And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.
Mothers and others brought young children to him to be touched and blessed with hands laid on their heads, and the disciples rebuked those who brought them as troubling him with work too unimportant for him. He was displeased not with the mothers and children but with the disciples, and he welcomed the children, took them in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. His welcome showed tender compassion and gentleness, finding rest in innocent children, soothing their griefs, meeting them at their level and adapting his lessons to their understanding. The kingdom of God belongs to such, and no one will enter it unless he receives it as a little child in humility rather than ambition for greatness and position. Their expanding minds are especially receptive to teaching and the Spirit, retaining his words unto eternal life, so children must not be kept from him but be brought without delay by prayer, surrender, and patient instruction in righteousness.
Setting and Occasion
Mothers, parents and others brought young children to him, including little ones past infancy into childhood and youth. They were drawn into his presence in answer to burdened prayers to train them according to the word of God. The same work continues when children from one to four or five years old are brought forward to be spoken to and blessed in his name.
They were brought so that he would touch them. This reflected the custom of bringing children to a rabbi for blessing by the laying on of hands. The desire was that his hand might be laid in blessing on their heads and his Spirit subdue their hearts.
The disciples rebuked those who brought them because they thought the children would trouble him. They thought his work was too important to be interrupted and that the children were too young to be benefited. They concluded he would be displeased at their presence, and that sending the mothers away would do him a favor. In this they tried to send the children away as a nuisance.
He heard the timid, tearful request with sympathy but waited to see how the disciples would treat them. He was much displeased not with the mothers and children but with the disciples for rebuking them and sending them away. That displeasure fell on the rebuke itself and on the attempt to forbid their coming.
He welcomed the children. He took them up in his arms and let them rest against him, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
Christ's Welcome and Character
Jesus never turned a child away, and his presence did not drive children off but drew them to him. Even the poorest and most lowly were not afraid to come to him, for he was easily approached by the humblest. Little ones loved to be near him rather than fearing him, attracted by a face and eyes lighted with smiles for them.
Worn by the stir of the crowded city and by contact with crafty, hypocritical men, he found rest and peace in the company of innocent little children. He understood their needs, trials, sorrows and necessities and found joy and happiness in their simple joys. He soothed their childish griefs, disappointments, injuries, troubles and hurts, met them at their own level, answered their questions, adapted and simplified his important lessons to their childish understanding, delighted to speak words of encouragement to them, and blessed the mothers and caregivers who cared for them.
His welcome to children revealed tender compassion, love, mercy and gentleness in every word and act, marking his mission as of divine appointment. The dove that hovered over him at his baptism represents that gentle character. Little ones gladly came, put their elbows upon his knees, looked up into his sweet face, and read there depths of love and gentleness beaming from him, the same love that springs up in the heart as gentleness and love toward others. Though elevated above the common affairs of the world he did not shut himself out from society but moved in perfect freedom while strictly obeying his Father's law, and his dealing with children displays the perfect pattern of joining the innocence and simplicity of the child with manly strength, all-absorbing devotion to God with tender love for man, commanding dignity with humble grace, and unyielding firmness with sweet gentleness.
He labored not for himself but for others as the servant of all, willing to humble and deny himself and not seeking to distinguish himself. His taking the little children in his arms and blessing them with unfailing tenderness and gentleness, and speaking words of hope and comfort to weary mothers, belongs with his going from house to house healing the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting the mourners and sorrowing, soothing the afflicted, and speaking peace and hope to the distressed. It was his meat and drink to comfort and console others and to gladden the sad and heavy-laden with whom he daily came in contact.
That blessing, together with healing the sick and comforting the sorrowing, drew hearts to him and riveted attention when he opened his lips to speak. Wherever he was, in the synagogue, by the wayside, in a boat thrust out from land, at a Pharisee's feast or a publican's table, he bound the things of nature and the events of daily life to words of truth about the higher life, so that every word was to some soul a savor of life unto life, and doing good as he did opens hearts to hear of the Saviour. He is as truly a personal Saviour and helper of mothers today as when he gathered the little ones to his arms in Judea. His care for children drew their mothers' interest to him and showed how humanity could reach for and receive his divinity.
