Mark 10:13

It is looked upon as the indication of a kind and tender disposition to take notice of little children, and this was remarkable in our Lord Jesus, which is an encouragement not only to little children to apply themselves to Christ when they are very young, but to grown people, who are conscious to themselves of weakness and childishness, and of being, through manifold infirmities, helpless and useless, like little children. Here we have,

I. Little children brought to Christ, Mar 10:13. Their parents, or whoever they were that had the nursing of them, brought them to him, that he should touch them, in token of his commanding and conferring a blessing on them. It doth not appear that they needed any bodily cure, nor were they capable of being taught: but it seems, 1. That they had the care of them were mostly concerned about their souls, their better part, which ought to be the principal care of all parents for their children; for that is the principal part, and it is well with them, it if be well with their souls. 2. They believed that Christ's blessing would do their souls good; and therefore to him they brought them, that he might touch them, knowing that he could reach their hearts, when nothing their parents could say to them, or do for them, would reach them. We may present our children to Christ, now that he is in heaven, for from thence he can reach them with his blessing, and therein we may act faith upon the fulness and extent of his grace, the kind intimations he hath always given of favour to the seed of the faithful, the tenour of the covenant with Abraham, and the promise to us and to our children, especially that great promise of pouring his Spirit upon our seed, and his blessing upon our offspring, Isa 44:3.

II. The discouragement which the disciples gave to the bringing of children to Christ; They rebuked them that brought them; as if they had been sure that they knew their Master's mind in this matter, whereas he had lately cautioned them not to despise the little ones.

III. The encouragement Christ gave to it. 1. He took it very ill that his disciples should keep them off; When he saw it, he was much displeased, Mar 10:14. "What do you mean? Will you hinder me from doing good, from doing good to the rising generation, to the lambs of the flock?" Christ is very angry with his own disciples, if they discountenance any in coming to him themselves, or in bringing their children to him. 2. He ordered that they should be brought to him, and nothing said or done to hinder them; suffer little children, as soon as they are capable, to come to me, to offer up their supplications to me, and to receive instructions from me. Little children are welcome betimes to the throne of grace with their Hosannas. 3. He owned them as members of his church, as they had been of the Jewish church. He came to set up the kingdom of God among men, and took this occasion to declare that that kingdom admitted little children to be the subjects of it, and gave them a title to the privileges of subjects. Nay, the kingdom of God is to be kept up by such: they must be taken in when they are little children, that they may be secured for hereafter, to bear up the name of Christ. 4. That there must be something of the temper and disposition of little children found in all that Christ will own and bless. We must receive the kingdom of God as little children (Mar 10:15); that is, we must stand affected to Christ and his grace as little children do to their parents, nurses, and teachers. We must be inquisitive, as children, must learn as children (that is the learning age), and in learning must believe, Oportet discentem credere - A learner must believe. The mind of a child is white paper (tabula rose - a mere blank), you may write upon it what you will; such must our minds be to the pen of the blessed Spirit. Children are under government; so must we be. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? We must receive the kingdom of God as the child Samuel did, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Little children depend upon their parents' wisdom and care, are carried in their arms, go where they send them, and take what they provide for them; and thus must we receive the kingdom of God, with a humble resignation of ourselves to Jesus Christ, and an easy dependence upon him, both for strength and righteousness, for tuition, provision, and a portion. 5. He received the children, and gave them what was desired (Mar 10:16); He took them up in his arms, in token of his affectionate concern for them; put his hands upon them, as was desired, and blessed them. She how he out-did the desires of these parents; they begged he would touch them, but he did more. (1.) He took them in his arms. Now the scripture was fulfilled (Isa 40:11), He shall gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom. Time was, when Christ himself was taken up in old Simeon's arms, Luk 2:28. And now he took up these children, not complaining of the burthen (as Moses did, when he was bid to carry Israel, that peevish child, in his bosom, as a nursing father bears the sucking child, Num 11:12), but pleased with it. If we in a right manner bring our children to Christ, he will take them up, not only in the arms of his power and providence, but in the arms of his pity and grace (as Eze 16:8); underneath them are the everlasting arms. (2.) He put his hands upon them, denoting the bestowing of his Spirit upon them (for that is the hand of the Lord), and his setting them apart for himself. (3.) He blessed them with the spiritual blessings he came to give. Our children are happy, if they have but the Mediator's blessing for their portion. It is true, we do not read that he baptized these children, baptism was not fully settled as the door of admission into the church until after Christ's resurrection; but he asserted their visible church-membership, and by another sign bestowed those blessings upon them, which are now appointed to be conveyed and conferred by baptism, the seal of the promise, which is to us and to our children.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

See the notes at Mat 19:13-15.

Mar 10:13

Should touch them - That is, should lay his hands on them, and pray for them, and bless them. Compare Mat 19:13. It was common to lay the hands on the head of a person for whom a blessing was asked. See the case of Jacob, Gen 48:14.

Mar 10:14

Saw it - Saw the conduct of his disciples.

Was much displeased - Because, first, it was a pleasure to Him to receive and bless little children; and, secondly, they were doing what they were not commanded to do - interfering in a case where it was evidently improper.

Mar 10:15

Whosoever shall not receive - Whosoever shall not manifest the spirit of a little child.

The kingdom, of God - The gospel. The new dispensation by the Messiah, “or the reign of God through a Mediator.” See the notes at Mat 3:2.

As a little child - With the temper and spirit of a child - teachable, mild, humble, and free from prejudice and obstinacy.

Shall not enter therein - Shall not be a Christian; shall not be a “real” member of the family of Christ on earth. though he may be a “professor,” and shall never enter heaven.

Mar 10:16

Took them up in his arms - These were small children.

Blessed them - Prayed for them, sought a blessing on them, or gave them the assurance of his favor as the Messiah. How happy would it be if all parents thus felt it to be their privilege to present their children to Christ! The question with a parent should be, not whether he ought to present them by prayer, but whether he “may” do it. And so, too, the question respecting infant baptism is not so much whether a parent ought to devote his children to God in this ordinance, as whether he may do it. It is an inestimable privilege to do it; it is not a matter of mere stern and iron-handed duty; and a parent with right feelings will come to God with his children “in every way,” and seek his blessing on them in the beginning of their journey of life. Our children are given to us but for a little time. They are in a world of danger, sin, and woe. They are exposed to temptation on every hand,

If God be not their friend, they “have” no friend that can aid them in the day of adversity, or keep them from the snares of the destroyer. If he is their friend they have nothing to fear. The “proper expression, then, of parental feeling,” is to come and offer them early to God. A parent should ask only the “privilege” of doing it. He should seek God’s favor as the best inheritance of his children; and if a parent may devote his offspring to God - if he may daily seek his blessing on them by prayer - it is all that he should ask. With proper feelings he will rush to the throne of grace, and daily seek the protection and guidance of God for his children amid the temptations and snares of an ungodly world, and implore Him to be their guide when the parent shall be laid in the silent grave. So children who have been devoted to God - who have been the daily objects of a father’s prayers and a mother’s - tears who have been again and again presented to Jesus in infancy and childhood - are under the most sacred obligations to live to God. They should never forget that a parent sought the favor of God as the chief blessing; and having been offered to “Jesus” by prayer and baptism in their first days on earth, they should make it their great aim to be prepared to meet “him” when he shall come in the clouds of heaven.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Mar_10:13-16

And they brought young children to Him.

Bringing children to Jesus

We know what it was to bring a little child to Jesus when He was on earth; we may ask what it is now, and wherein the difference consists.

I. In regard to the children themselves. It is a common expression on the lips of good people to bid children to come to Jesus. This cannot mean exactly the same as when Jesus was sitting in the house. The child saw Jesus with his bodily eye, might mark the kindly light in it, and be encouraged by the kindly smile that played around His lips. There could not be in the children on that day anything like what we now call a spiritual feeling, any doubts or difficulties as to what was meant by coming to Jesus. In more advanced years the notion of what is spiritual may be gradually developed in the mind, but in the tender time of childhood, religious ideas should be presented to children in forms that are true and natural to them. Let them feel that they are the children of the great unseen Father; that they have a Saviour and Friend; but beware how you mix up with that religious teaching a philosophy of human invention. Children are patterns of simplicity; do not reverse this picture.

II. What is the difference between bringing a child in Christs day to Jesus and bringing him now? What is the difference to the child himself, and what to the parents? At that time the parents saw whether the child was accepted; saw Christ bless the child; it was a matter of sight, not of faith. Now it is matter of faith. One would like to know the ground of the rebuke administered by the disciples. Perhaps the parents were interrupting the teaching of Christ, or the disciples thought that the placing of Christs hands on the children could do them no good. The objections of modern disciples are of the same nature. The action of Christ, as well as His words, is a rebuke to such. He does not say, Take these children hence, they can get no good from Me. Bring them to Me when they can express assent to My teaching. His words tell us that before the age of understanding God can do the child good. What is meant by receiving the kingdom of God as a little child? There are elements of a childs life which cannot be continued in the life of manhood; but there are outstanding characteristics of childhood which must be seen in those who receive the kingdom of God.

1. He refers to naturalness, truthfulness, or single-mindedness, as opposed to the spirit of artifice or duplicity. The childs nature comes out, unmindful of pain or pleasure to others, he speaks what is in him. His mind is a perfect mirror, throwing back all that falls on it, and he is utterly unconscious of any wish to give an undue colouring to his feelings or desires, he does not pretend to like what he hates; to believe what he does not believe; he is true to himself. Whosoever would receive the kingdom of God as a little child must be true to nature, the new nature, and be simple and sincere. How much more straightforward would the path be to the kingdom, and in the kingdom, if men would only renounce the crooked policy which they learn in the world.

2. The element of trust. (A. Watson, D. D.)

Children welcomed to Christ

I. The danger of sin standing in the way of children coming to Christ. Few persons ale aware of the extent to which children, even very young childrens minds, are capable of being affected, prejudiced, distorted, by the conversation which they hear. Children cannot balance and dismiss a subject as you do. It has fallen with fearful impression. But some cast obstacles less offensively, but perhaps more dangerously. They render religion repulsive to children. Where is that cheerfulness which a child loves, and in which real religion always consists? What ought to come as a pleasure you force as a duty: you are severe when you ought to be encouraging; abstract when you should be practical.

II. The duty of bringing children to Christ. Impressions made in childhood are sure to creep out in after life. Let them feel that at any point of life they have to do with Jesus. Your child has told a lie. Tell him, Jesus is Truth. This is leading him to Christ.

III. We ourselves must be like little children. Be quite a child, and you will soon be quite a saint. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The Saviours invitation to little children

Why does the Saviour show such tender affection for children?

1. Because they have a confiding trust in God.

2. Because they have a holy fear of God.

3. Because they have no false shame.

4. Because they have the spirit of humility.

5. Because they have the spirit of love. (J. H. Norton, D. D.)

The childs gospel

O mother, said a little girl, on returning from church, and running into her mothers sick room, I have heard the childs gospel today! It was the very part which I am now preaching about. Another, about seven years old, heard the same passage read when she was near death, and, as her sister closed the book, the little sick one said, How kind! I shall soon go to Jesus. He will take me up in His arms, and bless me, too! The sister tenderly kissed her, and asked, Do you love me, dearest? Yes, she answered, but, dont be angry, I love Jesus more. (J. H. Norton, D. D.)

Parental love

The poet Lamartine, in alluding to his father and mother, says, I remember once to have seen the branch of a willow, which had been torn by the tempests hands from the parent trunk, floating in the morning light upon the angry surges of the overflowing Saone. On it a female nightingale covered her nest, as it drifted down the foaming stream; and the male on the wing followed the wreck which was bearing away the object of his love. Beautiful illustration, indeed, of the tender affection of parents for their children. Much, however, as father and mother love their offspring, there is One whose feelings towards them are infinitely stronger and more enduring. I hardly need explain that I refer to our adorable Saviour. (J. H. Norton, D. D.)

The sin of keeping back children from Christ

I. It should be noted carefully that the parties who objected to the bringing little children to Christ were not Scribes and Pharisees, the unbelieving Jews who recognized nothing Divine in the mission of our Lord, but actually His disciples. They perhaps considered it entailing unnecessary fatigue on their Master, that He should have to receive the young as well as the old; or that no sufficient end was to be answered by bringing little children to Christ. They would have understood the use of bringing a lame child to Him, though too young to exercise faith; but they had no idea of a child in bodily health deriving any advantage from contact with Christ. The parents judged better than the disciples. Knowing that by Gods express command the rite of circumcision was administered to infants, they concluded, as we may suppose, that infancy of itself was no disqualification for a religious privilege, and that if there was anything spiritual in the mission of Christ, it might be communicated to the young as well as the old. If we delay religious instruction, under the idea that it is too difficult or too abstruse for a very young mind, are we not acting in much the same way as the disciples? In after life there is no greater impediment to religion than the want of proper habits of self-discipline and control. It may therefore be justly considered, that whatever tends to the forming such habits facilitates the coming to our Lord for His blessing. Then, what want of faith is there in the education of children. Parents are actually suspicious of the Bible, even when desirous of instilling its truths into their children. They run to good books to make the Bible easy and amusing, whose business it is to dilute and simplify the Word, ridding it of mysteries, and adapting it to juvenile understandings. But this is virtually withholding the children from Christ. Remember that for the most part what is mystery to a child is to a man. If I strive to make intelligible what ought to be left mysterious, I do but nourish in the child the notion of his being competent to understand all truth, and prepare him for being disgusted if he finds himself in riper years called upon to submit reason to faith. Do not let it seem to you a harsh accusation-consider it well, and you will have to confess it grounded upon truth-that whensoever there is dilatoriness in commencing the correction of tempers, which too plainly prove the corruption of nature, or the substitution of other modes of instruction for the Bible itself, or any indication, more or less direct, of a feeling that there must be something intermediate, that children are not yet ready for the being brought actually to the Saviour, we identify your case with that of our Lords disciples, who, when some sought for infants the benediction of Christ, rashly and wrongfully rebuked those that brought them.

