Are you loved by or lovely to the children?

Matthew 19:13-15

13 Then little children were brought to Jesus, that He might put His hands on them and pray; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. 14 But He said, Leave the children alone! Allow the little ones to come to Me, and do not forbid or restrain or hinder them, for of such [as these] is the kingdom of heaven composed. 15 And He put His hands upon them, and then went on His way.

Food for thought!

It may well be said that here we have the loveliest incident in the gospel story. The characters all stand out clear and plain, although it only takes two verses to tell it.

(i) There are those who brought the children. No doubt these would be their mothers. No wonder they wished Jesus to lay his hands on their children and make a prayer. These mothers had seen what the hands of Jesus could do; they had seen these hands touch away disease and pain; they had seen them bring sight to the blind eyes, and peace to the distracted mind; and they wanted hands like that to touch their children. They knew that there is loveliness in Jesus. There is loveliness in Jesus Christ that anyone can see. Yes, Jesus is lovely.

(ii) There are the disciples. The disciples sound as if they were rough and stern; but, if they were, it was love that made them so. Their one desire was to protect Jesus. They saw how tired he was; they saw what healing cost him. He was talking to them so often about a cross, and they must have seen on his face the tension of his heart and soul. All that they wanted was to see that Jesus was not bothered. They could only think that at such a time as this the children were a nuisance to the Master. We must not think of them as hard; we must not condemn them; they wished only to save Jesus from another of those insistent demands which were always laying their claims upon his strength.

(iii) There is Jesus himself. This story tells us much about him. He was the kind of person children loved. Jesus was certainly no grim ascetic, otherwise children would have run away from him. The best test of loveliness in you and me is the children. Do children come to you easily and spontaneously? Do you come to children easily and spontaneously? Do children from your neighbourhood come and play in your yard? Or are afraid of you? Are you lovely? Even your own children, when you come back from work, come running to embrace you, or they run to hide from you?

To Jesus no one is unimportant. Some might say, "It's only a child; don't let him bother you." Jesus would never say that. No one was ever a nuisance to Jesus. He was never too tired, never too busy to give all of himself to anyone who needed him. There is a strange difference between Jesus and many political and religious leaders. It is often impossible to get into the presence of one of these famous ones. They have a kind of retinue and bodyguards which keep the public away lest the great man be wearied and bothered. Jesus was the opposite of that. The way to his presence was open to the humblest person and to the youngest child.

(iv) There are the children. Jesus said of them that they were nearer God than anyone else there. The child's simplicity is, indeed, closer to God than anything else. It is life's tragedy that, as we grow older, we so often grow further from God rather than nearer to him.