Children and the Kingdom
Their tender, expanding minds are especially receptive to Christian teaching and susceptible to the influences of the Spirit of God. They could listen to his counsel and accept him as Redeemer far more readily than grown people who were worldly-wise and hard-hearted, and retain the spiritual impressions made by his words and blessing. Children can bring their sins to him, ask forgiveness, and believe that he pardons and receives them. He loves everyone and especially loves the youngest members of the family, invites the younger children to come for his blessing as lambs of his fold, keeps his eyes upon the youngest, hears their prayers, and receives their given hearts and simple prayers mingled with the incense of his own spotless merits so they come up as a sweet-smelling savor before God. Children should pray for his protection, avoid evil, and live in preparation for heaven, and even very young children can be his, kept in health and dedicated to him daily, with parents and children serving God together and with his pleasure when they love him and give him their young hearts.
He saw in them future men and women who would be heirs of his grace and citizens and subjects of his kingdom, including some who would die as martyrs for his name. Children are the heritage of the Lord, the purchase of his blood for whom he died, his precious little flock whom he loves and desires to bless in meetings and in their homes. He wants them to have beautiful characters and guides them as the true Shepherd guides the lambs. The scene teaches that the kingdom of God belongs to such and no one will enter it unless he receives it as a little child. Humility, not ambition for greatness or position, marks those who belong to the kingdom, in contrast to seeking position and greatness.
Whoever humbles himself as a little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, while those striving for position and seeking to be the greatest will be called the least. Ambitious striving to exalt self is worked by satanic agencies until hereditary and cultivated traits place such persons, whatever their profession, in the very lowest scale. When God weighs them in the golden scales of the heavenly sanctuary the sentence upon them is weighed in the balances and found wanting. He loves children and young people, wants them to belong to him and be saved, and is ready to bless each child. He has tender sympathy for them, rejoices when Satan's efforts to overcome them are resisted, sends angels to guard and protect them, and as the Good Shepherd seeks those who have strayed, so parents are to teach their children that they can be saved.
Blessing and Its Effects
He came down to their level, met them where they were, answered their questions and simplified his important lessons to meet their childish understanding, planting seeds of truth in their young, expanding minds that in after years would spring up and bear fruit unto eternal life as they grew. Those who received his blessing were imbued with his Spirit, and in later time were reminded of that blessing and thereby prepared to work with him.
His receiving of the children comforts mothers, and his words strengthen and bless them, for he spoke words of hope and comfort to the weary mothers who brought them. The mothers went home rejoicing and weeping with gratitude because he had blessed their children, returning strengthened to take up their burden with new cheerfulness and to work hopefully for them. His blessing makes the children themselves more and more lovable, beautiful in character like him.
Mothers came with sick and dying little ones in their arms, and he took the little ones in his arms so that disease fled at his touch. Even dying infants held close were blessed and returned well and strong, and children and youth were restored to health from a dying condition, for his power was not limited and his healing grace rested on the afflicted. The same Jesus who healed then heals still, so every invalid can have hope of cure. Seeing him tenderly receiving the children and taking them in his arms stirred the young ruler's love for him and desire to become his disciple, for the children's blessing was something the wealthy ruler hoped he could also give him to satisfy his spiritual need.
Bringing Children to Jesus
Children are to be brought to Jesus and must not be neglected or kept from Him, and parents are to bring them without delay. This bringing is by faith and prayer, with full surrender of themselves to Him, seeking God with all the heart, praying and believing the promises. Mothers are to bring their little ones by faith, asking for grace and wisdom and surrendering themselves and their children to His care, seeking the grace of Christ to be taught His way and His will. His welcome shows that mothers burdened with care may seek His blessing for their children with faith and work hopefully for them.