II. But now let us mark more particularly our blessed Lords conduct, in regard to the children and those who would have kept them from Him. When he observed the endeavour of the disciples to prevent the children being brought, you read that He was much displeased. The original word marks great indignation. It is used on one or two other occasions in the New Testament, when very strong feelings were excited. For example, When the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna, to the Son of David, they were sore displeased: it is the same Greek word. Again: on the occasion of the womans pouring on Christs head an alabaster box of very precious ointment, when His disciples saw it, they had indignation-the same word-saying, To what purpose is this waste? These instances show you that the word denotes a very high degree of dissatisfaction, anger being more excited than sorrow, as though the thing done were specially offensive and criminal. It is never again used in connection with Christ; Christ is never again said to have been much or sorely displeased. On the occasion of having little children kept from Him, bat on no other occasion, did Christ show Himself sorely displeased. What an indication of His willingness to receive little children! What a declaration as to the duty of bringing to Him little children; and the sinfulness, in any measure or on any account, of withholding them from Him! And, perhaps, many children would go to Christ, if they were but suffered to go. Christ draws their young hearts; but how often are serious thoughts discouraged in children! How little advantage is taken of indications of youthful piety! Then, again, what inconsistencies they perceive in those around them! and who quicker than children in detecting inconsistencies? They are as sharp-sighted in their discernment of the faults of their superiors, as if they had been born critics, or bred up for censors. But inconsistencies will stop them, just when they might be determining on taking the first step towards Christ; and we do not suffer them to go, if by anything in our example we interfere with their going, putting some sort of hindrance-and it need not be a high one for young feet to stumble at. Yea, and we may actually forbid them. This is our Lords next expression; and it indicates more active opposition than when He only requires us to suffer. Evidently the worldly-minded parent or instructor forbids the children from coming to Christ, when he discountenances any religious tendency; when he manifests his fear of a young person becoming too serious, too fond of reading the Bible, too disposed to avoid gay amusements, and cultivate the society of such as care for the soul. This is the more open sort of forbidding. Not but what there is a yet more open: when children or young persons are actually prevented from what they are inclined to do in the matter of religion, and forced into scenes and associations which they feel to be wrong. It is not thus, however, that disciples-any who may be parallel with those to whom our Lord addressed His remonstrance-are likely to prevent little children. But are there no other ways of forbidding? Indeed, a young mind is very easily discouraged; more especially in such a thing as religion, towards which it needs every possible help, and from which it may be said to have a natural swerving. A look will be enough; the slightest hint; nay, even silence will have the force of a prohibition. There may be needed a stern command to withhold from an indulgence, but a mere glance of the eye may withhold from a duty. Not to encourage, may be virtually to forbid. The child soon catches this; he soon detects the superior anxiety which the parent exhibits for his progress in what is called learning, the comparative coldness as to his progress in piety. He quickly becomes aware of the eye being lit up with greater pleasure at an indication of talent, than at a sign of devotion. And thus the child is practically forbidden to come to Christ. He is practically told that there is something preferable to his coming to Christ. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Of such is the kingdom of God

Perhaps God does with His heavenly garden as we do with our own. He may chiefly stock it from nurseries, and select for transplanting what is yet in its young and tender age-flowers before they have bloomed, the trees ere they begin to bear. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The conversion of little children

1. Because they are not too young to do wrong.

2. Because the regeneration of children or adults is the work of the Holy Spirit.

3. Because piety is a matter of the heart, rather than of the intellect.

4. Special examples found in Gods Word.

5. It is a pleasing confirmation of our faith in very early piety to observe the many instances within our own observation of the conversion of young children, and of their teachable spirit with reference to religion. (S. S. Portwin.)

The love of Christ to children

I. It is very old.

II. It is all-embracing.

III. It is all-sufficing. (Anon.)

Teachers warned against impeding childrens salvation

The impediments which teachers throw in the way of children coming to Jesus.

I. Inadequate piety.

II. Incompetent knowledge of the gospel.

1. Your knowledge must spring from faith.

2. It must be derived from scripture.

III. Injudicious modes of instruction.

1. Loading the memory with scripture without explanation.

2. Lengthened addresses in which children take no part.

IV. An improper spirit.

1. Impatience.

2. Pride.

3. Selfishness.

V. Inconsistent conduct.

1. Want of punctuality.

2. Gossiping. (J. Sherman.)

Jesus and children

1. The text teaches that Jesus is attractive to children.

2. That Christ takes a deep interest in children.

3. Jesus prays for children.

4. Jesus wishes children to be happy, and they could not be that without pardon.

5. There are a great many children in heaven. (Dr. McAuslane.)

Jesus and children

There was one thing about Jesus which no one could fall to notice-His great popularity with children. A certain fulness of humanity always seems to attract children. In Jesus this constituted an irresistible attraction. They ran after Him-they clung to Him-they shouted for Him. His must have been a joyous presence. Different from your sour-faced Puritan (who has his merits notwithstanding): your dried-up theologian (who is needful, too, in season): your emaciated ascetic (whose protest against sensuality is sometimes necessary and even noble). I think this power of attracting and interesting the little ones is one of the hallmarks of good men. The childrens unspoiled natures seem to cling to unspoiled souls-as like cleaves to like. They brought young children to Christ. Ah! there was no need of that, for they came to Him of their own accord-nor did He ever repulse them. How shall we bring the children to Christ-how shall we win them to love and follow Him? The best way of bringing our children to Christ is by being Christ-like ourselves. Let them see in us nothing but His kindness, wisdom, strength, tenderness, and sympathy, and they will learn to love their religion, and grow close to Jesus, as in the days when He took them up in His arms, laid His hands upon them, and blessed them. (H. R. Haweis, M. A.)

Christs sympathy for childhood

Jesus was the first great teacher of men who showed a genuine sympathy for childhood-perhaps the only teacher of antiquity who cared for childhood as such. Plato treats of children and their games, but he treats them from the standpoint of a publicist. They are elements not to be left out in constructing society. Children, in Platos eyes, are not to be neglected, because children will inevitably come to be men and women. But Jesus was the first who loved childhood for its own sake. In the earlier stages of civilization it is the main endeavour of men to get away from childhood. It represents immaturity of body and mind, ignorance and folly. The ancients esteemed it their first duty to put away childish things. It was Jesus who, seeking to bring about a new and higher development of character, perceived that there were elements in childhood to be preserved in the highest manhood; that a man must, indeed, set back again towards the innocence and simplicity of childhood if he would be truly a man. Until Jesus Christ, the world had no place for childhood in its thoughts. When He said, Of such is the kingdom of God, it was a revelation. (Eggleston.)

Bring the children to the Saviour

In a Chinese Christian family at Amoy, a little boy, the youngest of the three children, on asking his father to allow him to be baptized, was told that he was too young; that he might return to heathenism, if he made a profession of religion when he was only a little boy. To this he made the following touching reply:-Jesus has promised to carry the lambs in His arms. I am only a little boy; it will be easier for Jesus to carry me. This was too much for the father; he took him with him, and the dear child was ere long baptized. The whole family, of which this child is the youngest member, belong now to the mission church at Amoy.

The Saviours love for children reciprocated

A little girl, between six and seven years of age, when on her death bed, seeing her eldest sister with a Bible in her hand, asked her to read this passage respecting Christs blessing little children. The passage having been read, and the book closed, the child said, How kind! I shall soon go to Jesus; He will soon take me up in His arms, bless me, too; no disciple shall keep me away. Her sister kissed her, and said, Do you love me? Yes, dear, she replied, but you mustnt mind that I love Jesus better.

Care in training children

What if God should place in your hand a diamond, and tell you to inscribe on it a sentence which should be read at the last day, and shown there as an index of your thoughts and feelings! What care, what caution, would you exercise in the selection! Now this is what God has done. He has placed before you immortal minds, more imperishable than the diamond, on which you are about to inscribe every day and every hoar, by your instructions, by your spirit, or by your example, something which will remain and be exhibited for or against you at the judgment day. (Dr. Payson.)

Children need to be brought to Christ

The apostles rebuke of the children arose in a measure from ignorance of the childrens need. If any mother in that throng had said, I must bring my child to the Master, for he is sore afflicted with a devil, neither Peter, nor James, nor John would have demurred for a moment, but would have assisted in bringing the possessed child to the Saviour. Or suppose another mother had said, My child has a pining sickness upon it, it is wasted to skin and bone; permit me to bring my darling, that Jesus may lay His hands upon her, the disciples would all have said, Make way for this woman and her sorrowful burden. But these little ones with bright eyes, and prattling tongues, and leaping limbs, why should they come to Jesus? Ah, friends I they forgot that in those children, with all their joy, their health, and their apparent innocence, there was a great and grievous need for the blessing of a Saviours grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The sin of keeping children from coming to Christ

It must be a very great sin indeed to hinder anybody from coming to Christ. He is the only way of salvation from the wrath of God, salvation from the terrible judgment that is due to sin-who would dare to keep the punishing from that way? To alter the sign posts on the way to the city of refuge, or to dig a trench across the road, would have been an inhuman act, deserving the sternest condemnation. He who holds back a soul from Jesus is the servant of Satan, and is doing the most diabolical of all the devils work. We are all agreed about this. I wonder whether any of us are quite innocent in this respect. May we not have hindered others from repentance and faith? It is a sad suspicion; but I am afraid that many of us have done so. Certainly you who have never believed in Jesus yourselves have done sadly much to prevent others believing. The force of example, whether for good or bad, is very powerful, and especially is it so with parents upon their children, superiors upon their underlings, and teachers upon their pupils. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Children the pastors chief care

Dr. Tyng, senior, of New York, said that in all his ministry he had never hesitated, when the choice must be made between one child and two adults, to take the child. It seems to me, he says, that the devil would never ask anything mare of a minister than to have him look upon his mission as chiefly to the grown-up members of his congregation, while somebody else was to look after the children. I can see the devil standing at the door, and saying to the minister, Now you just fire away at the old folks; and Ill stand here, and steal away the little ones as the Indians catch ducks, swimming under them, catching them by the legs, and pulling them under.

Children to be brought into the Church at earliest age

Now let us see how this theory works. I cannot show its evil effects better than by taking an illustration from the first book I ever read-AEsops Fables. It is long since I saw the book, but its pages are vividly impressed on my memory, especially the pictures, and here is one of them, a fisherman is sitting on the bank of a stream. He has thrown in his bait, and brought out a very little fish. He has the fish in his hand, and is just about to put it into his basket, when the fish begins to talk. He is sitting up in the mans hand, and addressing himself to the fisherman, speaks on this wise: You see I am a very little fish. It is not worth your while to put me into the basket. Throw me back into the stream, and I shall become a bigger fish, and much better worth catching. But the fisherman says: No; if I throw you into the stream, it is most likely that I shall never see you again. I will keep you whilst I have got you. And so he puts the fish into the basket. The wrong theory is the theory of the fish, the right one that of the fisherman. Now I ask you to consider this. In the present day we have vast multitudes of children under Christian teaching and influence. A careful estimate gives the present number of scholars in the Sunday schools of England and Wales as over 4,000,000; and there are very many children well taught in Christian homes who are not in the Sunday schools. There is also provision made in our elementary day schools for over 4,000,000 scholars. Now these children are, so to speak, yet in the basket of the Church, and we should use our utmost efforts to prevent them from ever getting out of it. According to the great Teacher the little ones belong to the kingdom of God in their earliest days. Why should they ever leave it? But, alas! instead of acting in accordance with the true theory, we too often act as if the wrong theory were true. We are not so anxious as we ought to be to bring our children at the earliest possible moment into the enjoyment of peace with God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not so careful as we ought to be to provide that before a child leaves school and his parents home he shall be fortified against the temptations of life by established faith in Christ.

n the salvation of all dying before the age of accountability

I. The conduct of the parents was very natural and commendable. They brought young children to Jesus, etc. Just as Joseph brought his sons to Jacob, that he might lay his hands upon them and bless them. His blessing would be sure to make rich in one way or another. These parents did not send their children to Jesus, but brought them; example better than precept. Let us not stop short of the Saviour. Morality good: but they must be born again.

II. The spirit and demeanour of the disciples were very repulsive-They rebuked those that brought them. What if the parents had judged of the Master by the spirit of His servants? There is love in His heart infinitely transcending all that exists in the hearts of His most devoted people.

III. The conduct of Jesus Christ was a perfect contrast to that of His disciples. He was much displeased. Christ may be angry with His own people, even when they think they are doing Him service. It is not enough to mean well. Is it any wonder that Christ should feel an interest in little children when He voluntarily became a little child Himself? Of such-in years-is the kingdom of heaven. All infants go to heaven. The lost will go away into everlasting punishment, but an infant cannot be punished, for that would imply personal criminality and conscious guilt: but an infant can neither do good nor evil. But may they not be annihilated? This passage kindles light in their little sepulchre and says, Of such is the kingdom of heaven. They live unto God. The only difference between the salvation of an infant and others, is this-the infant is saved without faith, by the direct agency of the Holy Spirit, in consequence of the finished work of Christ; others are saved by believing the gospel, and being sanctified through the truth. See the condescension of Christ. We cannot bless them as He did; we can plead for the Divine blessing upon them. (R Bayne.)

The salvation of infants

Infants are all saved.

1. Our remarks apply exclusively to children who are not yet arrived at years of accountability; that is, who are not yet capable of employing the appointed means of salvation.

2. It is not said that the children of believers and of unbelievers are in all respects in the same case; on the contrary the relative holiness of the children of believers is an important blessing; their circumstances are more favourable to the formation of a religious character; their means of salvation are more direct. But the child of a believer has no other claim on the mercy of God than that may be put in by any infant.

I. State the argument in favour of infant salvation. Considerations which may suggest this hope.

1. They are not accountable. They are incapable of moral obligation, hence are not condemned: free from personal guilt. Does it comport with the Divine Justice or mercy, to suppose that such are not saved whose only guilt is their unavoidable connection with a broken covenant? The benevolence of the Divine character suggests the hope of their salvation; and embraces infants in the redeeming purpose. The rectitude of the Divine government suggests their salvation; they cannot be healed according to their deeds who have neither done good nor evil. There are many general expressions of Divine favour towards infants; God contemplates their advantage in the blessings He confers on mankind (Psa_78:5-6; Deu_12:28; Jer_19:3; Jer_19:9). He spared Nineveh for their sake (Jon_4:11).

