9.23.12--Sermon on Mark 9:33-37 and Mark 10:13-16

In one of the Sunday school classrooms at Crosswicks, there is a certain poster tacked up to corkboard on the wall. On this poster is a cartoon painting of Jesus, surrounded by little children. Everyone is smiling and laughing, and it looks like Jesus is about to wrap all of them up into a group hug. It is supposed to represent a Scripture lesson, one of the many stories of Christ that is found in all three of the synoptic Gospels—it is in Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18.

In this story, some families bring their children before Jesus so that he might bless them. In all of the stories, Jesus is in the middle of speaking to crowds of people. It seems to be a fairly common day in ministry for Jesus: he is healing the sick and injured, verbally battling it out with the Pharisees, and teaching the multitudes about the Kingdom of God. And in he middle of all of this, some families are trying desperately to parade their children before Jesus.

Now, it was a pretty common practice back in this day for rabbis to speak a blessing over children. What was not common then, though, was for this blessing to happen in the middle of his teachings. In all three of the synoptic Gospels, Jesus seems to be in the middle of pretty important conversations when these children are pushed forward.

I’m sure it was not much different than an over-excited mother pushing her kids to the front of the line to see Santa. You see, back then, for a well-known and well-respected rabbi to bless your child was important. It invoked God’s protection on your son or daughter, and greatly aided them in growing up to be healthy, prosperous people. You did not want to miss your chance for your kids to receive this blessing.

And, like the family who pushes to the front to see Santa who is then told to go to the back of the line, the disciples herd the children and their parents away from Jesus. How dare they interrupt Jesus when he is in the middle of such significant discussions just so that their sons and daughters might be brought before him! Don’t they know that there are more important people to whom Jesus needs to speak?

It seems a little harsh, right? But the truth is, in their culture, pretty much every one and every thing was more important than these children. Until an individual reached the age of maturity, they were considered to be less than people, unimportant. All children were considered to be the property of their father, and with the mortality rate being so high that most of them would not reach adulthood, they were property that carried very little value.

So, since these children were so low on the totem pole, the disciples weren’t being blatantly rude by pushing them away from Jesus; they were trying to make sure that the people who deserved to see Jesus were given priority. It still seems a bit harsh, but let’s be honest: we treat visiting VIP’s and dignitaries the same way even today. Those in the “in circles” get access, while the rest of us might be able to steal a glimpse here and there.

But as Jesus is speaking to those who “deserve” his time, he sees his disciples herding the children way. He calls out to them with what is now a pretty famous line of Scripture: “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

The Kingdom of God belongs to children, to the lowest people on the spectrum of significance, to those not good enough to even be considered people. Friends, this is the Gospel. Jesus came to show love, acceptance, and belonging to the world, especially to those whom the world treats as less-than-important—just like these children.

Now, we today think completely differently about our children, don’t we? When we see a small child, we think about the innocence in his eyes, the pureness of her spirit. We think about the potential for greatness that each young one bears, the chances he or she has to change the world for the better. We see that little boy or little girl as a beloved son or daughter of God, and one with all the priority and importance that is his or her due. We do not see children as property or as insignificant and marginalized.

We see, maybe even because of this Scriptural passage, one to whom the Kingdom of God belongs.

In a way, this passage has lost much of its meaning as the years have progressed. Many—including myself even just a handful of years back—interpret this text much differently than its original theme. Many hear that the Kingdom of God belongs to such who are as children, and they think, “The Kingdom of God is for those with the innocence of a child, blameless and pure.” Or maybe, “The Kingdom is for those with faith in God like that of a child, unquestioning and complete.” Or even maybe, “The Kingdom of God is for those with the outlook of a child, ignorant of the ugly truths of our world.”

Very few look at this passage and think, “The Kingdom of God is for the lowest of the low, those not even considered to be people, those insignificant to society and culture.”

And because of this, we miss the point. We miss what Jesus is saying here, because the truth is that if Jesus were speaking this truth to us today, he probably would not say that the Kingdom of God is for those like our children. He would probably speak of people a lot less appealing to the majority of people, of people who are pushed to the very margins of our culture.

The criminal.

The illegal immigrant.

The addict.

The mentally and physically handicapped.