Bringing them means bringing them to God in prayer and giving them the truths about the righteousness of Christ. It means conscientiously surrounding them as they grow with the best possible influences, teaching them that He is their best Friend who sympathizes with their trials and sorrows, and presenting God as a God of love so they will want to belong to Him and follow Him. It means patiently and lovingly teaching them to serve Him and do His will through effective, interesting Bible instruction in the truth. It means leading them step by step toward service and including them in the church's work, for they are welcome as fellow workers with Him in whom God is pleased.
A mother who feels her sacred burden and need of divine support will bring her children to Jesus in the same way, for He understood the mothers' prayers and care. Her work demands continual advancement in her own life in order to lead her children to higher attainments and to develop their physical, mental, and moral powers toward an education approved by God. She is to be taught of God and a daily learner in the school of Christ in order to impart instruction in righteousness, to remove every stumbling block from their path, and to labor for her own soul and theirs as a laborer together with God. She is to let the light gained shine in the family circle, plead with God for wisdom to mold their minds, and bring religion into home duties and responsibilities.
His reception encourages parents to bring their children even when they are wayward or have strong human passions, since these are no reason to withhold them from the Saviour. When children are not religiously inclined it is because they do not have parents who love Christ and His truth, so parents must solemnly dedicate their children to God as soon as they are born and have a different faith in order to see their salvation. A forbidding attitude that pushes children away and treats them as a nuisance displeases the Lord and opposes His welcome, for He valued children, welcomed them, and met them with care rather than sending them away. Children are to be received with warmth and care, and mothers of children are to be helped and encouraged by prayer with and for them.
To be severe and to exercise justice without mercy toward children will never win the blessing of faithful service and entrance into the joy of the Lord. Because probationary time will not continue much longer and it will soon be forever too late to enter the fold of safety, they must be helped now to choose the path that leads to that fold and be carefully and tenderly shielded from temptation. Making the bringing up of children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is the greatest missionary work parents can perform, greater than the work of a king on his throne. Parents are encouraged in that training by God's honoring of the young in choosing Joseph in his youth for a special work for His people, in accepting Samuel when his mother dedicated him and giving the solemn message to the boy while passing by the aged priest who failed to train his children rightly, and in the childhood character of John the Baptist.
Mothers and others brought young children to him to be touched and blessed with hands laid on their heads, and the disciples rebuked those who brought them as troubling him with work too unimportant for him. He was displeased not with the mothers and children but with the disciples, and he welcomed the children, took them in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. His welcome showed tender compassion and gentleness, finding rest in innocent children, soothing their griefs, meeting them at their level and adapting his lessons to their understanding. The kingdom of God belongs to such, and no one will enter it unless he receives it as a little child in humility rather than ambition for greatness and position. Their expanding minds are especially receptive to teaching and the Spirit, retaining his words unto eternal life, so children must not be kept from him but be brought without delay by prayer, surrender, and patient instruction in righteousness.
Setting and Occasion
Mothers, parents and others brought young children to him, including little ones past infancy into childhood and youth. They were drawn into his presence in answer to burdened prayers to train them according to the word of God. The same work continues when children from one to four or five years old are brought forward to be spoken to and blessed in his name.
They were brought so that he would touch them. This reflected the custom of bringing children to a rabbi for blessing by the laying on of hands. The desire was that his hand might be laid in blessing on their heads and his Spirit subdue their hearts.
The disciples rebuked those who brought them because they thought the children would trouble him. They thought his work was too important to be interrupted and that the children were too young to be benefited. They concluded he would be displeased at their presence, and that sending the mothers away would do him a favor. In this they tried to send the children away as a nuisance.
He heard the timid, tearful request with sympathy but waited to see how the disciples would treat them. He was much displeased not with the mothers and children but with the disciples for rebuking them and sending them away. That displeasure fell on the rebuke itself and on the attempt to forbid their coming.
He welcomed the children. He took them up in his arms and let them rest against him, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
Christ's Welcome and Character
Jesus never turned a child away, and his presence did not drive children off but drew them to him. Even the poorest and most lowly were not afraid to come to him, for he was easily approached by the humblest. Little ones loved to be near him rather than fearing him, attracted by a face and eyes lighted with smiles for them.
