Dwell in the Word Mark 10:13-16
Dwell on these questions as we consider Mark 10:13-16:
1. How does Jesus respond when the disciples try to prevent children from being brought to Him, and what does His reaction reveal about His attitude towards them?
2. What significant message is Jesus conveying about the nature of our relationship with God when He emphasizes the importance of receiving the kingdom of God like a child? How does this contrast with the idea of self-sufficiency or merit-based salvation?
3. In what ways does the imagery of children being brought to Jesus illustrate the concept of grace in salvation? How does this remind us of our dependence on God's initiative and His willingness to receive us, despite our inherent inability to come to Him on our own?
Transcript:
So, on this Wednesday, we come once again to a very well-known passage of scripture here in the Gospel of Mark. We see what is happening. Jesus is teaching and little children are being brought to him. Now, notice here, they're bringing the children. These are not kids walking up to Jesus. The idea here is that these are small children who are not able to come on their own. And so, the disciples rebuked the people that are bringing these children. And Jesus is looking at this, and it says, I love this word. We don't use this word much anymore, right? He says that he was indignant. He was very upset because he wants the children to come to him. And notice what he said that the kingdom of God belongs to such children. And so, Jesus says this, Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. Now, the idea that is being talked about here is this idea that we come to God as children. We are not able to take care of ourselves. It is not just that we are innocent. That's not the case. We know that we are sinful by nature.
The idea here is that we go to God because he calls us to himself, and he brings us to himself. And we come to him with empty hands. We're not able to bring anything. Do you remember feeding yourself with a bottle? You don't. We couldn't go to the cupboard and get out some formula and mix it up and heat it up and feed it to ourselves. We were helpless as children. And that's the idea that we are seeing Jesus convey to us here in this passage today. We are not able to go to God on our own. We need to be brought to Him. He brings us to himself through His Word and Spirit, and he receives us willingly. In fact, he wants his children to come to Him. He would not want anyone to keep us away. And so, when we go to Jesus, we are doing so in such a way that we are saying, we cannot do this on our own. We're not able to save ourselves. And so, we receive the kingdom of God as a gift, as God's working in us, as Him receiving us. And so, this is, of course, an important passage for us to consider.
How are we viewing how we come to Jesus? Are we thinking that we're bringing him something? Are we thinking that we are somehow meriting this on our own? Or are we like the children who are being brought to Jesus, and he is receiving them, even though they're incapable of coming to him on their own, he receives them and he blesses them. That is how we are blessed by Jesus too. We receive his good gift of salvation by grace alone and is a great blessing to us because we would never have been able to come to Him by ourselves. And so, may we constantly be thinking about this. We have a good reminder here of this. We can see children everywhere we go, right? May we be reminded when we see children today, that we are God's children, and we couldn't come to Him by ourselves, but He rescued us. He brought us to Himself. And so, may we be humble today, remembering the good gift that God gives to his children.
