Matthew 19:13 and 14 "Then, some children were presented to him so that he put his hands on them, and prayed; and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said: "Let the children come to Me, and do not stop them; for of such is the Kingdom of heaven. "And having laid his hands on them, he departed from there."
This particular incident is not only recorded in Matthew, but also recorded in Mark chapter 10 and Luke chapter 18. It is a passage significant enough to have involved, a full involvement by all the synoptic writers. It seemed to the disciples that the idea of bringing young children to Jesus was rather an interruption of a trivial nature; but it was not like that, as we shall see.
The parents in this scene wanted Jesus to touch their children, to bless their children, to pray for their children; and I think we would agree that they would not be the only parents who would want to bring their little ones to Jesus. I am not yet a FATHER but when I want to, I want to present it and dedicate it to God. And I know that there are fathers throughout the centuries of the world, who know the Lord, who have the same desire as these fathers, in a spiritual sense, to bring their children to Jesus.
... I take seriously the words of the apostle Paul to "raise your children in the discipline and admonition of the Lord." And it brings so much hope when you have confidence that you have taken your child to Jesus; if they die, you know where they are; if they live, you know who they belong to ...
Now, today's lesson tells us about some people who brought their children to Jesus. And I want to extract some spiritual implications and applications of that. But first let's see the text itself. Verse 13 begins with the word "then." And the word "then" in a way links this to the previous passage. We do not really know how much time passed between these two things, we do not know what the period of time or the interval was. "Then" is rather vague, but it seems as if we can conclude, that because they were in a house, and according to Mark 10, and the Lord was speaking to the disciples and was talking about the marriage, it would have been very easy for them to in the conversation they will begin to talk about the children, about the children. And maybe He was talking about it, maybe he was talking about the family, and there, in the midst of the crowd that had gathered, no doubt accompanying
the disciples, some fathers came and brought their children to Jesus.
And He is in a house, and if it was like when He was in houses in Galilee, it was undoubtedly full of people. And he says in verse 13: "Some children were presented to him." Mark and Luke use the verb in imperfect time, they were bringing, they were in the process of bringing. They ... the indication is that maybe some had reached it and others were still
coming. There was a flow of people who were bringing their little children to Jesus. And while that flow was coming, the disciples were watching. They thought it was an interruption, they thought it was a violation of the important things, they thought it was something not a priority, that these parents were here standing in, forming, to come to Jesus, while He was supposed to be teaching and speaking to those that they could understand, and placing small babies in His arms.
As you can see, it was a custom to do that in Jewish society. They had been raised to do that. In the Talmud he said that they should bring their children to any great teacher of the law so that he could bless them and pray for them; and they had done that.