2. There are gracious declarations of the Word of God which imply this truth (Mat_18:1; Mat_18:14). That infants are capable of receiving the principle of faith is plain; Jeremiah and John Baptist have been sanctified from the womb. The Jewish children were accounted worshippers of the true God, even from their infancy (Deu_29:10; Deu_29:13; Deu_5:3; 2Ch_20:13; Joe_2:15-16). And so under the Christian dispensation children are viewed as believers, because visibly connected with the dispensation, and continue to be so accounted till they renounce it as their religion. Christ would not recognize as subjects of His kingdom here, those whom He did not regard as heirs of His kingdom hereafter. Of such is the kingdom of God. Rom_5:12; Rom_5:19 appears to involve this truth. It places in contrast the dispensations under which God has governed man; one at creation, the other at redemption. The curse of the broken covenant included the children; the saving benefit provided by Christ extends to them. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive again.

3. There are some recorded instances of faith in this truth, which support the conclusion (2Sa_12:22-23; 2Ki_4:1-44).

II. Examine some of the difficulties which appear to lie in the way of adopting this conclusion.

1. The imputation of Adams sin. The doctrine of infant salvation does not deny this, but declares that the grace of God frees from the curse, and bestows the capacity for celestial happiness, through the mediation of Christ.

2. The temporal sufferings and death of infants. Because they suffer some of the effects of the curse it by no means follows that they suffer all. Actual believers suffer in this world.

3. The destruction of the children of the ungodly along with their parents. The case of Korah.

4. The declared necessity of faith in order to salvation. A new heart is the qualification for heaven, and may as easily be given to an infant as to an adult.

5. The early indications of sinfulness in infants. It is not easy to determine how far these are the result of animal propensities or deliberate choice. It is not said that infants are free from tendency to evil, or even apparent acts of sin; but are saved through Christ whose sacrifice puts away sin.

6. The silence of scripture.

III. The practical influence of this truth.

1. Let it be viewed generally in its aspect on the moral government of God.

(1) It relieves the difficulty connected with the permission of sin.

(2) It reflects the glory of Divine grace.

(3) It illustrates the declared importance of the mediation of Christ.

2. Let this truth be viewed in its aspect on the religious education of children. No excuse for the neglect of it.

3. Let this doctrine he viewed in its aspect on the seriousness of bereaved parents. (J. Jefferson.)

The death of babes

The whole case of the death of babes seems at the first thought to be indeed a marvel; yet what is there in life which is not a marvel? How few things there are which we can regard in any other light than that of unintelligent, though not unreasonable, wonder. Still, few things seem more marvellous in the rough aspect than that a little child should be allowed to suffer pain and die. Here is a little bud, a tender nursling of the spring, in the fairest way for flower, fragrance, and fruit, nipped by that bitter envious frost before a single leaf unfolds itself. Here is a little barque, freighted with costly wares for the markets of earth and heaven, bound for eternity, launched into life and wrecked at the very harbour mouth. A work nobly simple, yet beautifully complex, with Gods fresh breath of life inspiring its every look, and the power of the sweetest nature swaying its every movement; lo! it drops from His hand, as it might seem, in the very act of His holding it up to show its beauty to the world. It falls to pieces in an hour. The high art of its creation is negatived in a moment; its lovely mechanism siles off into dust; all its myriad contrivances for life-no one of which any man since the world began can imitate with the slightest effect, no, nor even rightly understand-in a few days are crumbled into mould, and as if they never had been at all. In fine, a work designed for duties of seventy or eighty, or perhaps a hundred years, capable of beautiful deeds, and of filling happy places in the house, the neighbourhood, the State, and all along in the family of the Church, is destroyed, as it might seem, by some slight accident, before any one of those duties has been met; and, to outward view, annihilated as though it had never been meant for anything whatsoever in the world. (W. B. Philpot, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 10:13-16. They brought little children to him — See the note on Mat 19:13-15. Jesus was much displeased — At their blaming those who were not blameworthy, and endeavouring to hinder the children from receiving a blessing. And said, Suffer little children to come unto me — Now, and at other convenient times, for I am pleased, rather than offended, to see them brought to me: for of such is the kingdom of God — The members of the kingdom which I am come to set up in the world are such as these, as well as grown persons of a child-like temper. Verily, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child — Divesting himself of those prejudices and those secular views which men contract in their riper years, that he may come, as it were, to the humility and meekness, the simplicity and teachableness, of a little child, (see Psa 131:2.) He shall not enter therein — He shall not be a member of my kingdom, be his genius ever so sublime, or his circumstances in life ever so considerable. And he took them up in his arms, &c. — He tenderly embraced them with complacency and love, and as a further token of the overflowing kindness of his heart toward them; he put his hands upon them, and blessed them — Recommending them in a solemn manner to the blessing and favour of his heavenly Father; which no doubt descended upon them, and attended them in their future life. “Let ministers view this compassionate Shepherd of Israel, thus gathering the lambs in his arms with all the tokens of tender affection; and let the sight teach them a becoming regard for the lambs of their flock, who should early be taken notice of and instructed; and for and with whom they should frequently pray, remembering how often divine grace takes possession of the heart in the years of infancy, and sanctifies the children of God almost from the womb. Let every first impression, made upon their tender minds, be cherished; and let not those whom Christ himself is ready to receive, be disregarded by his servants, who upon all occasions should be gentle unto all, and apt to teach. Let parents view this sight with pleasure and thankfulness; let it encourage them to bring their children to Christ by faith, and to commit them to him in baptism and by prayer. And if he who has the keys of death and the unseen world, see fit to remove these dear creatures from us in their early days, let the remembrance of this story comfort us; and teach us to hope, that he who so graciously received these children, has not forgotten ours; but that they are sweetly fallen asleep in him, and will be the everlasting objects of his care and love; for of such is the kingdom of God. And let us all commit ourselves to him; and let us be disposed to become as little children, if we desire to enter into his kingdom. Let us not govern ourselves by the vain maxims of a corrupt and degenerate age. Let not pride, ambition, lust, or avarice possess, torment, and enslave our minds; but, with the amiable simplicity of children, let us put ourselves into the wise and kind hands of Jesus, as our guardian, and refer ourselves to his pastoral and parental care; to be clothed and fed, to be guided and disposed of, as he shall see fit. For this purpose, O God, may we be born again by thy Spirit, and formed anew by thy grace! Since by this method alone we can be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, and be so the children of God as to be at length the children of the resurrection.” — Doddridge.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

§ 104. — THE BLESSING OF YOUNG CHILDREN, Mar_10:13-16.

(See notes on Mat_19:13-15, and Luk_18:15.)

13. Touch them — In accordance, with the Old Testament custom.

Gen_47:14. He should lay his right hand on them and pray the divine benediction upon them.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mar_10:13-16

(PARALLELS: Mat_19:13-15; Luk_18:15-17.)

Children welcomed to Christ.—Infant baptism was assuredly in the mind, in the will, and in the intention of Christ at that moment. In fact, was it not baptism, only without the water? Where He stood visibly in all His grace and power, the emblem and the instrument were not needed. We now want the help and assurance of the external symbol. But if some say, “Is not the base too small for the superstructure? The record is so very simple here, and we only read of it but once,” I answer, Every incident in Christ’s life was intended to be a germ of great thought, of deep principle, and of extensive duty. And if it were only once that Jesus blessed the little children, as often as the children were brought to Him so often He blessed them.

I. The danger and sin of standing in the way of children coming to Christ.—

1. I do not speak now of those who, upon a principle in their own minds, do not bring infants to holy baptism: they are acting conscientiously; and doubtless their sin of ignorance is pardoned, and their children may not be suffered by a loving Father to miss the grace which He had willed to give them.

2. There are persons who, believing the baptism of infants to be according to the mind of God, nevertheless, from idolence or thoughtlessness, neglect that holy rite.

3. Perhaps few persons are aware of the extent to which children, even very young children’s minds, are capable of being affected, prejudiced, distorted, injured, by the conversation which they hear. You talk before a child lightly and falsely upon religious and moral subjects. You mean no harm. You do not remember a little child is present; and you do not recollect how that little child is listening to and drinking in all you say. But that child cannot balance or direct or dismiss a subject as you do. It has fallen with a fearful impression. It has left a stamp and an irreverence perhaps, a doubt perhaps, a wicked imagination perhaps, which will never, never be obliterated!

4. Some cast obstacles loss offensively, but perhaps more dangerously. Whoever considers the subject must become aware how exceedingly uninviting, nay, how repulsive, religion is generally made to children. Where is that cheerfulness and that gladsomeness which a child loves, and in which real religion always consists?

II. The duty of bringing children to Christ.—If you wish a child to be really religious, you must begin with the distinctive features of Christianity, and imbue it with the gospel. I will illustrate my meaning by three examples. You desire to lay in your child’s mind the foundation of right conduct, and of a good, upright life. Tell him at once about Jesus. Tell him, “Jesus died for you, and therefore, though you are a very sinful child, God has forgiven you, and God loves you. For Jesus Christ’s sake, you are His own dear child.” Or take another instance. Your child has told a lie. What shall you do to him? Tell him, “Jesus is truth. Try to be true, that you may be like Jesus. Heaven is all truth, because heaven is all like Jesus. Go, and never be unlike Jesus again.” Or your child has fallen into any sin. Do not be afraid to say to that child at once Jesus died to wash away that sin. Go and ask Him to do it. And He will do it. He will do it instantly. He will do it perfectly, if you ask Him.

III. We ourselves must be like little children.—If it were only that we might influence children, we should cultivate a childlike spirit; for none can do good, especially to the young, but those who are very simple in their thoughts and very lowly in their ways. But in what are we to become like a little child?

1. When those little children lay in Jesus’ arms, His act came before any of their acts. It was anticipatory of what was to follow. They received what He gave them as a free gift of His. They could have no sense whatever that they deserved it. But freely as He bestowed the grace, so freely the little children took it. This is just the way to get to the kingdom.

2. A very little child never doubts where it has learned to love. It believes everything, and questions nothing. The credulity of the child is the faith of the Christian. My Saviour, my Lord, has said it. I will believe it, and ask no questions.

3. A very little child is necessarily led. It knows it cannot go alone. And we must be content all of us to be borne and carried every step. Those who get to heaven do not march in, they do not walk there: they are carried there.—J. Vaughan, M.A.

OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Mar_10:13-16. The Son of Man among the children of men.—

1. As the heavenly new and fresh related to the earthly new and fresh.

2. As the humble One to the artless.

3. As the Prince of faith to the confiding.

4. As the great Warrior to the strivers.

5. As the great Hope to the hoping.

6. As the Blessed with the happy.—J. P. Lange, D.D.

Children are specially susceptible of spiritual influences.—In their case there is still—

1. Confidence instead of scepticism.

2. Self-surrender instead of distrust.

3. Truth instead of hypocrisy.

4. Modesty and humility instead of pride.—Lisco.

Mar_10:13-14. Infant baptism.—We have been accustomed to allege these words in behalf of the Catholic practice of infant baptism; and rightly, for they have been always so understood by the Church,—and the voice of the Church Universal is that of the Lord. “Baptise also your infants,” says an ancient writing, speaking the sense of the Greek Church, “and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of God. For He saith, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not.’ ” And in the Latin Church of old times (as in our own), in the Baptismal Service for Infants, they read this history out of one of the three Gospels, as their Lord’s sanction of their act of charity.—E. B. Pusey, D.D.

Mar_10:14. The kingdom of heaven, or sovereignty of the Messiah, is constituted of such as the children presented to Christ. He does not say, observe, that this kingdom consists of children, but of such as children. It is therefore some similarity to that class of persons which indicates membership of the community of the faithful. In what, then, does that similarity lie? It cannot refer to age, for it is not true that infants alone are members of the Church; nor can it refer specially to the physical or external characteristics of childhood; but it refers to the following peculiarities.

1. The only prominent circumstance about an infant’s history is its birth. Nothing else has happened to it. No other event relating to it deserves notice. The grand, the sole feature to be noted is, that it was born. Of suchlike persons is the kingdom of God. What designates and marks out the subjects of this kingdom is a new birth, a regeneration. A new heart, a new spirit, a new nature, a new man—such are the expressions employed to represent their character.

2. Infants are helpless; and of suchlike persons is the kingdom of heaven, because all who enter therein must feel their inability to do anything of themselves. Their sufficiency must be of God. They must, “as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that they may grow thereby.”

3. Infants are humble, unconscious of all pride and self-righteousness; and of suchlike persons is the kingdom of heaven, because the followers of Jesus must, like their Master, be humble and lowly of heart.

4. Infants are teachable, gentle, and easy to be entreated; and of suchlike persons is the kingdom of heaven, because all its subjects are brought to submit every high thought and lofty imagination to the obedience of Christ.

5. Infants are without moral obligation, and therefore untainted by the guilt of actual sin, unworldly and uncarnal; and of such is the kingdom of heaven, inasmuch as those who enter therein have been crucified to all sinful lusts—have put off the old man, which is corrupt—been renewed in the spirit of their minds—and put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness.

6. Infants are void of offence towards man; and of suchlike is the kingdom of heaven, because those who enter therein are “in malice children,” and have “laid aside guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil-speakings,” striving to be harmless as little children.—A. Nisbet.

Mar_10:15. To receive the kingdom as a little child implies that we receive it—

1. Humbly, as the provision of Sovereignty.

2. Trustfully, as the device of Fatherly Wisdom

3. Gratefully, as the gift of Saving Love.—J. E. Henry.

Christian childhood consists in having no more pride, impurity, resentment, craft, ambition, covetousness, and knowledge of evil than children. It is this which renders us conformable, gives us admission, and unites us to Jesus Christ in His kingdom. What is here said is not by way of counsel, but it shews the absolute necessity of being such, at least in some degree, in order to be saved.—P. Quesnel.

