The Kingdom of Heaven Belongs to Such as These

Matthew 19:13-30

Jesus Blesses Little Children

¹³ Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴ But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” ¹⁵ After laying His hands on them, He departed from there.

The Rich Young Ruler

¹⁶ And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” ¹⁷ And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” ¹⁸ Then he *said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; ¹⁹ Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁰ The young man *said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” ²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” ²² But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.

²³ And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴ Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” ²⁶ And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The Disciples’ Reward

²⁷ Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” ²⁸ And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹ And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. ³⁰ But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.

Today's text from the daily reading in the One Year Bible(link on links page) begins with Jesus once again teaching about the value in the kingdom of heaven. Previously He had taught that anyone who wished to enter the kingdom of heaven must be as a child. We need to have childlike faith, love, respect and obediance to the Father. We are His children and in Christ we have gained all the rights and privileges of heirs of the kingdom.  In verse 14 Jesus says: “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven  belongs to such as these.” He is not only speaking of their value in the kingdom. He is taking His time to minister to, love and value these children Himself.

One of the greatest tragedies and failings of our culture and society is the lack of value we have for children. Far too often children in our society are anything but valued and treasured. Instead we do anything from using our children to try to live out and achieve the things we were unable to accomplish, by pushing them to excel athletically or academically. We push them saying we want them to succeed but our motive often is our satisfaction not their success. Other children are neglected ranging anywhere from actually leaving them alone and not providing for their needs, to the more common practice in our culture of enlisting electronic baby sitters, all sorts of technology to occupy them so we can selfishly do what we want.    Proverbs 22:6 says - Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.   Far too many parents leave the training of their children to their electronic devices or the government through the school systems.  The principle of Proverbs 22:6 remains true. So if we allow video games and our schools to teach and train our children we should not be surprised when we raise a violent, Godless, amoral generation.

In the Old Testament Law, Leviticus 18:21 deals with the pagan practice of offering children to one of their gods as a sacrifice. 21'You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech... We as a culture would consider that practice a horrible offense. Yet how many unborn babies are sacrificed every day to the immoral gods of convenience and selfish. choice? 

In today's text Jesus gives us a living example of the value of children. Scripture is very clear in teaching the importance of family structure and parental nurture. We as a society and as Christian believers in particular need to repent of our neglect and abuse of our children. We need to return to the values that scripture teaches and demonstrates, taking time as Jesus did to love and minister to our children.     James 1:27 says  Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.    The break down of family structure in our society has left many children perhaps not as orphans but fatherless or motherless. To visit them in their distress is to do more than stop by and spend an hour with them. To visit their distress is to share in it, to make an effort to be part of relieving that distress, bringing both the love of Christ and human compassion and nurture to them.

There is hope for our children today and for the generation who has been raised without God. Today's text begins:   Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray.   That's where we too need to begin. We need to bring our children both young and old to Jesus. We need to bring them physically when we can and in the Spirit always, lifting them to Jesus where He is seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus sees each and every one as precious in His sight. Psalm 127:3 says Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. We need to value  our children as the gifts that they are.

The church teaches frequently  about sowing finanacial seed. There is also a lot of teaching and focus on the seed of the word. These are both good things, but should we not take at least as much care of our natural seed as we do these spiritual seeds?

Heavenly Father, Father of the fatherless, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit forgive me for any areas where I have failed my own children or others that you have brought into my life. Give me a heart like Your heart Jesus, a heart that values each precious child. Give us wisdom of how to work to bring change to the mess that our society has made of family. Most of all Holy Spirit work in me to bring the love and light of Jesus to every child of the Father, young and old.  Amen