receiving a child, one of the least significant people in that world, in doing so – people were also receiving him, yet not even him, but God the heavenly father.
Children are important.
To look upon a child is to look upon the face of the divine.
Look into “those eyes” and see the wonder and the innocence, see the unconditional love, and let your heart melt.
If you are a child, then you are the beloved of my God…and it is said many times in the scriptures…and the way into the kingdom of God…is becoming – just like you! Become like a child…believing and trusting to the end.
Children rock! Amen.