Mar_10:16. Christ blessing infants.—What parent of us would not wish, if he might, that our Saviour should lay His hand upon his child and bless it? And if His visible touch was such a source of comfort and of hope, how not and much more when He, the risen, the ascended Saviour, who from the right hand of God sheds forth His gifts abundantly upon His Church, not lays only His hands upon them, but makes them members of Himself, “members of His body, of His flesh, of His bones,” members of “His Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him which filleth all in all.” We know still less of the ineffable greatness of that we seek for than did these poor parents who sought for His bodily touch and His prayers; and the wish of those who seek for baptism for the bodily health of their children is not so far below their belief whose belief is most enlightened, as is theirs below the inexpressible reality; and so, for the comfort of us all, our Saviour herein shewed that He regarded not our merits, but His mercies—not our ignorance, but His own omniscience—not our faint wish for a blessing we know not what, but our trust in Him, our wish to have a blessing from Him, the inexhaustible Fountain of all blessedness; and grants not according to the poverty of our desires, but according to the overflowing riches of His goodness, takes our infants even now invisibly up in His everlasting arms, and returns them to us—blessed.—E. B. Pusey, D.D.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 10

Mar_10:14. Brought to Christ in childhood.—Many of the ablest and noblest of Christian teachers were brought to the Saviour in childhood. The martyr Polycarp was only nine years old when he gave himself to Christ. Matthew Henry and Isaac Watts were no older. Archbishop Fénélon was a mere child when his heart awoke to the love of God; William Channing could not remember the time when he first turned to Christ; Robert Hall was a sincere Christian when eleven years old, and became a student for the ministry when but fourteen. Baxter was only a child when he sought the Saviour; Jonathan Edwards sat at the feet of Jesus, Coleridge Patteson was devout and prayerful, Fletcher of Madeley “began to feel the love of God shed abroad in his heart”—each at seven years of age. Frederick W. Robertson became a decided and courageous soldier of Christ in boyhood; Thomas J. Comber, the heroic pioneer of the Congo, gave his heart to Jesus and devoted himself to mission work ere he was thirteen; and John Foster was not fourteen when he found peace with God in Christ Jesus our Lord. It would be easy to enlarge the list; but surely enough has been said to encourage us to lead the children to immediate decision for Christ. Let us seek to enrol them now. Let us encourage them to come, with their toys in their hands, to be blessed by Christ. The kingdom of heaven, which is open to publicans and sinners, is not closed to the little ones He loves.

Mar_10:15. Total renunciation.—A high-caste Brahmin came to receive holy baptism. He approached the font wearing the sacred thread which, among his Hindoo coreligionists, was the badge of his belonging to the “twice born,” and entitled him to little short of religious worship from those of a lower caste. But at the moment when he answered, “I renounce them all,” he stripped off the sign of idolatrous pre-eminence and trampled it under his feet.

Mar_10:16. Blessed by the good.—Says Dr. Samuel Cox: “When I was a boy, I was taken into my father’s library to be ‘blessed’ by those two great missionaries John Williams and William Knibb; and to this moment I remember how proud and happy it made me to have their hands laid on my head, and to hear the kind words they said. It made me feel very ‘good,’ at least for a little while; and I think that somehow, though I don’t at all know how that should be, I am the better for it to this day.”

“He loved little children.”—An earnest and successful minister of the gospel who died a few years ago was possessed of a beautiful ambition. Expressed in words at fitting times, it had also constant expression in his life. This is what he often said: “I should like my epitaph to be, ‘He loved little children, and tried to do them good.’ ” This single sentence sheds a flood of light on the character of the man who uttered it. Our loves determine what we are. Little children belong to the heavenly kingdom, and are therefore in the Lord’s love. A real love for little children, then, denotes a love for heavenly things. A real love is not simply a fondness for bright, pretty ways and winning graces, but a love that takes in childhood as a whole, that can bear patiently with perversity and naughtiness, that forgets self in love for the child and in desire to bring it to the best and highest place possible. A real love for children leads to just such an ambition as possessed this servant of the Lord, “who tried to do them good.”

Care for children.—A lady missionary in the East tells that one day a woman came to her with a baby, whom she had found in a ditch. The poor child had been cast out by its own father—as thousands of others in heathen countries have been—because it was “only a girl.” In begging the lady to take charge of the very unattractive object that was presented to her (it was naked and covered with mud), the woman said, “Please do take this little thing; your God is the only God that teaches to be good to little children.”

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

SECOND SECTION

THE RABBINICAL (BAPTIST) HOUSEHOLD DISCIPLINE OF THE DISCIPLES; AND THE THEOCRATIC AND NEW TESTAMENT HOUSEHOLD DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD

Mar_10:13-16

(Parallels: Mat_19:13-15; Luk_18:15-17.)

13     And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them; and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. 14But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and6 forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. 15Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. 16And he took them up in his arms, and put his hands upon them, and blessed7 them.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

See on the parallels of Matthew and Luke.

Mar_10:13. That He should touch them.—The modest form of request, as in Luke; not necessarily the expression of a superstitious notion of magical influence resulting from it. Matthew tells us that imposition of hands was what was meant.

Mar_10:14. He was displeased.—This feature is peculiar to Mark. Displeasure against displeasure: the displeasure of the Master against the displeasure of the disciples; or, indeed, the displeasure of the Church, which believes in the blessing of children in Abraham and in Christ, against Separatism.

Mar_10:15. Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God.—The same rebuking sentence in Luke: comp. Mat_18:3. A man must first have received the kingdom of God into his heart if he would gain admission into the kingdom of God. See Mat_5:3; Mat_5:10; Joh_3:3.—The kingdom of God, which a man may receive, is Christ as the personal kingdom of God, with His salvation in His word (hence Theophylact is right, in a certain qualified sense, when he explains it of the preaching of the Gospel); the kingdom of God, into which a man is received, is the heavenly society and Church of Christ’s kingdom. The kingdom, as a principle in the heart, is unfolded and developed into the fellowship of the kingdom of Christ’s manifestation.—As a little child.—In that spiritual condition which the child, in unconscious symbolism, represents by its disposition. And yet the Lord welcomes the little children not as mere figures of the poor in spirit and of simple believers. The symbol is inseparably connected with the reality: the child and the believer are one. In the childlikeness there is present the typical precondition of faith; that is, a germ of susceptibility which the word of God will fructify.

Mar_10:16. He took them up in his arms.—Abundant answer to the prayers of pious mothers. He was expected only to touch them; He took them up in His arms, laid His hands upon them, and blessed them. Moreover, He made them a type to the disciples and adults.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See on the parallel passages of Matthew and Luke, as also the previous notes.

2. The blessings which Christ has brought into the world of little children. Jesus Himself is the proper Protector (patron and saint) of children: not the archangel Michael, not St. Nicolas, not St. Martin; although, as under the Lord, all angels and saints are appointed to love, guard, and minister to children.—We read twice of our Lord’s taking to His arms or embracing: in both instances children were the objects.

3. The disciples, infected with the rabbinical zeal for inquiry concerning the laws of marriage, would not have the Lord interrupted by their coming. Jesus, on the other hand, regards the children themselves as the final word concerning the question of marriage.

4. We have no definite account of any ordination of the Apostles by the laying on of Christ’s hands; but we do read of a laying on of hands upon children, and consequently of their ordination to the kingdom of heaven.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See on Matthew.—How pious women here understood the Lord better than His apostolical disciples did; and why? 1. The fact. Similar examples: Mary in Bethany; the believing announcers of the Risen Lord. 2. Why? Because themselves nearer to children, and better acquainted with childhood and the childlike nature.—The disciples on the byeway of rabbinical ostentation called back by the Lord to true simplicity.—The sign of rising pedantry: offence at sound life in its most innocent and beautiful forms and expressions.—How often the high school in its pride has oppressed the true schools of life; especially, 1. the school of children, and 2. the school of childlikeness, or of simple faith.—What it signifies, that the Lord demanded childlikeness almost as often as repentance and faith, in order to entrance into the kingdom of heaven: 1. Repentance and faith must have the stamp of childlikeness; 2. true childlikeness is penitent and full of faith.—The cry of the Lord through all ages, Suffer the children to come unto Me, etc.—Jesus the Friend of children.—The great Friend of the little ones: the Founder of infant baptism, infant schools, infant catechising, and of all good institutions that care for children.—The Son of Man among the children of men: 1. As the heavenly new and fresh related to the earthly new and fresh; 2. as the humble One to the artless; 3. as the Prince of faith to the confiding ones; 4. as the great Warrior to the strivers; 5. as the great Hope to the hoping; 6. as the Blessed with the happy.—Christ embraced the children: 1. The fact: a. an act of God, b. an act of Christ, c. an act of holy humanity. 2. A sign of judgment: a. for the childhood-hating kingdom of darkness, b. for the children despising proud world, c. for Christendom still too little childlike.

Starke:—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Alas! how many Christians are there who bring their children, not to Christ, but to the devil! who hinder them from entering the kingdom of heaven by their bad example, etc.!—Quesnel:—Nothing is so precious to God as true simplicity.—All blessings come from the hand of the Lord Jesus.

Braune:—The Lord, who is so gracious to the fruits (the children), is not less so to the tree (marriage).—Klopstock, in the “Messiah,” brings many souls of children, before they are conducted by angels into human bodies, to the cross of Christ, in order that they may receive a deep impression of it, such as will fit them afterwards to receive the doctrine of the Crucified.—The source of our life lies beyond any investigation of ours.—Be only a child, that thou mayest be able to become a child of God.—Christ’s embracing and laying on of His hands, and blessing, is a gracious figure of the love of God, which works upon us and for us long before we know anything about it.—Gerlach:—Children, to whom the feeling of helplessness and simplicity is rendered easier by their natural weakness and inexperience, enter most easily into the kingdom of God.—Lisco:—To us all, a regeneration for the kingdom of God is necessary.

Schleiermacher:—We should know that a future is coming after us, when the light of the Gospel will shine more clearly.—It is the proper nature of a child to live altogether and absolutely in the present. What the present moment brings, it receives with simplicity and joy; the past vanishes from its vision, of the future it knows nothing, and every passing instant suffices for the happiness of its innocent nature.—(Here simplicity merely is painted.)—Gossner:—The greatest condescends to the least. Oh, how dear to Christ is man!

[6]Mar_10:14.—And forbid them not. The καί is wanting in many documents.

[7]Mar_10:16.—Κατευλόγει, Tischendorf, after B., C., L., Δ., and before τιθείς.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mark

CHILDREN AND CHILDLIKE MEN

Mar 10:13 - Mar 10:15.

It was natural that the parents should have wanted Christ’s blessing, so that they might tell their children in later days that His hand had been laid on their heads, and that He had prayed for them. And Christ did not think of it as a mere superstition. The disciples were not so akin to the children as He was, and they were a great deal more tender of His dignity than He. They thought of this as an interruption disturbing their high intercourse with Christ. ‘These children are always in the way, this is tiresome,’ etc.

I. Christ blessing children.

It is a beautiful picture: the great Messiah with a child in His arms. We could not think of Moses or of Paul in such an attitude. Without it, we should have wanted one of the sweetest, gentlest, most human traits in His character; and how world-wide in its effect that act has been! How many a mother has bent over her child with deeper love; how many a parent has felt the sacredness of the trust more vividly; how many a mother has been drawn nearer to Christ; and how many a little child has had childlike love to Him awakened by it; how much of practical benevolence and of noble sacrifice for children’s welfare, how many great institutions, have really sprung from this one deed! And, if we turn from its effects to its meaning, it reveals Christ’s love for children:-in its human side, as part of His character as man; in its deeper aspect as a revelation of the divine nature. It corrects dogmatic errors by making plain that, prior to all ceremonies or to repentance and faith, little children are loved and blessed by Him. Unconscious infants as these were folded in His arms and love. It puts away all gloomy and horrible thoughts which men have had about the standing of little children.

This is an act of Christ to infants expressive of His love to them, His care over them, their share in His salvation. Baptism is an act of man’s, a symbol of his repentance and dying to sin and rising to a new life in Christ, a profession of his faith, an act of obedience to his Lord. It teaches nothing as to the relation of infants to the love of Jesus or to salvation. It does not follow that because that love is most sure and precious, baptism must needs be a sign of it. The question, what does baptism mean, must be determined by examination of texts which speak about baptism; not by a side-light from a text which speaks about something else. There is no more reason for making baptism proclaim that Jesus Christ loves children than for making it proclaim that two and two make four.

II. The child’s nearness to Christ.

‘Of such is the kingdom.’ ‘Except ye be converted and become like little children,’ etc. Now this does not refer to innocence; for, as a matter of fact, children are not innocent, as all schoolmasters and nurses know, whatever sentimental poets may say. Innocence is not a qualification for admission to the kingdom. And yet it is true that ‘heaven lies about us in our infancy,’ and that we are further off from it than when we were children. Nor does it mean that children are naturally the subjects of the kingdom, but only that the characteristics of the child are those which the man must have, in order to enter the kingdom; that their natural disposition is such as Christ requires to be directed to Him; or, in other words, that childhood has a special adaptation to Christianity. For instance, take dependence, trust, simplicity, unconsciousness, and docility.

These are the very characteristics of childhood, and these are the very emotions of mind and heart which Christianity requires. Add the child’s strong faculty of imagination and its implicit belief; making the form of Christianity as the story of a life so easy to them. And we may add too: the absence of intellectual pride; the absence of the habit of dallying with moral truth. Everybody is to the child either a ‘good’ man or a ‘bad.’ They have an intense realisation of the unseen; an absence of developed vices and hard worldliness; a faculty of living in the present, free from anxious care and worldly hearts. But while thus they have special adaptation for receiving, they too need to come to Christ. These characteristics do not make Christians. They are to be directed to Christ. ‘Suffer them to come unto Me,’ the youngest child needs to, can, ought to, come to Christ. And how beautiful their piety is, ‘Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise.’ Their fresh, unworn trebles struck on Christ’s ear. Children ought to grow up in Christian households, ‘innocent from much transgression.’ We ought to expect them to grow up Christian.

III. The child and the Church.

The child is a pattern to us men. We are to learn of them as well as teach them; what they are naturally, we are to strive to become, not childish but childlike. ‘Even as a weaned child’ {see Psa 131:1 - Psa 131:3}. The child-spirit is glorified in manhood. It is possible for us to retain it, and lose none of the manhood. ‘In malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.’ The spirit of the kingdom is that of immortal youth.

