When I was in my teens, a newly-minted driver, my sister and I stopped at Fosters Freeze one blazing hot afternoon for the largest possible chocolate swirl ice cream cones.
It was the middle of a typically sweltering summer in Redding, CA and there we were sailing down the road blissfully tackling our two chocolate towers of deliciousness. I did not see the first bright orange road-construction signs. Shortly after, I did see the tall and extremely angry road construction worker waving his arms and shouting. I remember stopping, rolling down the window while holding that giant cone and gazing into his apoplectic face, thinking, “This may be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. So far.”
Other dumb things followed through the years, of course, but I think of that experience when reading about Jesus and kids and distracted adults.
There is a scene in the middle of Mark’s Gospel where Jesus, while teaching one day, reaches for the young child of someone in the crowd and sets him on His lap. He then says very clearly:
When you welcome even a child because of Me, you welcome Me. And when you welcome Me, you welcome the One who sent Me.”
Those who serve the lowliest serve Christ Himself. A radical notion in any culture. But Jesus’ entire ministry pushed against the nature of man and his culture. And He was especially interested in the attention of the men He was training to eventually ignite the Gospel.
Jesus’ reputation with children grows and parents pay attention. Children are brought (the Greek word means offered) to Him to be blessed. Perhaps these are families in the neighborhood in Capernaum where Jesus is staying. Imagine their surprise at being “rebuked” by the disciples. Rebuke = to blame or scold in a sharp way. Not one of the twelve says, whoa, not a good idea. It isn’t as though they haven’t seen the Teacher’s interaction with kids before. Recently.
Do they think:
- Jesus is too busy?
- Children have no place near adult wisdom?
- There are too many of them?
Jesus’ response to children is always attentive and tender. But there is no tenderness in His response to the disciples’ rebukes. He is seriously displeased.
Let them come. Do NOT forbid them. The very qualities of a baby – dependence, purity, trust – are the ones necessary to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus takes the babes – Luke calls them “babes” in his Gospel – and holds them in His arms and blesses them. He corrects the disciples’ mistake and demonstrates the “spirit of the heavenly kingdom,” as one writer puts it.
The problem with the disciples’ response is not that they weren’t trying to do the right thing by their Master. The problem was they weren’t paying attention. Hearing without listening, looking without seeing, sailing past the Man at Work signs.
In this season of reflection as Easter approaches, the indignation of Jesus encourages me to sharpen my focus, to resist the constant temptation of distraction. To be a teachable – and compassionate – disciple.
Are you distracted, disheartened, irritable, anxious in this current crisis? If so, how could you shift your focus to one of pleasure in the extended (and enforced!) company of your family – especially your children?