Little Children...

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10:14-15).

I think Jesus is pretty funny! When he teaches people, he tends to use images that probably baffled, confused, and even angered those he was teaching. For the people in Jesus day, to be like a child was absolute foolishness. And, in our day (if we really think about it), it's pretty similar. When we see someone acting like a child, we talk about how immature they are and how they need to grow up. Well, Jesus isn't talking about acting like a child...He's talking about believing and receiving like children. The people of Jesus' day and even many of us today look at this passage and are offended because we like to think that in order to receive the Kingdom, we must have all the knowledge, all the right answers, live our lives in all the right ways, and so on. But, Jesus shatters this image and says...just believe and receive like a child. These little children don't have all the answers, yet they will receive the kingdom. A simple faith can go a long way. Sometimes, I think we try to hard to earn our way into the kingdom. But, if you look at the New Testament, we don't see anything that talks about how we need to earn our way into the kingdom. We're told to believe in our hearts, repent, and confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord (more on this tomorrow).

Well, I hope you and I will learn to receive the kingdom like little children.