The children are committed to our care.

The end of all training and care is that they should by voluntary act draw near to Him. This should be the aim in Sunday schools, for instance, and in families, and in all that we do for the poor around us.

See that we do not hinder their coming. This is a wide principle, viz., not to do anything which may interfere with those who are weaker and lower than we are finding their way to Jesus. The Church, and we as individual Christians, too often hinder this ‘coming.’

Do not hinder by the presentation of the Gospel in a repellent form, either hardly dogmatic or sour.

Do not hinder by the requirement of such piety as is unnatural to a child.

Do not hinder by inconsistencies. This is a warning for Christian parents in particular.

Do not hinder by neglect. ‘Despise not one of these little ones.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jesus Blesses Little Children. Mar 10:13-16

v. 13. And they brought young children to Him that He should touch them. And His disciples rebuked those that brought them.

v. 14. But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God.

v. 15. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

v. 16. And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.

It was while Jesus was still on His way to Judea, and while He was making the journey by easy stages, that one of the most appealing incidents in His entire ministry occurred. He had probably sat down in some village to rest for a few moments, when a new idea suggested itself to the mothers of the town. They brought little children of all sizes to Him, from infants in arms up, their request to Him being that He merely touch them, that is, put his hands upon them in blessing. There is no indication of a superstitious notion connected with the action. The children probably all loved the Savior at sight for His gentleness and kindness, and the hearts of the mothers were reached through the children. But here came interference from an unexpected quarter: the disciples harshly rebuked those that were bringing the children. They may have thought that the children were not worthwhile to bother with, and that the Lord needed the few moments rest and should not be annoyed. No sooner, however, did Jesus notice this peculiar solicitude of the disciples than He, in turn, became much displeased, He was distinctly annoyed and said to them: Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them. He speaks as under the stress of extreme vexation. And He gives the reason for His stern command: The Kingdom belongs to such as these; it is of such as these that the kingdom of God is made up, of children and of such as have childlike, simple faith in Jesus the Savior. It is a powerful declaration concerning the ability of the children to grasp and know the essential truths pertaining to their salvation in a much better and surer way than that usually chosen by the adults. This truth He states also from the other side, confirming His declaration with a solemn oath. If anyone does not accept the kingdom of God, Jesus the Savior, and the faith in Him which the Holy Spirit works in the heart, as a little child, he shall not enter that kingdom. And to emphasize His words still more strongly, the Lord did not hesitate to take the little ones up into His arms and into His bosom, and to bless them with the laying on of hands. "These verses no one will take from us; nor contradict them with valid reasons. For here it says that Christ wants it unforbidden to bring children to Him, yea, He commands them to be brought to Him, and He blesses them and gives them the kingdom of heaven; let us mark that well. " It is also worthwhile, at this point, to note what a Reformed commentator writes: "Though little children, they were capable of receiving Christ’s blessings. If Christ embraced them, why should not His Church embrace them? Why not dedicate them to God by Baptism?—whether that be performed by sprinkling, washing, or immersion; for we need not dispute about the mode: on this point let everyone be fully persuaded in his own mind. I confess it appears to me grossly heathenish and barbarous to see parents who profess to believe in that Christ who loves children, and among them those whose creed does not prevent them from using infant baptism, depriving their children of an ordinance by which no soul can prove that they cannot be profited, and, through an unaccountable bigotry or carelessness, withholding from them the privilege of even a nominal dedication to God; and yet these very persons are ready enough to fly for a minister to baptize their child when they suppose it to be at the point of death!"

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THE LITTLE ONES

Mat 19:13-15; Luk 18:15-17; Mar 10:13-16. “And they were bringing little children to Him, that He may touch them; and His disciples were rebuking those bringing them.” Matthew says they brought them that He might “put His hands on them and pray.” Luke says they were “infants.” “Jesus seeing them was much displeased, and said to them, Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and prevent them not; for of such is the kingdom of God. Truly I say unto you, Whosoever may not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, can not enter into it. And taking them up in His arms, putting His hands on them, He continued to bless them copiously.” The E. V. has lost much out of this, because the Textus Receptus, from which it was translated, omits the kata in connection with eulogei, and consequently simply reads, “He blessed them,” the true reading being so grand and glorious, “He continued to bless them copiously.” There is no dodging the issue in this paragraph, recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the two former giving us paidia, “little children,” and the latter brephe, “infants.” It is certain they were small enough for Jesus to pick them up in His arms, thus blessing them abundantly and continuously amid loving caresses. This is a clear, bold, and unequivocal corroboration of His former utterances in reference to infants. Though they have inherited a sinful nature from Adam, they are not sinners, but Christians; because they are not only members of God’s kingdom, but normal members, there being no defalcation in their case, like that of adults, who may, with the loudest professions, be hypocrites, as this was-really the case with the Pharisees, who were constantly in His presence. Hence, in the case of irresponsible infants, we know they are saved, as we have the repeated and unequivocal ipse dixit of Jesus; while in the case of adults, as we can not know the heart, we are constrained to turn them all over to God and the judgment-day. All sinners are full of sin. All infants and unsanctified Christians are sinful — i. e., have a tendency to sin — hereditary from Adam, which is certain to lead them into sin if not counteracted by grace in regeneration; but even then will keep up an everlasting warfare (Galatians 5) till eradicated in entire sanctification.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 10:13-16 (Mar_10:13-16)

CHRIST AND LITTLE CHILDREN

"And they brought unto Him little children, that He should touch them: and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, He was moved with indignation, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto Me; forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. And He took them up in His arms, and blessed them, laying His hands upon them." Mar_10:13-16 (R.V.)

THIS beautiful story gains new loveliness from its context. The disciples had weighed the advantages and disadvantages of marriage, and decided in their calculating selfishness, that the prohibition of divorce made it "not good for a man to marry." But Jesus had regarded the matter from quite a different position; and their saying could only be received by those to whom special reasons forbade the marriage tie. It was then that the fair blossom and opening flower of domestic life, the tenderness and winning grace of childhood, appealed to them for a softer judgment. Little children (St. Luke says "babes") were brought to Him to bless, to touch them. It was a remarkable sight. He was just departing from Perea on His last journey to Jerusalem. The nation was about to abjure its King and perish, after having invoked His blood to be not on them only, but on their children. But here were some at least of the next generation led by parents who revered Jesus, to receive His blessing. And who shall dare to limit the influence exerted by that benediction on their future lives? Is it forgotten that this very Perea was the haven of refuge for Jewish believers when the wrath fell upon their nation? Meanwhile the fresh smile of their unconscious, unstained, unforeboding infancy met the grave smile of the all-conscious, death-boding Man of Sorrows, as much purer as it was more profound.

But the disciples were not melted. They were occupied with grave questions. Babes could understand nothing, and therefore could receive no conscious intelligent enlightenment. What then could Jesus do for them? Many wise persons are still of quite the same opinion. No spiritual influences, they tell us, can reach the soul until the brain is capable of drawing logical distinctions. A gentle mother may breathe softness and love into a child's nature, or a harsh nurse may jar and disturb its temper, until the effects are as visible on the plastic face as is the sunshine or storm upon the bosom of a lake; but for the grace of God there is no opening yet. As if soft and loving influences are not themselves a grace of God. As if the world were given certain odds in the race, and the powers of heaven were handicapped. As if the young heart of every child were a place where sin abounds (since he is a fallen creature, with an original tendency towards evil), but were grace doth not at all abound. Such is the unlovely theory. And as long as it prevails in the Church we need not wonder at the compensating error of rationalism, denying evil where so many of us deny grace. It is the more amiable error of the two. Since then the disciples could not believe that edification was for babes, they naturally rebuked those that brought them. Alas, how often still does the beauty and innocence of childhood appeal to men in vain. And this is so, because we see not the Divine grace, "the kingdom of heaven," in these. Their weakness chafes our impatience, their simplicity irritates our worldliness, and their touching helplessness and trustfulness do not find in us heart enough for any glad response.

In ancient times they had to pass through the fire to Moloch, and since then through other fires: to fashion when mothers leave them to the hired kindness of a nurse, to selfishness when their want appeals to our charities in vain, and to cold dogmatism, which would banish them from the baptismal font, as the disciples repelled them from the embrace of Jesus. But He was moved with indignation, and reiterated, as men do when they feel deeply, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me; forbid them not." And He added this conclusive reason, "for of such," of children and childlike men, "is the kingdom of God."

What is the meaning of this remarkable assertion? To answer aright, let us return in fancy to the morning of our days; let our flesh, and all our primitive being, come back to us as those of a little child.

We were not faultless then. The theological dogma of original sin, however unwelcome to many, is in harmony with all experience. Impatience is there, and many a childish fault; and graver evils develop as surely as life unfolds, just as weeds show themselves in summer, the germs of which were already mingled with the better seed in spring. It is plain to all observers that the weeds of human nature are latent in the early soil, that this is not pure at the beginning of each individual life. Does not our new-fangled science explain this fact by telling us that we have still in our blood the transmitted influences of our ancestors the brutes?

But Christ never meant to say that the kingdom of heaven was only for the immaculate and stainless. If converted men receive it, in spite of many a haunting appetite and recurring lust, then the frailties of our babes shall not forbid us to believe the blessed assurance that the kingdom is also theirs.

How many hindrances to the Divine life fall away from us, as our fancy recalls our childhood. What weary and shameful memories, base hopes, tawdry splendors, envenomed pleasures, entangling associations vanish, what sins need to be confessed no longer, how much evil knowledge fades out that we never now shall quite unlearn, which haunts the memory even though the conscience be absolved from it. The days of our youth are not those evil days, when anything within us saith, My soul hath no pleasure in the ways of God.

When we ask to what especial qualities of childhood did Jesus attach so great value, two kindred attributes are distinctly indicated in Scripture.

One is humility. The previous chapter showed us a little child set in the midst of the emulous disciples, whom Christ instructed that the way to be greatest was to become like this little child, the least.

A child is not humble through affectation, it never professes nor thinks about humility. But it understands, however imperfectly, that it is beset by mysterious and perilous forces, which it neither comprehends nor can grapple with. And so are we. Therefore all its instincts and experiences teach it to submit, to seek guidance, not to put its own judgment in competition with those of its appointed guides. To them, therefore, it clings and is obedient.

Why is it not so with us? Sadly we also know the peril of self-will, the misleading power of appetite and passion, the humiliating failures which track the steps of self-assertion, the distortion of our judgments, the feebleness of our wills, the mysteries of life and death amid which we grope in vain. Milton anticipated Sir Isaac Newton in describing the wisest

"As children gathering pebbles on the shore."

Par. Reg., 4. 330.

And if this be so true in the natural world that its sages become as little children, how much more in those spiritual realms for which our faculties are still so infantile, and of which our experience is so rudimentary. We should all be nearer to the kingdom, or greater in it, if we felt our dependence, and like the child were content to obey our Guide and cling to Him.

The second childlike quality to which Christ attached value was readiness to receive simply. Dependence naturally results from humility. Man is proud of his independence only because he relies on his own powers; when these are paralyzed, as in the sickroom or before the judge, he is willing again to become a child in the hands of a nurse or of an advocate. In the realm of the spirit these natural powers are paralyzed. Learning cannot resist temptation, nor wealth expiate a sin. And therefore, in the spiritual world, we are meant to be independent and receptive.

Christ taught, in the Sermon on the Mount, that to those who asked Him, God would give His Spirit as earthly parents give good things to their children. Here also we are taught to accept, to receive the kingdom as little children, not flattering ourselves that our own exertions can dispense with the free gift, not unwilling to become pensioners of heaven, not distrustful of the heart which grants, not finding the bounties irksome which are prompted by a Father's love. What can be more charming in its gracefulness than the reception of a favor by an affectionate child. His glad and confident enjoyment are a picture of what ours might be.

Since children receive the kingdom, and are a pattern for us in doing so, it is clear that they do not possess the kingdom as a natural right, but as a gift. But since they do receive it, they must surely be capable of receiving also that sacrament which is the sign and seal of it. It is a startling position indeed which denies admission into the visible Church to those of whom is the kingdom of God. It is a position taken up only because many, who would shrink from any such avowal, half-unconsciously believe that God becomes gracious to us only when His grace is attracted by skillful movements upon our part, by conscious and well-instructed efforts, by penitence, faith and orthodoxy. But whatever soul is capable of any taint of sin must be capable of compensating influences of the Spirit, by Whom Jeremiah was sanctified, and the Baptist was filled, even before their birth into this world (Jer_1:5; Luk_1:15). Christ Himself, in Whom dwelt bodily all the fullness of the Godhead, was not therefore incapable of the simplicity and dependence of infancy.

Having taught His disciples this great lesson, Jesus let His affections loose. He folded the children in His tender and pure embrace, and blessed them much, laying His hands on them, instead of merely touching them. He blessed them not because they were baptized. But we baptize our children, because all such have received the blessing, and are clasped in the arms of the Founder of the Church.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

10:13-16 Jesus’ love and concern for children has already been seen in 5:41-43; 9:36-37, 42. Jesus uses the incident to teach that the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.

10:13 The ages of the children cannot be determined from this passage. The Greek word paidia can refer to a broad spectrum of ages, from a twelve-year-old child (5:41-42) down to an eight-day-old infant (Gen 17:12, Greek version). • the disciples scolded the parents: See study note on Luke 18:15-17.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mar 10:13. Ἅψηται, should touch) A modest request.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar_10:13-16. See on Mat_19:13-15, who gives the narrative only by way of extract. Comp. Luk_18:15-17.

ἅψεται] From the mere touch on the part of the holy man, who assuredly was also known as a friend of children, they hoped to derive blessing for their children. So too Luke. It is otherwise in Matthew, in whose account, instead of the touch, there is already introduced here the more definite laying on of hands, which was performed by Jesus at Mar_10:16.

Mar_10:14. ἠγανάκτησε] propter impedimentum amori suo a discipulis oblatum (Bengel).