Worn by the stir of the crowded city and by contact with crafty, hypocritical men, he found rest and peace in the company of innocent little children. He understood their needs, trials, sorrows and necessities and found joy and happiness in their simple joys. He soothed their childish griefs, disappointments, injuries, troubles and hurts, met them at their own level, answered their questions, adapted and simplified his important lessons to their childish understanding, delighted to speak words of encouragement to them, and blessed the mothers and caregivers who cared for them.
His welcome to children revealed tender compassion, love, mercy and gentleness in every word and act, marking his mission as of divine appointment. The dove that hovered over him at his baptism represents that gentle character. Little ones gladly came, put their elbows upon his knees, looked up into his sweet face, and read there depths of love and gentleness beaming from him, the same love that springs up in the heart as gentleness and love toward others. Though elevated above the common affairs of the world he did not shut himself out from society but moved in perfect freedom while strictly obeying his Father's law, and his dealing with children displays the perfect pattern of joining the innocence and simplicity of the child with manly strength, all-absorbing devotion to God with tender love for man, commanding dignity with humble grace, and unyielding firmness with sweet gentleness.
He labored not for himself but for others as the servant of all, willing to humble and deny himself and not seeking to distinguish himself. His taking the little children in his arms and blessing them with unfailing tenderness and gentleness, and speaking words of hope and comfort to weary mothers, belongs with his going from house to house healing the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting the mourners and sorrowing, soothing the afflicted, and speaking peace and hope to the distressed. It was his meat and drink to comfort and console others and to gladden the sad and heavy-laden with whom he daily came in contact.
That blessing, together with healing the sick and comforting the sorrowing, drew hearts to him and riveted attention when he opened his lips to speak. Wherever he was, in the synagogue, by the wayside, in a boat thrust out from land, at a Pharisee's feast or a publican's table, he bound the things of nature and the events of daily life to words of truth about the higher life, so that every word was to some soul a savor of life unto life, and doing good as he did opens hearts to hear of the Saviour. He is as truly a personal Saviour and helper of mothers today as when he gathered the little ones to his arms in Judea. His care for children drew their mothers' interest to him and showed how humanity could reach for and receive his divinity.
Children and the Kingdom
Their tender, expanding minds are especially receptive to Christian teaching and susceptible to the influences of the Spirit of God. They could listen to his counsel and accept him as Redeemer far more readily than grown people who were worldly-wise and hard-hearted, and retain the spiritual impressions made by his words and blessing. Children can bring their sins to him, ask forgiveness, and believe that he pardons and receives them. He loves everyone and especially loves the youngest members of the family, invites the younger children to come for his blessing as lambs of his fold, keeps his eyes upon the youngest, hears their prayers, and receives their given hearts and simple prayers mingled with the incense of his own spotless merits so they come up as a sweet-smelling savor before God. Children should pray for his protection, avoid evil, and live in preparation for heaven, and even very young children can be his, kept in health and dedicated to him daily, with parents and children serving God together and with his pleasure when they love him and give him their young hearts.
He saw in them future men and women who would be heirs of his grace and citizens and subjects of his kingdom, including some who would die as martyrs for his name. Children are the heritage of the Lord, the purchase of his blood for whom he died, his precious little flock whom he loves and desires to bless in meetings and in their homes. He wants them to have beautiful characters and guides them as the true Shepherd guides the lambs. The scene teaches that the kingdom of God belongs to such and no one will enter it unless he receives it as a little child. Humility, not ambition for greatness or position, marks those who belong to the kingdom, in contrast to seeking position and greatness.
Whoever humbles himself as a little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, while those striving for position and seeking to be the greatest will be called the least. Ambitious striving to exalt self is worked by satanic agencies until hereditary and cultivated traits place such persons, whatever their profession, in the very lowest scale. When God weighs them in the golden scales of the heavenly sanctuary the sentence upon them is weighed in the balances and found wanting. He loves children and young people, wants them to belong to him and be saved, and is ready to bless each child. He has tender sympathy for them, rejoices when Satan's efforts to overcome them are resisted, sends angels to guard and protect them, and as the Good Shepherd seeks those who have strayed, so parents are to teach their children that they can be saved.
