With Vacation Bible School going on this past week, I have spent a lot of time thinking about and praying for children. Children really are amazing! They make you experience the full spectrum of emotions. One minute, their relentless whining and manipulative mischief can make you want to pull your hair out, but the next minute, their sweet smile and gentle innocence melts your heart and makes you just want to pick them up and squeeze them tight. We experienced all of these things at VBS this past week.

            With all of the joy and wonder that comes with watching kids learning about the love of Jesus Christ for five mornings in a row, it was interesting reading the headlines and watching the news on television this week.

            On Tuesday night I stayed up and watched the 11 o’clock news and I heard a report that made me cringe: A New York man was arrested on charges he offered to sell a woman’s two-month-old baby online for $100. Staten Island prosecutors said on Monday that Paul Marquez was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and harassment. Authorities said Marquez had been out with the baby’s mother a few times but felt she wasn’t paying him enough attention. He was angry with her so he posted the ads with photos of her daughter on Craigslist. The mother notified police after she received a phone call from a person offering to buy the baby. According to a criminal complaint, Marquez said he just wanted to get back at the woman. He was being held in lieu of $1,000 bail. A call to his attorney wasn’t returned.

            What an incredibly sick and demented way to treat a two-month old child! Just a cursory glance at the week’s headlines reveals how poorly children are treated all over our country. Just a couple of weeks ago there was a nationwide FBI sting that rescued 105 children from sex-slave trafficking. And who can’t be horrified by the report this week of James Lee Dimaggio, the California man who is suspected of setting the fire that killed little eight year old Ethan Anderson and his mother, and kidnapped his sixteen year old sister Hannah. The search continues even now in the mountains of Idaho.

            One of the tragic realities of living in a world tainted by sin is that every day there are children all around the world who are not treated with the love, affection, and dignity they deserve. Sure, sometimes children experience pain by the hands or words of other children, but most often, children are victimized by the actions of adults; everything from kidnapping and abuse to divorce, neglect, and rejection (which is what happened in today’s Scripture reading).

Let the Little Children Come

            It is rather ironic that immediately following Jesus’ teaching about divorce that we find this story about some little children who were brought to Jesus to receive a blessing. In ancient Israel, it was common for children to be brought before a priest or rabbi to receive a blessing. Hands would be placed on a child and a prayer would be spoken, a petition for God’s blessing to be upon the child.

            In this story, Matthew doesn’t tell us much about these children. How many children were there? Where did they come from? Who brought them to Jesus? Were they unruly or well-behaved? We simply don’t know the answers to these questions; for Matthew, they are not important.

            But what was important is the disciple’s reaction. Presumably, all of Jesus’ twelve disciples who were present that day rebuked those who brought the children. Again Matthew does not tell us why the disciples rebuked those who brought the children to Jesus. We are left to wonder! Perhaps, the disciples thought Jesus was too busy with the “important” ministries of preaching and teaching to take the time to bless the children? Maybe they felt like Jesus should be focusing his ministry on the more “important” members of society? (After all, he just finished a heated debate with the Pharisees.) It was probably a combination of these two reasons.

            But we see that Jesus wasn’t very impressed by his disciple’s reaction. I always picture a look of disappointment on Jesus’ face as he observes their rebuke. Then Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Instead of being a hindrance or nuisance, Jesus sees these children as metaphors of true discipleship. In Matthew 18, Jesus taught that a childlike faith is necessary to enter the kingdom of heaven. Just as young children instinctively trust their mother and father and rely on them for everything they need, adults must humble themselves before God to see the kingdom of heaven.

            After Jesus spoke these words, Matthew indicates that he laid his hands on each one of the children and pronounced a blessing on their lives. And when Jesus finished this task, his ministry in that place was complete and he went on from there.

            The disciples, in this story, were like Charles Francis Adams, who was the grandson of President John Adams and the son of President John Quincy Adams. He had seven children and became a successful lawyer and politician. Throughout his life, he kept a diary, which is still in existence today.  One day he entered: “Went fishing with my son today–a day wasted.” His son, Brook Adams, also kept a diary. On that same day, Brook Adams made this entry: “Went fishing with my father–the most wonderful day of my life!”

            The father thought he was wasting his time while fishing with his son, but his son saw it as an investment of time. The disciples thought that blessing the children was a waste of time, but being blessed by Jesus was the best day of these children’s lives.

            For just a minute today, I would like to ask you to reflect on that little phrase in verse 14—“Let the little children come to me, do not hinder them…” Children have a natural desire to come to Jesus, but it is usually adults who hold them back. There are many children who want to go to church and learn about Jesus, but no one will take them. Their parents don’t believe or are too tired, their grand-parents don’t want to interfere, aunts and uncles and friends are too busy with their own lives. Adults hinder kids from coming to Jesus all the time.

            Most of you know that I never saw the inside of a church building until I was 12 years old, and that was only because I spent the night at a friend’s house When I was younger, I remember asking my parents why we didn’t go to church. They just kind of shrugged their shoulders and said, “Uh, I don’t know.” When I started attending church regularly at age 16, I remember my grandfather saying to me, “Why do you waste so much time going to church. Church is stupid!”

            As adults, we have an incredible influence on children. Let us learn for the disciple’s mistake! Whatever you do, don’t hinder a child from coming to Jesus! Instead, do whatever you can to bring the children to Jesus!

            As I conclude, allow me to share the words of one of the most powerful country songs I have ever heard. I am not really the sentimental type, but every time I hear this song on the radio, I can feel tears well up in my eyes. The song was written by a man named Harley Allen and it only took him 15 minutes to write it. John Michael Montgomery sings:

Her parents never took the young girl to church
Never spoke of His name
Never read her His word
Two non-believers walking lost in this world
Took their baby with them
What a sad little girl

Her daddy drank all day and mommy did drugs
Never wanted to play
Or give kisses and hugs
She’d watch the TV and sit there on the couch
While her mom fell asleep
And her daddy went out

And the drinking and the fighting
just got worse every night
Behind their couch she’d be hiding
Oh what a sad little life
And like it always does, the bad just got worse
With every slap and every curse
Until her daddy in a drunk rage one night
Used a gun on her mom and then took his life

And some people from the city took the girl far away
To a new mom and a new dad
kisses and hugs everyday
Her first day of Sunday school the teacher walked in
And a small little girl
Stared at a picture of Him

She said I know that man up there on that cross
I don’t know His name
But I know He got off
Cause He was there in my old house
and held me close to His side
As I hid there behind our couch
The night that my parents died