Mark 10:15-16 – “‘Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.’ And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.”
All three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) have a narrative of Jesus receiving little children and teaching his disciples an object lesson about the humble, needy spirit that a disciple of Christ must have. Only in Mark do we have the extra information that Jesus actually took these little children into his arms. It is a sweetness in the text that is worth enjoying.
The idea of being taken into the arms of Jesus has been distorted in the sentimentalism and romanticism of our day, but we also need to be careful not to react to error by missing the gentle and loving demeanor of a Savior who truly does love his children. It’s worth contemplating and enjoying, but it doesn’t mean that we should make it sound like a teenage love song. Instead, we should consider what Jesus is doing here as he teaches his disciples about the children he embraces.
The disciples have just rebuked people for bringing their children to Jesus for blessing. Jesus then corrects his disciples and welcomes the children because they are a reminder to them that the Kingdom of Heaven requires a childlike faith. Without childlike faith, we will not enter his Kingdom. Then Mark makes a point that Jesus not only received the little children but took them into his arms. This is yet another picture of how God receives us into the Kingdom of Heaven when we come to Christ with childlike faith: he receives us with open arms. He receives us with tenderness and love and a desire to bless us. Christ embraces the childlike disciple with a heart of love that is beyond our limited comprehension.
Whether or not these little children brought to Jesus grew up to enter the Kingdom of Heaven is unknown, but in this world, the Second in the Trinity took children into his arms with a welcome embrace to show us his love for his disciples and how we must embrace all those who come to Christ with childlike faith. It tells us not only how tenderly Christ loves his church but how we are called to emulate that love. It’s a profound experience to take a moment and wonder at the mystery that the God of the universe would so tenderly embrace those who were once his enemies just as he did these children. It’s his desire that none of them are hindered in coming to him.
So, while some wrongly romanticize these statements, lets marvel at them. God’s love is not just in the transcendent realm beyond our contact or understanding. God’s love to us in Christ has actually been displayed in real time and space in that he embraced little children without hinderance to show us what he did through the cross. So let us trust him and need him without reservation as the little children we need to be. Let’s both enjoy and revere the embrace that holds us securely for all eternity.