Blessing and Its Effects
He came down to their level, met them where they were, answered their questions and simplified his important lessons to meet their childish understanding, planting seeds of truth in their young, expanding minds that in after years would spring up and bear fruit unto eternal life as they grew. Those who received his blessing were imbued with his Spirit, and in later time were reminded of that blessing and thereby prepared to work with him.
His receiving of the children comforts mothers, and his words strengthen and bless them, for he spoke words of hope and comfort to the weary mothers who brought them. The mothers went home rejoicing and weeping with gratitude because he had blessed their children, returning strengthened to take up their burden with new cheerfulness and to work hopefully for them. His blessing makes the children themselves more and more lovable, beautiful in character like him.
Mothers came with sick and dying little ones in their arms, and he took the little ones in his arms so that disease fled at his touch. Even dying infants held close were blessed and returned well and strong, and children and youth were restored to health from a dying condition, for his power was not limited and his healing grace rested on the afflicted. The same Jesus who healed then heals still, so every invalid can have hope of cure. Seeing him tenderly receiving the children and taking them in his arms stirred the young ruler's love for him and desire to become his disciple, for the children's blessing was something the wealthy ruler hoped he could also give him to satisfy his spiritual need.
Bringing Children to Jesus
Children are to be brought to Jesus and must not be neglected or kept from Him, and parents are to bring them without delay. This bringing is by faith and prayer, with full surrender of themselves to Him, seeking God with all the heart, praying and believing the promises. Mothers are to bring their little ones by faith, asking for grace and wisdom and surrendering themselves and their children to His care, seeking the grace of Christ to be taught His way and His will. His welcome shows that mothers burdened with care may seek His blessing for their children with faith and work hopefully for them.
Bringing them means bringing them to God in prayer and giving them the truths about the righteousness of Christ. It means conscientiously surrounding them as they grow with the best possible influences, teaching them that He is their best Friend who sympathizes with their trials and sorrows, and presenting God as a God of love so they will want to belong to Him and follow Him. It means patiently and lovingly teaching them to serve Him and do His will through effective, interesting Bible instruction in the truth. It means leading them step by step toward service and including them in the church's work, for they are welcome as fellow workers with Him in whom God is pleased.
A mother who feels her sacred burden and need of divine support will bring her children to Jesus in the same way, for He understood the mothers' prayers and care. Her work demands continual advancement in her own life in order to lead her children to higher attainments and to develop their physical, mental, and moral powers toward an education approved by God. She is to be taught of God and a daily learner in the school of Christ in order to impart instruction in righteousness, to remove every stumbling block from their path, and to labor for her own soul and theirs as a laborer together with God. She is to let the light gained shine in the family circle, plead with God for wisdom to mold their minds, and bring religion into home duties and responsibilities.
His reception encourages parents to bring their children even when they are wayward or have strong human passions, since these are no reason to withhold them from the Saviour. When children are not religiously inclined it is because they do not have parents who love Christ and His truth, so parents must solemnly dedicate their children to God as soon as they are born and have a different faith in order to see their salvation. A forbidding attitude that pushes children away and treats them as a nuisance displeases the Lord and opposes His welcome, for He valued children, welcomed them, and met them with care rather than sending them away. Children are to be received with warmth and care, and mothers of children are to be helped and encouraged by prayer with and for them.
To be severe and to exercise justice without mercy toward children will never win the blessing of faithful service and entrance into the joy of the Lord. Because probationary time will not continue much longer and it will soon be forever too late to enter the fold of safety, they must be helped now to choose the path that leads to that fold and be carefully and tenderly shielded from temptation. Making the bringing up of children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord is the greatest missionary work parents can perform, greater than the work of a king on his throne. Parents are encouraged in that training by God's honoring of the young in choosing Joseph in his youth for a special work for His people, in accepting Samuel when his mother dedicated him and giving the solemn message to the boy while passing by the aged priest who failed to train his children rightly, and in the childhood character of John the Baptist.