To Receive the Kingdom of God like a Child

October 6, 2024
To Receive the Kingdom of God like a Child

Scripture Reading: Mark 10: 13 - 16 (NIV)

People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When 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 such as these. 15Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.

 

Message:  To Receive the Kingdom of God like a Child

The Rabbi and the children - Interrupted

Jesus shocked people around Him to take children into his arms

I don’t think we understand how unusual it was for a Rabbi to stop in the middle of his ministry and to pay attention to children, while putting the adults on hold

In doing this, Jesus interrupted the normal flow of the interaction He had with people around Him

In between all the healings and teachings - which were pretty revolutionary themselves - Jesus takes children into his arms!?

The disciples did not like this interruption - they instinctively and true to the behaviour of and adult, tried to stop it…

Us adults, reflecting on this story this morning, are scheduled to be interrupted in our spiritual lives…

Let’s not resist the interruption in our lives this morning…

The act of Receiving

Instead of resisting the interruption this morning, we are called to receive

Jesus says: “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 

Let’s pause for a moment to consider the word “receive” here

We need to “receive” the Kingdom of God like a child…

Not perform and do things to deserve it…

Not behave appropriately to be considered good enough…

Not have a certain level of knowledge to be accepted…

Not even be ordained or baptized or have membership to be able to receive the Kingdom of God!

And yet, we tend to find things that we think is more important than just simply receiving from God

Let us change our posture into a posture of receiving what God is giving us in his grace… (Communion is the perfect example of receiving)

Embrace the Kingdom of God like a child

It sounds to me like Jesus saying that we adults need to start learning from the children in our lives again!

Here’s some ways we can learn from children to receive the Kingdom of God:

Receive the Kingdom like a child

Allow yourself to be interrupted this morning by this story

Allow yourself to re-learn what it means to receive from God

Let us stop adulting in our faith! 

Let us stop complicating our faith!

Let us stop overthinking our faith!

Let us stop pretending in our faith practices! 

Close your eyes for a moment and see Jesus saying:  “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” 

AMEN


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