Mar_10:15 is also adopted by Luk_18:17, but not by the abbreviating Matthew. Whosoever shall not have received the kingdom of the Messiah as a child, i.e. in the moral condition, which resembles the innocence of childhood (comp. Mat_18:3); Theophylact appropriately says: τῶν ἔχοντων ἐξ ἀσκήσεως τὴν ἀκακίαν, ἣν τὰ παιδία ἔχουσιν ἀπὸ φύσεως.

In δέξηται the kingdom (which the coming Messiah establishes) is conceived as coming (Mar_9:1; Mat_6:10; Luk_17:20, al). It is erroneous to explain the βασιλ. τ. Θεοῦ as the preaching of the kingdom (Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Kuinoel, and many others).

Mar_10:16. ἐναγκαλ.] as at Mar_9:36.

κατηυλόγ.] only occurs in this place in the New Testament; it is stronger than the simple form, Plut. Amator. 4; Tob_11:1; Tob_11:17. It expresses here the earnestness of His interest. How much more did Christ do than was asked of Him!

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 10:13-16 . Suffer the children (Mat 19:13-15 , Luk 18:15-17 ).

Mar 10:13 . παιδία as in Mt. Lk. has βρέφη = infants carried in arms. Note the use of the compound προσέφερον ; elsewhere the simple verb. The word is commonly used of sacrifices, and suggests here the idea of dedication . ἅψηται , touch , merely, as if that alone were enough to bless; prayer mentioned in Mt. τοῖς προσφέρουσιν (T. R.), probably interprets the αὐτοῖς (W.H [90] ) after ἐπετίμησαν .

[90] Westcott and Hort.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

God of his goodness comprehendeth in the covenant not only the fathers, but the children also: and therefore he blesseth them.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 13. And they brought young children] See on Mt 19:13-15.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(13-15) And they brought young children.—See Notes on Mat_19:13-15.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13–16. Suffer little Children to come unto Me

13. they brought] These probably were certain parents, who honoured Him and valued His benediction. The “children” in St Mark and St Matthew are “infants” in St Luk_18:15.

that he should touch them] or, as St Matthew adds, that he should lay his hands upon them and pray for them (Mat_19:13). Hebrew mothers were accustomed in this manner to seek a blessing for their children from the presidents of the synagogues, who were wont to lay their hands upon them. “After the father of the child,” says the Talmud, “had laid his hands on his child’s head, he led him to the elders one by one, and they also blessed him, and prayed that he might grow up famous in the Law, faithful in marriage, and abundant in good works.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But when Jesus saw it,.... Observed that his disciples reproved those that brought their children to, him,

he was much displeased; with his disciples, who took too much upon them; for they ought first, to have known their master's will; whether it was his pleasure to grant the favour desired for these children, and not to have forbid them of themselves:

and said unto them; the disciples, as the Persic version reads:

suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God; or "of them who" are, , "as these", as the Syriac version, renders the words; or, as the Arabic, who "are like to these"; and the Persic, who are "like to these little children"; in innocence and humility; See Gill on Mat 19:14.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

13 And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.

Ver. 13. {See Trapp on "Mat 19:13"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This is reported both by Matthew and Luke, only they both omit what we here have, Mar 10:15. By the kingdom of God, is doubtless to be understood the word of God, or rather the grace of Christ in the gospel: he that doth not receive it with humility and modesty, without disputing, without malice, like a little child, shall never come into heaven.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

It is worthy of notice that this touching incident follows here, as well as in the parallel passage in St. Matthew. (Mat_21:13) He immediately after the discourse about the marriage bond. And they brought unto him (proseferon) literally, were bringing little children (paidia) St. Luke (Luk_18:15) calls them "babes" (brefh)that he should touch them (ina aqhtai autwn). St. Luke has the same word (ina apthtai); but St. Matthew (Mat_21:13) says "that he should lay his hands on them and pray." The imposition of hands implies a formal benediction; the invoking of Divine grace upon them, that they might grow up into wise and holy men and women. Why did the disciples rebuke them? Perhaps because they thought it unworthy of so great a Prophet, whose business was rather that of instructing those of full age, to be spending his time upon little children.

Vers. 13-16. Christ and the children.

That three of the evangelists should have recorded this incident is proof of the impression it made upon the early Christians, and of the importance they attached to it. The Son of man interested himself in all classes and conditions of humanity; and it is not strange that he should have come into direct and tender relations with the very young.

I THE CHILDREN who were brought to Jesus. They were very young, for they are called "little children," and they were so small as to be taken up in the arms. Jesus had himself been a child, and had passed through the stages of infancy and boyhood, so that from his own experience he could sympathize with this age and condition of human life. These children may have been children of the house where Jesus had been staying, and of the neighbors. It should be remembered that, not long before, Jesus had taken a little child and used him as an example of simplicity and humility. We may certainly learn from this incident that no child, however young or feeble, is disregarded by our Lord Jesus. In every one he sees an immortal, God-given nature, capable of fellowship with the Creator"s mind, and of obedience to his commands.

II THE PARENTS OF THE CHILDREN.

1. They revered and honored Jesus themselves, or they would not have acted thus. They would not have treated another rabbi thus. There must have been something in our Lord which attracted them and induced them to believe that he would not repel them should they ask a favor on behalf of their little ones.

2. They brought their children to Jesus. The babes had neither knowledge nor strength to come of themselves; but their parents acted for them. Parents should regard it as their duty and privilege to bring their offspring to the Savior. This they may do by instructing them as to who and what Jesus is, by leading them into the society of Christ"s people.

3. They had a definite purpose in bringing the children to Jesus, viz. that he should touch them and should pray for them. To tell our children of Christ is, or should be, with a view to their personal spiritual contact with him, and with a view to their enjoying both the regard of his friendship and the benefit of his intercession:

III THE TWELVE, AND THEIR TREATMENT OF THE CHILDREN. It is instructive to observe that the very persons whose office it was to make Jesus known to men, and to introduce all the needy to his notice, and to commend them to his aid, should have on this occasion interfered with the approach of those whom Jesus would have welcomed. The twelve rebuked the parents, and forbade the children to be brought to Jesus, probably from a mistaken idea that the Lord would not care to be troubled with those so young and so helpless. How important that Christians should not interpose to prevent children from seeking Christ and the fellowship of his people!

IV JESUS, AND HIS TREATMENT OF THE CHILDREN. The narrative gives us a delightful view of the Savior"s character, as the children"s Friend.

1. What he felt. A very strong expression is used to denote our Lord"s disapproval of his disciples" conduct. He was "moved with indignation" by their demeanour. They were both misrepresenting him and inflicting a wrong upon the applicants for blessing.

2. What he said. His language includes a special reference to the occasion, and a general statement of a Divine principle. "Suffer the children to come!" "Forbid them not!" How gracious a revelation of the Savior"s mind and disposition, and how instructive a lesson for his people! The general principle he enunciates is even more valuable: "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." The reference is doubtless to the dependence and teachableness of little children. God"s kingdom is composed of childlike natures. The proud, self-sufficient, and self-confident are out of harmony with a spiritual society which recognizes a Divine Head and is governed by Divine laws.

3. What he did. Doubtless, in these actions, Jesus was obeying the impulse of his affectionate nature. Yet he intended to teach the world how gracious is his heart, how compassionate are his purposes, how vast and widely extended are the arms of his love. He took them in his arms, verifying the prediction concerning him as the Good Shepherd. He laid his hands upon them, signifying his tender interest. He blessed them, praying for them, and pronouncing over them words of Divine benediction.

APPLICATION.

1. An encouragement to Christian parents to bring their children to the Savior.

2. An inducement to the young to look to Jesus as the Giver of true blessing.

3. An example to the Church of Christ as to the spirit in which the Lord"s people should deal with the young with inexperienced and immature natures. impatience or contempt, but rather gentleness and consideration, should distinguish the attitude of Christ"s people towards the lambs of the flock.

Vers. 13-16. Jesus blessing the little children: a children"s sermon.

One of the scenes in the life of the Savior which illustrate most strongly and beautifully the genius of the gospel. The imagination loves to dwell upon it, and the heart is its best interpreter. There is, so to speak, a climax in the action.

I LITTLE CHILDREN ARE ATTRACTED TO JESUS. There must have been something in the aspect, etc.. He of the Savior which drew the little ones and their mothers to his side. Christianity differs from the systems of idolatry in presenting us with One whom we instinctively can love. A little girl, when asked why she thought Jesus must have smiled, said, "He must have smiled when he said, "Suffer little children," etc.. He else they would never have come!" A chief object of preaching and living the gospel is to exhibit this charm.

II LITTLE CHILDREN ARE INVITED TO JESUS. HOW many people won"t come to a place unless they think they are welcome, and therefore they expect an invitation. Now, when the disciples thought that their Master was too engrossed with high thoughts and important affairs to attend to the children, they took it upon themselves to send them away. This was not done through unkindness, but simply through a mistake. Christ corrected the mistake, and deliberately invited the little children. That proves-does it not? in the strongest way that he intends them to come to him. But Jesus does more than invite.

III LITTLE CHILDREN ARE CLAIMED BY JESUS. "For of such is the kingdom of heaven." That means that little children are very near to him already. They are really in his kingdom, and he is their King. He has a greater right, therefore, to their obedience and service and society, than father or mother, or brother or sister. When little children are good and loving they are with Jesus, and it is only when they do or think what is wrong that they go away from him. And all who come into his kingdom have to come in as little children, i.e. they are to be childlike simple, loving, trustful, and obedient.

IV LITTLE CHILDREN ARE BLESSED BY JESUS. He took them in his arms and embraced them. But he also put his hands on them, and gave them his Father"s blessing. How great a thing did the Jews think a blessing was! Let us try and live so that we shall at last get the blessing Christ has in store for us. Do you love to be with Jesus? Do you do whatever he commands you? Then you are a subject of his kingdom, and a child of grace; and hereafter you will share his glory. M.

Vers. 13-16. Little children.

Parental anxiety led thoughtful women to bring "unto him little children, that he should touch them," according to a custom which has its approval in the hearts of all races and all times, of presenting young children to persons of sanctity and age that they may invoke a blessing upon their young life. Such are brought to Jesus, "that he should lay his hands on them and pray." Touched, perchance, by a remembrance of the humiliating lessons which the presence of a child must now have suggested, "the disciples rebuked them." Why obtrude children on the attention of One who is so competent to deal with adult wisdom? But he who came to correct error and false views, who had redeemed and established the essential marriage laws, now raises child-life to its rightful place. "Moved with indignation" at the indiscretion of the disciples, he said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me; forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God words which

(1) are inscribed as on a banner of defense, that has floated from that hour over the heads of "little children;" words which

(2) have been an admonitory corrective of personal vanity and assumption;

(3) have expounded the spirit of the heavenly kingdom;

(4) have expressed the qualification needed by all who would enter within its gates;

(5) have been seized upon as affording a justification for the admission of children into the visible community of the Church by the sacrament of baptism; and

(6) have, especially in these later days, become the stimulus to diligent endeavor to bring the young under religious training and to give them the benefits of religious instruction. By so much did the Master"s words of truth rebut the disciples" error, and found upon it a teaching of unlimited benefit. Thus did Christ pay his tribute to the preciousness of life, even in its infancy and imperfectness, and throw the shield of his protection around it. Thus did he compel the attention and effort of his Church in all ages to be paid to young life, knowing its susceptibility and the important bearing of its right treatment on the general condition of human society. "Forbid them not" transforms itself into a command to the heart of the Church, ever attentive to catch the Lord"s will, to remove every hindrance from the way of a child"s participation in spiritual benefits. And "suffer them to come unto me" becomes an equally authoritative command to bring them unto him; to place them in close alliance wish him, and, if with him, then with his kingdom. For if he, the Head of the house, receive them, they of the household may not reject them; and if he take them up in his arms, surely they may come within the embrace of his Church. If they lie in his bosom at the head of the table, they may not be denied a place in the house, or be denied a portion of its bread or a measure of its care; while their purity, helplessness, trustful dependence, and traceableness form the typical example of that spirit which he desires shall characterize all the subjects of his kingdom, all the members of his household, in every age. G.

Vers. 13-16. The blessing of the children.

I THE CONTRAST: WHAT MEN THINK IMPORTANT, AND WHAT GOD RECOGNIZES AS OF WORTH. Children am "only children." They are often "in the way." They are "out of place." They are to be "sent out of the way." But Divine intelligence and love shed a bright light upon the little ones. They are living parables of the Christian spirit. Ever are they to be associated with Christ. Learning, wealth, rank, all draw away from our true attitude, nay, tend to falsify our spirit. "Tis the sight of the children that must win us back.

II CHRISTIANITY THE RELIGION OF REVERENCE FOR THOSE BELOW US. In them God is found. "The religion of reverence for what is above us is ethnic religion. This delivers from degrading fear. The religion of reverence for what is around us is the philosophical. The philosopher stations himself in the middle, and must draw up to him all that is lower, and down to him all that is higher. This is the religion of wisdom. Reverence for what is under us, this is Christian, and is the last step mankind was fitted and destined to attain" (Goethe). The lowly, the hated, the despised, the contradictory, are glorified by the insight and the sympathy of Christ. J.

Vers. 13-16. Parallel passages: Mat_19:13-15 Luk_18:15-17.

I CHILDREN BROUGHT AND BLESSED.

1. Our Lords love of children. Our Lord, when on earth, had no greater favourites than children. He set them in the midst; he laid his hands on them; he blessed them; he invited them to his presence; he welcomed them to his person; he folded them lovingly in his arms. He calls them the lambs of his flock; he provides them suitable spiritual food, and with it he bids us feed them. He represents by them his faithful followers; he reproves his disciples when they would have prevented their access to him. He reminds us all that they are precious in our heavenly Father"s sight, preserved by his providence and protected by his power. He assures us, as we have seen, that "their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

2. Individual features of the three narratives. The request of those who brought the little children, as reported by St. Matthew, is not only that the Savior should touch them, as in St. Mark and St. Luke; but "put his hands on them, and pray. " In St. Mark, we are told that Jesus not only touched the little children, as requested, but "took them up in his arms." They thus got more than they asked. This is usually the way with Christ; he does more for us than we ask or think. An additional feature of the narrative, as supplied by St. Luke, is that some of these children were of very tender age mere infants

II THE CHANGE BY WHICH WE BECOME AS LITTLE CHILDREN.

