Tag Archives: hinder

Jesus The Family Man

Bible Study, , ,

JESUS THE FAMILY MAN

When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. He answered, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.’

People were bringing little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on 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 each of them. Truly I tell you, 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, placed His hands on them and blessed them (Mark 10: 13-16).

We tend to think of Jesus as the rabbi, the homeless, wandering teacher who spent three years roaming Israel from north to south and east to west, but we don’t think of Him as a family man. He may not have had a wife and family of His own (in spite of what Dan Brown may have written) but He was at heart a family man. How do we know this?

First of all, His attitude and behaviour towards woman elevated them from the lowly position they occupied in society to people with dignity who had the right to be treated with honour and respect. It was the women who travelled with Him who took care of His needs and even provided for Him and His disciples from their own means. He healed many women. He spent time in the home of Martha and Mary, enjoying the company and their hospitality. He forgave their sinful practices and treated them with compassion.

Secondly, He protected the sanctity of marriage. He came down hard on the Pharisees for their hard-hearted attitude towards women. They favoured the rabbis who either sanctioned divorce for any flimsy reason, or even for a legitimate reason, marital unfaithfulness, instead of upholding God’s original intention. They were obviously looking for an excuse to cover up their own practices.

He loved and blessed the children. He saw in them, not immaturity but potential. They were the ones who would accept the kingdom of God in simple faith without doubts and questions. The disciples treated them with disdain, as though they were an intrusion into Jesus’ time and space. This annoyed Him because He was never put out by interruptions, especially from the ones who needed Him.

Jesus rapped His disciples over the knuckles for their hard-hearted attitude towards little children. Like the rest of Jewish society, as far as they were concerned, women and children were just there and had no significance except in the home where the women served, had babies and raised them. When the sons reached adulthood at the age of twelve, they were accepted into adult male society as young men but, until then, they were insignificant.

Unlike us ordinary mortals, Jesus looked beyond who and what people were to what they could and would become, given the opportunity to be exposed to the Word of God. But we, in the church, have not absorbed His outlook and attitude, in the main. Ministry to children in the church does not take precedence over ministry to adults. This reflects the same attitude as the disciples. We treat the children as peripheral and not central to the kingdom of God.

Our ministry to children is run as a rescue ministry rather than as foundational to their lives as they grow up in a very evil world. What would happen, for example, if parents made it a priority to focus on their children above everything else, and raise them to know and follow Jesus? Instead of treating them as peripheral, treat them as the very reason for their living until they have grown up and left home.

Let’s take to heart Jesus’ rebuke. ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to each of them.’

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Dont’ Get Between Them and Me

Christian Life, , ,

DON’T GET BETWEEN THEM AND ME

“People brought babies to Jesus, hoping He might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. Jesus called them back. ‘Let these children alone. Don’t get between them and me. These children are the kingdom’s pride and joy. Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.'” Luke 18:15-17 (The Message).

There are so many things that Jesus said and did that startle us because they are so different from the way we think and from the culture of the people of His day.

This little interlude tells us a whole lot about the disciples, about Jesus and about little children.

Women and children occupied the lowest rungs in society and were treated accordingly. It was quite natural for the disciples to be offended by these mothers’ audacity to bring their children to Jesus for a fatherly blessing. Jesus was an important person in their culture — a rabbi with authority. It was surely their duty to protect Him from them and to screen those who took up His time.

The disciples were still very much part of their own culture. Although they had been with Jesus for some time, they had not yet absorbed His kingdom perspective. They thought like the rest of their people, and to them, children were a nuisance and in the way. Jesus had more important things to do than to be bothered with a bunch of kids!

But Jesus was always the perfect representative of His Father. He was first and foremost the Son of God. Not to accept and welcome children, no matter how insignificant they were in His society, was to betray the passionate love of the Father for all people, big and small. He was not only true to the character of the Father; He was true to Himself because He and the Father are one.

As always, Jesus’ vision was long-term. He saw the end from the beginning and recognised potential rather than actual. To Him, babies and little children were not snot-nosed brats to be tolerated but people with potential to fulfil the Father’s purpose for them; they were worshippers-in-the-making, and to get between them and Him in this early, formative part of their lives was to hinder God’s working in them. To Him, that was a far more serious issue than the immature behaviour of the little ones.

To Jesus, children were adults-in-formation, at the beginning of their journey towards fulfilling their purpose in God. Any adult attitude or behaviour which interfered with their natural disposition of trust, simplicity and helpless dependence on Him would put obstacles in their way which they would have to, and some might never, overcome. Both the circumstances of their lives and the way they were treated by those who influenced them in any way, would determine their understanding and belief about God.

Jesus’ attitude to all people, women and children included, was to recognise their place in the kingdom of God, and His treatment of them was always to remove whatever hindered them from taking their place in the kingdom, whether it is physical, emotional, intellectual, relational or any other issue that clouded their understanding of the Father’s love for them.

All children have two characteristics that need to be developed and can easily be squashed by misunderstanding the circumstances of their lives and by those who are placed in their lives as mentors and guides — potential and helplessness. It is the role of parents to recognise and nurture potential and to train their children for responsible adulthood.

We raise our children to be independent, and that is good if we remember that it is important for them to become independent of us but not of God. The father’s primary role is to represent the Father by teaching their children obedience so that, as they grow up, they transfer their obedience from their earthly to heavenly Father.

Too many children are abused, harassed or neglected by their fathers so that they cannot wait to go out on their own and do their own thing. No wonder the world is full of messed-up adults who have no idea of who the Father really is, and who hate God so much that they do everything they can to defy the very conscience He put inside them as their basic guide in life.

The first step to healing our world is to acknowledge our ‘father’ issues, forgive those who have got between us and Jesus, and to go back to where Jesus is, receiving us as little children, recognising and cultivating the potential in us, and teaching us to rely on Him as closely as a baby at its mother’s breast.