Childlike Faith

This week’s BDC was kindly contributed by Rev Gareth Killeen.

DAILY BYTE

The story is told of a man breaking free from prison. It took him years to painstakingly dig a tunnel, which he carefully hid behind a poster on his cell wall. Unbeknown to him, a miscalculation on the angle of his tunnel would ensure that he would finally dig out into a nearby children’s playground. The day eventually arrived when he broke through the last metre of soil. He lifted himself out onto the surface, jumped to his feet and started shouting: “I’m free. Thank God Almighty, that at last I am FREE”! His celebrations were interrupted however, by a tug from a little hand on his pants. He looked down to see a little toddler standing there with a defiant face and hands on hips. “That’s nothing”, the tyke retorted, “I’m already FOUR”!

This week we will be looking at the concept of childlike faith. We will be focussing our attention mainly on Mark 10.13-16, although other verses will be used as well.

Now it was common practice for ancient Jews to bring their children to a respected Rabbi for a blessing. This is obviously what happened here, with local parents attempting to bring their children to Jesus. However, they were prevented from doing so by the disciples. The Greek word used to describe how the disciples ‘rebuked’ them, is the same as elsewhere used by Mark to describe Jesus rebuking a storm into calmness. In other words, the disciples quite aggressively chased the children away. Perhaps they thought Jesus was tired after an exhausting day of ministry, but after so long in his company, they really should have known better. Mark’s Gospel clearly says that Jesus was indignant with the disciples for doing this. It describes Jesus as having a kind of embarrassed anger that his disciples would so misrepresent him. Time after time he had taught them about God’s love and care for those considered the ‘least’ in society. The powerless, and the marginalised had always been central to Jesus’ ministry, and now he overheard the disciples trying to drive some of them away.

This prompted him to tell them: “Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very centre of life in the kingdom,” (Mark 10. 14 MSG). Jesus then went onto say: “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it,” (Mark 10. 15 NIV).

Jesus is saying that we can only receive the kingdom of God, if we learn to receive it as little children. It strikes me that there is a powerful lesson to learn here and that these are very important words for us to hear and understand. This is why we will spend the whole of next week attempting to do exactly that.

Spend some time today thinking about what Jesus may have meant in this passage. Write your thoughts down and pray over them.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O’ Lord our God, we pray that you would open up our hearts and minds to this Scripture in a wonderful way. Help us to learn from you in this, and so deepen our faith and enlarge our hearts. This we pray in the name of our Teacher and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Mark 10:13-16 (NIV)

People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "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." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.