1. A parallel passage. In St. Matthew"s Gospel (Mat_18:3) we have a statement exactly corresponding to the fifteenth verse of this tenth chapter of St. Mark, with this difference, however, that the former passage goes further back, bringing us up to the turning-point at which we become as little children. The verse referred to reads thus, "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of God;" the Revised Version has, "Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." This rendering of eiselyhte in the last clause brings out the meaning with due emphasis, and is thus more accurate than that of the common version; the substitution of turn for be converted in the first clause is intended to divest the term of the technical theological sense which some attach to it. The word strafhte (second aorist passive) may be translated as a passive, or as a middle, since the aorists passive have often a middle meaning, equivalent to turn yourselves, or simply turn intransitively, as we have it in the Revised Version. In its application, as shown by the context, it urged those addressed to turn away from their ambitious notions, self-seeking eagerness, and fondness for precedence. The term is general, we readily acknowledge, and denotes a change such as that referred to; hut before men are capable of turning from the courses indicated, and of exhibiting the characteristics of little children, they must have become the subjects of a special and greater change, of which that immediately referred to is a manifestation. We may read the statement of St. Mark, that "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein," or, as it is more accurately rendered in the Revised Version, "he shall in no wise enter therein," in the light which St. Matthew"s statement sheds on it.

2. Divine agency. We have seen that the word in the closely corresponding text is limited by some, and may indeed be limited, to its literal sense, and understood of a turning away from such high-mindedness as the disciples had displayed on that occasion a turning away from such haughtiness of spirit as led to the question asked by them, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Others may be disposed to take it in the sense of recovery from backsliding, of a return to the Lord after some wrong step, as a compound form of the same verb is employed (epistreqav) in the words addressed to Peter, "When thou art converted, strengthen the brethren; or, as we read it in the Revised Version, "And do thou, when once thou hast turned again, stablish thy brethren." Others may prefer the wider and more technical sense of conversion. But whatever sense be attached to the one particular term, a change effected by Divine agency must be presupposed; otherwise the changes implied in the lower sense cannot be rightly accomplished, nor the characteristics of childhood fully attained. "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein," is the statement of St. Mark, and suggests the inquiry What is it to receive the kingdom of God? Now, to take the simplest and plainest view of this matter, to receive the kingdom of God is to receive the gospel of the kingdom; and to receive the gospel of the kingdom is to receive him who is the Subject of that gospel, and the Sovereign of that kingdom the Christian"s King and Head; and to receive him, again, is the turning-point in a man"s spiritual history, the greatest and most important event of his whole life. This reception of the Savior implies faith of the operation of God faith, which is God"s gift and the Spirit"s work in the heart. Wherever faith exists, even as a grain of mustard seed, Christ is formed in the heart. It matters little what name is given to this change, whether we call it "the new birth," or "regeneration," or "conversion;" to be subjects of it is the great thing, for it is the principle of all right action, and the prolific source of all Christian graces and of all truly virtuous conduct.

3. Statement of a difference. We may notice a difference which will help to a clearer apprehension of the change in question. Conversion is akin to regeneration; it is most nearly similar, and cannot be separated from it, and yet it is not quite the same thing. Regeneration implants a new principle in the soul; conversion is the practical putting forth of that principle. Regeneration imparts new life to the soul; conversion is the exercise of that life. Regeneration bestows new power; conversion is the manifestation of that power. For sake of illustration, let us suppose a man dead and buried. Regeneration may be compared to life entering into the sepulcher, opening the eyes that death had scaled, giving back the healthy color to the cheeks and causing the vital fluid once more to circulate through all the frame; conversion may be represented by the same man, after being thus reanimated, exerting the power of life which he has just received, rising up from among the dead, coming forth from the tomb, and entering on the various duties and activities of life. Conversion and regeneration are thus so closely linked together as cause and effect that they often stand for one another.

4. Human instrumentality. Here, too, the power of God and the work of man unite; Divine agency and human instrumentality combine. The hand of man may roll away the stone and remove the grave-clothes, as in the case of Lazarus; but nothing short of the power of God can resuscitate the buried corpse, or speak the dead to life. So, also, it is when the dead in trespasses and sins are quickened. By the instrumentality of man, the stone that stops the mouth of the sepulcher may be taken away and the grave-clothes unbound; but nothing less than "the working of God"s mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead," can make any one of us alive through Christ Jesus. We may preach and pray, and it is our duty to combine both, and our privilege to engage in either; but the power that raises the dead to life is the power, and not only the power, but the mighty power of God. The prophet of old acknowledged this, for after he had prophesied to the dry bones in the valley of vision, he followed up his prophesying by prayer, saying, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." The psalmist felt the same when he said, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." The apostle was of the same mind when he wrote, But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved).

5. The means employed, and the manner in which the change is effected. God treats us as reasonable beings; he makes his appeal to the faculties with which he has endowed us. He addresses us as his intelligent creatures, and challenges us to inquiry, saying, "Judge ye what I say." He speaks to us in his Word and by his ambassadors, and even entreats us to be reconciled to God. He bestows his Spirit, for without the agency of that Spirit all the rest would be but as the rolling away of the stone and the unbinding of the grave-clothes already spoken of.

6. The nature of the change. After the creation of the heavens and the earth, the first work of God was light. God said, "Let there be light." In the change in question, which, for convenience" sake, we may call conversion, the first work is also light; he enlightens our understanding in the knowledge of Christ. God"s Word, indeed, is light, "a light to our feet;" but while we are unconverted there are scales on our eyes, and if we see at all, it is only "men like trees, walking." The Spirit takes away the scales; and we see the suitability and sufficiency of the Savior, the completeness of his work, the fullness of his offices, the freeness of his mercy, the riches of his grace, the length and breadth and depth and height of his love; we see also our sins in the light of his sufferings, and his sufferings endured for and expiating our sins. This is not all; it is not enough to have light in the head. There is often natural light, intellectual light, the light of science, even the light of theological speculation or doctrine or controversy; but such light by itself never brought any soul to the Savior. Of such light we may say, it is the light of the moon shining on an iceberg away in a frozen sea; it is the nocturnal light of twinkling stars, as they sparkle in the firmament, and shed their flickering radiance on some far-off mountain capped with snow. In this gracious change there is an additional element. With light in the head it combines love in the heart. Like light and heat from the same fire, they go hand in hand. The heart follows the head, and they act and react upon each other. The will obeys the understanding, and the affections go along with both. The subject of this blessed change can say with one of old, "Whereas I was blind, now I see;" but he goes further, and can say with the apostle, "The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost which was given unto us." The regenerate soul can say, "I know whom I have believed;" but it stops not there; it adds, "Whom having not seen, I love." Conversion, if we may use the term in its popular sense, is the love of Christ constraining us; it is the Word of Christ instructing us; it is "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ;" it is the work of Christ renewing us; it is the Spirit of Christ enlightening us; it is the life of Christ imparted to us I live, ye shall live also;" it is the love of him "who first loved us, and gave himself for us." This love expels the enmity of the carnal mind, gives a new bent to the will and a new bias to the feelings; it lays hold of the affections, and influences all the energies of our being, operating at once on the faculties of the mind and the members of the body. It is God making us willing, as well as welcome, to be his people in the day of his power.

III THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD.

1. Infant salvation. When it is said that "of such that is, children is the kingdom of God," it may mean children literally; and so many understand it, and refer kingdom to the state of future blessedness, maintaining that, as the majority of mankind die in infancy, and as they are redeemed, children will constitute the majority of the saved. But there is another interpretation, which understands children spiritually, that is, those who resemble children in character; thus St. Paul says, "Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men." While we are fully persuaded that all children dying in infancy are saved because of the superabundant grace of God in Christ Jesus, we are far from supposing that regeneration is not necessary in case of children as well as of others. Indeed, the Word of God proves it indispensable; for thus says the psalmist, "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me;" and again, "We go astray as soon as we be born, speaking lies;" and further, the Prophet Isaiah says," All we like sheep have gone astray." It thus becomes our duty to seek, by all available means, to bring children to Christ the Good Shepherd, who carries the lambs in his besom, that he may bless them and make them members of his flock. There are, however, several characteristics of children which serve well to illustrate the character and conduct of God"s spiritual children.

2. The first characteristic is humility. When converted to God, we become like little children in humility. Pride is the ruin of our race; we trace it back to Paradise. Satan introduced it there. It was the great inducement with our first parents that they should be "as Gods, knowing good and evil." We mark its dark waters along the stream of time from then till now. It was a fruitful source of disaster to King David. In the pride of his heart he numbered the people, and the dreadfully calamitous choice was allowed him to elect between seven years" famine, three months" war, or three days" pestilence. Another instance occurs in the case of Naaman, commander-in-chief of the host of Syria. Leprous as he was, and consequently miserable as he must have been, he felt his pride wounded when the prophet directed him to wash seven times in Jordan; he turned away in a rage, saying, "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?" Come we to New Testament times, we have another still more awful instance of pride and its punishment. Herod sat upon his kingly throne; he made an oration a king"s speech, and more eloquent, no doubt, than royal speeches generally are; at all events, the people were in raptures with him and it, so that they shouted, "It is the voice of a God, and not of a man." He was arrayed in royal robes; he was proud of his pomp, of his power, and of his popularity. But the angel of the Lord smote him; "he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost." The same evil propensity of fallen humanity finds thousands and tens of thousands of living exemplifications in those whom the Scripture calls "proud boasters," "heady, high-minded," and classes with the vilest and the worst. On the contrary, the first evidence of conversion to God is humility. The child of a prince will, if permitted, amuse itself with the child of a peasant. As they sport together there is no distinction of riches or of rank; they meet together on the same common level; they stand on the same footing of equality. We are not universal levellers; we would not do away with the distinctions of rank that exist, and perhaps must exist. We find in the membership of the human body some members discharging honorable functions, others functions less so. We find in the heavenly hierarchy various grades thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers. But we would willingly do away with, and Christianity tends to do away with, that proud spirit that sets up castes and opposes class to class, preventing that cordial sympathy that should ever bind together all the many members in the great family of man. Why should we be proud? What are we proud of? Is it of our bodies? They are "fearfully and wonderfully made," yet dust they are, and unto dust they must return. Is it of our souls? God" breathed into man"s nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul." Is it of what we are? We are only creatures of a day, and our foundation is in the dust. Is it of what we have? We have nothing, be it worldly wealth, or intellectual endowment, or physical superiority, or spiritual grace, nothing that we have not received. We are pensioners on the Divine bounty, daily recipients of the Divine favor, almoners on the liberality of God. Most of us have read the Revelation Legh Richmond"s little book entitled " The Dairyman"s Daughter," and the text which by the blessing of God became the means of converting that once poor, proud girl. That text was, "Be ye clothed with humility" (egkombwsasye : literally, "wrap tight round you your humility," in allusion to Christ girding himself with a towel to wash his disciples" feet), and by its application to her heart she was led to feel her own emptiness and Christ"s fullness. Next to the robe of Christ"s righteousness, and inseparably connected with it, is this garment of humility which distinguishes every converted soul, which every child of God puts on, and which every Christian wears. Of all the many promises of Scripture, not one is made to the proud. "God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble;" "The humble and the contrite heart the Lord will not despise.

3. A second characteristic is teachableness Christ was meek and lowly in heart." He invites us to learn of him. Most children are docile; at all events, childhood and youth are the seasons for learning. Though there is no age however advanced at which we should not be learners, and no stage o! progress at which we shall not have still much to learn for here "we only see through a glass, darkly yet there is truth in the trite old proverb, "Learn young, learn well." The Christian, by his very profession and by his practice, when truly converted to God, is a disciple; and what is that but a learner, a scholar in the school of Christ? There are three teachers in this school the Word of God, the providence of God, and the Spirit or God. The entrance in of that Word giveth light; it makes "wise unto salvation." Every time we hear it preached, or peruse it prayerfully and thoughtfully, the light is brightened and increased. It is our privilege, and should be our pleasure, to study that Word daily and diligently, dutifully and devoutly. If it were only a single text meditated on each day, it would result in spiritual blessing. We are to search this Word. There is a treasure in it, and we are to dig for that treasure a pearl of great price, and we are to seek for that pearl, and, if needs be, part with everything else rather than miss it. That treasure is Christ, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." That pearl is Christ a pearl of exceeding price. There are shallows in this Word where a child may wade, and depths which no human line can fathom. "Search the Scriptures,." said our Lord; "for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." The providence of God teaches us in many ways and furnishes many lessons. We need grace to mark those lessons and follow the leadings of that providence, and in this way the most afflictive dispensations are productive of good, so that there is occasion to say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." The Spirit of God is the great Teacher, he leads us into all truth, he takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us, he convinces us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgement. Let us pray for childlike docility of spirit; let us come to the three teachers we have named, and hear what God the Lord will say to our souls.

4. A third characteristic is trustfulness. Children are proverbially confiding. When we pass from the years of childhood we become wary too wary; cautious often far too cautious, though never too circumspect. Let a parent make a promise to his child; that child never questions his father"s word, he never doubts his father"s ability to perform his promise, he never suspects his father"s willingness to make good what he has said. Would that we all acted thus towards our heavenly Father! Would that we all took him in this childlike manner and with this childlike trustfulness at his word! Would that we all sought the Spirit of adoption, by which we could look up and say, "Our Father in heaven," and inward and say, "Abba, Father," and outward and around saying, "All things work together for good to them that love God, the beautiful things of earth and sea and sky are mine, for my Father made them all. In the "Life of Sir Henry Havelock," one is amused with a remarkable example of childlike confidence on the part of his son which is recorded therein. Sir Henry had had occasion to call at a public office on business. He left his son at the door to wait for him outside. The father, after dispatching the business in band, passed out of the office by another way, in total forgetfulness of his son and of the appointment made with him. The boy, however, had such perfect confidence in his father"s promise and usual punctuality, that he waited, and waited, and continued waiting all the day long, till the shades of evening were gathering. By that time something had occurred to remind Sir Henry of his son, when, going immediately to the place, he found him on the spot where he had left him in the morning. God has given us his sure Word of prophecy and promise; he bids us wait, and that prophecy will be fulfilled and that promise performed. An earthly parent may fail or forget; God never forgets his promise, nor fails to perform it to his people. He is never slack concerning his promise; at the time appointed it shall come, and not tarry. It is ours to wait and watch and work, "for the day of redemption draweth nigh." It is ours to exercise filial trust and childlike confidence in our heavenly Father, who "is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.