The homeless.

The list could go on. I’m sure that you can think of plenty of people in your life who fit the description of the least and the lowest. Maybe you yourself have even held that role. And these are the types of people to whom the Kingdom of God belongs.

Now, for most of us in the church, this is no great revelation. Anyone who has read or heard the Sermon on the Plain from Luke 6 has probably figured out that there is a special place in Christ’s heart for the marginalized of society.

Blessed are you who are poor.

Blessed are you who hunger now.

Blessed are you who weep now.

Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

These are not the elite of society, the ones who look out for themselves, succeed at any cost, and live comfortably as the world hurts around them. No, these are the people who are hurting, who are pushed to the side by individuals and by society, who have been denied even the basic necessities of life because of past mistakes or because of the fact that they were born with different colored skin or speak a different language.

And the Kingdom of God is for them.

Unfortunately, there are many times throughout history that the church has responded to the marginalized in much the same way that the disciples responded to the children. We push them away from Jesus, away from fellowship and communion with Christ and his people. We tell others through our words and actions that if they do not look like us, think like us, and speak like us, they don’t deserve to be brought before Jesus. Sometimes this is done with conscious effort, but more times than not it is instead done through what we do not say, and do not do. We block their way, and because of us, they are unable to meet their Savior.

But Jesus’ words should cut through our false piety and our self-righteousness, for his words are emphatic.

“Let them come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

The house my parents live in was built by my great-grandfather on my mother’s side. It is a beautiful two-story rock house with an enormous yard. Like many of the houses built during this time in Texas, the garage is not attached to the house and sports a two-bedroom apartment above the stalls. Ever since my mother inherited the house, my parents have always rented out the garage apartment to different families who needed it. Many times, they would set the monthly rent at a much lower amount than anything else these families could find in our small town, and usually it would just barely cover their utilities.

Now, this is a fairly nice apartment, with a full kitchen and utility room, two nice-sized bedrooms, and, if I do say so myself, very friendly neighbors right next door. I always thought that it was prime location for a small family with one or two older kids, especially since we lived right in front of the high school. But it seemed like every individual or family who lived in our garage apartment was a project of some kind.

One time it was a family in the middle of a divorce. One time it was a family who didn’t own a car and would “borrow” one of ours without asking. One time it was a guy who owned what seemed like a dozen dogs, all of whom loved to jump the fence, and all of whom we ended up feeding. One time it was an unmarried couple, the girl still in high school and the guy in and out of jail, and my mom watched their baby when they were in school or court. All of them were in need of great help, and all of them seemed to be our problem.

I could not understand why we couldn’t get a normal family to live in our apartment, why we had to be the ones to fix these people. Then one day I heard my dad refer to them as “Mom’s projects.” For some reason, when I heard this, it finally clicked in my head what was going on. We could have had relatively normal, ordinary people living above the garage, but when my mom heard of a person or a family in need, a family down on their luck, she would do everything in her power to help them, to pick them back up.

We didn’t attract the broken. My mom sought them out.

Friends, this is what Jesus asks of us. It’s not just that we are to stop hindering of the broken and the marginalized from coming before Christ, we are to actively seek out those the world rejects and work to bring them before the Lord.

For the Kingdom of God is there’s.

We heard in our Scripture reading that once, when Jesus was teaching his disciples about the Kingdom of God, he told them that whoever would be greatest among them must become servant of all. He then picked up a little child, placed him among the group, and hugged him. He said that whoever welcomes one such as this, welcomes Jesus himself, and the One who sent him. He challenged them to be servants to everyone, even and especially those considered the least, the rejected.

This is also a call to action for any who would call him or herself Christian, for all who call themselves the church. The church must be least of all and the servant to all. The church must welcome the pushed out, the marginalized, the less-than-person, and when the church does this, the church welcomes Christ and the One who sent him.

For the Kingdom of God belongs to such as this.

So may we be a church that hears truly and interprets honestly the Word of God for us today. May we be a people that never hinders the outcast and rejected from coming to Jesus. May we constantly lift them up, seek them out, and do everything in our power to bring them before our God. And may we remember that the love of our God, that love that saved us from sin and death, is for absolutely everyone. Amen.