Mark 10:2-16, from Proper 22 (27)
Read upside-down, this week’s Gospel reading goes something like this:
Some children needed to see Jesus. Some of them were sick and needed healing. Others needed – at least in the estimation of the adults in charge of them – Jesus’ blessing.
But Jesus was busy, his disciples said. He and they were deep in conversation about truly important stuff. Stop bothering us. Go away. You and your problems aren’t worth his time.
Maybe one of the kids started crying. Maybe one of the parents started shoving. Maybe Jesus just perceived what was happening in that all-knowing way he sometimes did. Whatever brought the situation to Jesus’ attention, he became “indignant,” in Mark’s words, that his disciples were giving the kids the brush-off.
Abruptly ending the discussion his disciples had considered so vital, he commanded, in what I like to imagine was a booming voice that silenced everyone in the house, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
And as everyone suddenly got interested in their sandals, or maybe even got upset with Jesus for so rudely ending the debate, he added, “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
And then he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
It’s telling, I think, that Mark doesn’t describe what Jesus said as he bear-hugged each child.
“Welcome, little Reuben. My, you’re burning up with fever. There, there. It’s gone now. You’re going to be just fine.”
“Rebecca, my daughter. Thank you for coming. Of course I know your name. But I am pleased that you are surprised. Blessed are the meek. They will inherit the earth.”
“And here’s Jeremiah. A great man bore your name a long time ago. Are you brave, like him? I think you are. You have much to say, Jeremiah.”
“You have a famous name, too, Esther. Do you know the story? Of course you do. Esther showed faith and courage – and saved her people. You have faith and courage in you, too.”
“Hello, Levi …”
One after another they came, each a little miracle. And Mark didn’t think any of it was worth writing down. Just a bunch of kids, that’s all. What really mattered, what Mark thought we really needed to know about all these years later, was what the disciples had been discussing before the brats had interrupted them: The righteous way for a man to get rid of a wife he no longer wanted. Moses had clearly said that all a guy owed such a woman was a certificate of divorce freeing her to go charm some other poor sucker into having her. But Jesus, reminded by the Pharisees of this law, had said that not everything permitted by God was pleasing to God. What God most wanted, Jesus had said, was for husbands and wives to love and care for each other always.
That was a teaching that, for whatever reason, the disciples urgently felt they needed to get to the bottom of. So they were questioning Jesus about it. The ability to kick a woman to the curb gave men a lot of power. Giving that power up was a pretty big deal. But if they had been hoping for some wiggle room, or for some indication that Jesus had misspoken, Jesus disappoints them. Instead of easing up, Jesus doubles down. Divorce a spouse and marry another, and you make yourself an adulterer, Jesus tells them, be you a man or a woman. Perhaps the disciples where opening their mouths to object when those darn kids elbowed their way into the room, and Jesus acted like nothing in the world, not even such an important issue as divorce, was as important as showing love to a squirmy, snotty horde of … ugh! … kids!
Maybe we modern Christians wouldn’t put debating divorce ahead of serving needy children. But I’ll bet there are plenty of other things we would, and do, put higher on our priority lists. Look at the facilities we invest in, the political objectives we pursue, the rules we protect and enforce. Does love come before those things, or after? When we have to choose between love and those things, which do we choose?
Let the little children come. Do not hinder them. Whatever and whoever your kingdom belongs to, the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Next week: Proper 23 (28)