5. A fourth characteristic. Another characteristic is simplicity. We do not mean that a child of God must be a simpleton; quite the opposite. We are to be "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Now, by Christian simplicity we understand guilelessness and harmlessness. We take it to denote singleness of heart, of tongue, and of eye; it becomes the Christian, it glorifies God and impresses man. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings God hath ordained strength." The children in the temple proclaimed, "Hosanna in the highest!" Once in a stagecoach, as we have read, a little interesting girl five years old was sitting beside her mother. A gentleman was paying attention to the child. After a time, turning her full blue eyes upon him, with childlike lovingness and in her own simple accents, she said," You love God?" The gentleman passed the child"s question off as best he could. The coach reached the place of destination, the journey ended. But still the words of that child haunted him. The question she asked was new to him; he had never thought of it before. He never rested till, by the grace of God, he was able to answer it by felt experience. Time rolled on. A few years after, as he passed through the streets of a town, he saw the mother of that little child at a window, in weeds of mourning. He called to inquire for his favourite, but she was gone; God had taken her home to glory, and to be for ever with himself.

IV CONSEQUENCES.

1. Contrast. Over the entrance to Plato"s famous academy at Athens was written the sentence, "Let no one enter here who does not possess a knowledge of geometry." Over the gate of heaven is written, not the proud maxim of the philosopher, but this plain statement, "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein.

2. What is implied in exclusion. Not to enter heaven, in other words, exclusion from heaven, implies the absence of holiness, of hope, and of happiness. It is never to see the King in his beauty, never to see the land that is afar off, never to enjoy peace, never to enter into rest, never to meet God in mercy, never to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and never to join the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn which are written in heaven. Still more, exclusion shuts out from wearing the crown and occupying the throne, from tenanting the mansion, and tuning the harp, and swelling the anthem of "Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing." Not to enter heaven is to be excluded from the holy presence, from the blessed fellowship of patriarchs and prophets and apostles and martyrs and confessors; to be shut out from the life and light and love of the upper sanctuary; to be shut up with the devil and the damned, with lost spirits, with devouring fire and everlasting burnings; to be doomed to "weening, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth," and to dwell for ever in that prison-house of hell, "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. J.J.G.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matt. xix, 13.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

young

little. Cf. Mat 5:16

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, A solemn action performed: children are brought to Christ to be blessed by him.

Where note, 1. The persons brought: children, young children, sucking children, as the word imports, They brought them in their arms Luk 18:15, not led them by the hands.

2. The Person they are brought unto: Jesus Christ. But for what end? Not to baptize them, but to bless them: the parents looking upon Christ as a prophet, a great Prophet, the great Prophet, do bring their infants to him, that they might receive the benefit of his blessing and prayers.

Whence learn, 1. The infants are capable of benefit by Jesus Christ.

2. That it is the best office that parents can perform unto their children to bring them unto Christ, that they may be made partakers of that benefit.

3. If infants be capable of benefit by Christ, if capable of his blessings on earth and presence in heaven, if they be subjects of his kingdom of grace, and heirs of his kingdom of glory, then they may be baptized; for they that are in covenant, have a right to the seal of the covenant. If Christ denies not infants the kingdom of heaven, which is the greater, what reason have ministers to deny them the benefit of baptism, which is the less?

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [XCIX. Blessing Children].

XCIX. BLESSING CHILDREN. CONCERNING CHILDLIKENESS. (In Peræa.) aMATT. XIX. 13-15; bMARK X. 13-16; cLUKE XVIII. 15-17.

a13 Then were there brought b13 And they were bringing aunto him little children, calso their babes, that he should touch them: athat he should lay his hands on them, and pray [According to Buxtorf, children were often brought to the presidents of the synagogue in order that they might pray over them. The prayers of a good man in our behalf have always been regarded as a blessing; no wonder, then, that the mothers of these children desired the prayers of Jesus in behalf of their little ones. It was customary to put the hand upon the person prayed for, probably following the patriarchal precedent ( Gen_48:14, Gen_48:15). Compare Act_6:6]: cbut aand cwhen the disciples saw it, they [541] rebuked them. b14 But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation, and ccalled them unto him, saying, bsaid unto them, cSuffer the little children to come unto me; forbid them not: afor to such belongeth the kingdom of heaven. bof God. [The disciples wished to protect Jesus from what appeared to them to be an unseemly intrusion and annoyance, and possibly, as the context suggests, they thought it was beneath the dignity of the Messiah to turn aside from the affairs of the kingdom of heaven ( Mat_19:12) to pay attention to children. But Jesus was indignant at their officious interference, and directed that the children be brought to him, declaring at the same time that the kingdom of heaven be composed, not of little children, but of such as are childlike in their nature.] c17 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. [See p. 431.] b16 And he took them up in his arms, a15 And he laid blaying ahis hands on bupon athem, band blessed them, aand departed thence. [They were [542] brought that he might lay his hands on them and bless them, and that is what he did for them. The command therefore that they be suffered to come to him should not be perverted into a precept directing that they be brought for other purposes. Those who have construed this as commanding or even permitting either infant baptism or an infant church membership, have abused the text. They are indebted for these ideas, not to the Bible, but to their creeds. The incident told in this section is a fitting sequel to the discourse on divorce. The little children, the offspring of happy wedlock, and a source of constant joy and pleasure to faithful husbands and wives, serve by their presence to correct false impressions as to supposed inconvenience of an indissoluble marriage bond. The sight of them in the arms of Jesus could not fail to leave a good impression with reference to the married life.]

[FFG 541-543]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13–16. They brought unto him little children. See notes on Matt. 19:13–15. Compare Luke 18:15–17. See also notes on Matt. 18:3, 4.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

When the disciples rebuke the people for bringing their little children to Jesus, he blesses the children and reminds the disciples that people must be as humble as a child to enter the kingdom of God.

Then they brought

"Now people were bringing." This is the next event in the story. (See: Introduction of a New Event)

he might touch them

This means that Jesus would touch them with his hands and bless them. AT: "he might touch them with his hands and bless them" or "he might lay his hands on them and bless them" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

rebuked them

"rebuked the people"

Jesus noticed it

The word "it" refers to the disciples rebuking the people who were bringing the children to Jesus.

was very displeased

"became angry"

Permit the little children to come to me, and do not forbid them

These two clauses have similar meanings, repeated for emphasis. In some languages it is more natural to emphasize this in another way. AT: "Be sure to allow the little children to come to me" (See: Parallelism)

do not forbid

This is a double negative. In some languages it is more natural to use a positive statement. AT: "allow" (See: Double Negatives)

for the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like them

The kingdom belonging to people represents the kingdom including them. AT: "the kingdom of God includes people who are like them" or "because only people like them are members of the kingdom of God" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

children

Jesus

disciple

rebuke

kingdom of God

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

13–16. CHRIST BLESSES LITTLE CHILDREN

Mat 19:13-15. Luk 18:15-17

13. ἐπετίμησαν αὐτοῖς ([2197][2198][2199][2200][2201][2202]) rather than ἐπετίμων τοῖς προσφἑρουσιν ([2203][2204][2205][2206][2207][2208]).

[2197] Codex Sinaiticus. 4th cent. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Katharine on Mount Sinai. Now at St Petersburg. The whole Gospel, ending at Mar 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1911.

[2198] Codex Vaticanus. 4th cent., but perhaps a little later than א. In the Vatican Library almost since its foundation by Pope Nicolas V., and one of its greatest treasures. The whole Gospel, ending at Mar 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1889.

[2199] Codex Ephraemi. 5th cent. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out, and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it; but a great deal of the original writing has been recovered; of Mark we have Mar 1:17 to Mar 6:31, Mar 8:5 to Mar 12:29, Mar 13:19 to Mar 16:20. In the National Library at Paris.

[2200] Codex Regius. 8th cent. An important witness. At Paris. Contains Mar 1:1 to Mar 10:15; Mar 10:30 to Mar 15:1; Mar 15:20 to Mar 16:20, but the shorter ending is inserted between Mar 16:8 and Mar 16:9, showing that the scribe preferred it to the longer one.

[2201] Codex Sangallensis. 9th or 10th cent. Contains the Gospels nearly complete, with an interlinear Latin translation. The text of Mark is specially good, agreeing often with CL. At St Gall.

[2202] Codex Athous Laurae. 8th cent. Like N and Σ, it is written in silver letters on purple vellum. Contains Mar 9:5 to Mar 16:20, and, as in L, the shorter ending is inserted between Mar 16:8 and Mar 16:9. As in Δ, the text of Mark is specially good.

[2203] Codex Alexandrinus. 5th cent. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to King Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. The whole Gospel. Photographic facsimile, 1879.

[2204] Codex Bezae. 6th cent. Has a Latin translation (d) side by side with the Greek text, and the two do not quite always agree. Presented by Beza to the University Library of Cambridge in 1581. Remarkable for its frequent divergences from other texts. Contains Mark, except Mar 16:15-20, which has been added by a later hand. Photographic facsimile, 1899.

[2205] Codex Purpureus. 6th cent. Full text in Texts and Studies v. No. 4, 1899. Contains Mar 5:20 to Mar 7:4; Mar 7:20 to Mar 8:32; Mar 9:1 to Mar 10:43; Mar 11:7 to Mar 12:19; Mar 14:25 to Mar 15:23; Mar 15:33-42. See below on Ψ.

[2206] Codex Monacensis. 10th cent. Contains Mar 6:47 to Mar 16:20. Many verses in 14, 15, 16 are defective.

[2207] Codex Oxoniensis. 9th cent. Contains Mark, except Mar 3:35 to Mar 6:20.

[2208] Codex Petropolitanus. 9th cent. Gospels almost complete. Mar 16:18-20 is in a later hand.

13. προσέφερον αὐτῷ παιδία. Mk and Mt. place this incident immediately after the discourse on divorce in a house at Capernaum, and Salmon (Human Element, p. 395) makes the attractive suggestion that the children of the house “were brought to Him to say goodnight, and receive His blessing before being sent to bed.” Lk. intimates that several parents brought their babes (τὰ βρέφη); and the disciples would hardly have interfered, if only the children of the house had been brought. Both Mk and Lk. say that the object was that the great Healer should touch the children, which Mt. enlarges into what He actually did; “that He should lay His hands on them and pray.” Cf. Gen 48:14. Syr-Sin. here has “lay His hands on them.” For the subj. after a past tense see Winer, p. 360; the opt. is going out of use, and no example of the opt. after ἵνα is found in N.T. Both Mk (Mar 2:4) and Mt. (often) use προσφέρειν of bringing the sick to Christ, and ailments in children are common; even those who had no ailment would be honoured by His touch. A girl of twelve is called παιδίον (Mar 5:39; Mar 5:42), so that we need not think of all these children as babies; the point is that their being too young to comprehend His teaching is no reason for keeping them from Him. In the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. this passage was substituted in the Office for Baptism for Mat 19:13-15, as clearer evidence of Christ’s love for children.

οἱ δὲ μαθηταὶ ἐπετίμησαν αὐτοῖς. See crit. note. To the disciples it seemed intolerable that the Master, whose strength was sorely tried by the number of adults whom He taught and healed, should be expected to attend to little children who had no need of any special attention.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13-16.] The bringing of children to Jesus. Mat 19:13-15.Luk 18:15-17Luk 18:15-17. The three are nearly identical:—from Matt., we have the additional reason καὶ προσεύξηται, and from Mark, ἐναγκαλ. αὐτά.

13. παιδία] Not only children, but as in Luke, infants (βρέφη): and our Lord was not to teach them, but only to touch, and pray over them. This simple, seemingly superstitious application of οἱ προσφέροντες (perhaps not the mothers only) the disciples, interrupted in their converse on high and important subjects, despise and reprove.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13-16. Jesus blesses little children, and rebukes his disciples for repelling those bringing them.

Jesus meets with opposition here, but also with trust. They bring to him little children, that they may receive that wonderful touch which has healed so many. The disciples, whose thoughts are busy now with the important affairs of the kingdom, which seemed to them so near, rebuke them for intruding so slight matters on the Messiah. But Jesus became very angry, and bade the children to be brought to him, as representing the very spirit to which the kingdom belongs.

Mt. and Mk. are parallel in their account from the close of the Galilean ministry to the final entry into Jerusalem. Lk. introduces, between the departure from Galilee and this point, much of his most characteristic matter. But beginning here, with the events immediately preceding the entry into Jerusalem, the three accounts become parallel. The following is a synopsis of these events:

matthew. mark. luke.

Question of Divorce. Same.

Blessing of Children. Same. Same.

Rich Young Man. Same. Same.

Parable of Householder.

Prophecy of Death. Same. Same.

Petition of James and John. Same.

Blind Men at Jericho. Same. Same.

13. ἵνα ἄψηται αὐτῶν—that he may touch them. The symbolic action accompanying the blessing was the laying on of hands. See v. 16. Touch gives the rationale of that conventional form. The mere touch of that wonderful being had cured, restored, raised. His method in conveying these blessings had been the laying on of hands, and they saw in this the effect of contact with so marvellous a man. ἐπετίμων αὐτοῖς—rebuked them. This rebuke was directed against the presumption of those persons in bringing mere children to the attention of so great and busy a person as Jesus.

αὐτοῖς, instead of τοῖς προσφέρουσιν, those bringing them, Treg. marg. WH. RV. א BCL Δ two mss. Lat. Vet. It is against this, that αὐτοῖς is the reading of Mt. and Lk.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They brought [προσεφερον] . Imperfect tense; they were bringing, as he went on his way. Similarly, were rebuking, as they were successively brought.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.