Most of All

“Jesus loved everyone, but he loved children most of all. Today we know that unborn children are the targets of destruction. We must thank our parents for wanting us, for loving us and for taking such good care of us.” (Mother Teresa)

Scripture records a few instances of Jesus interacting with children. In each one we see Jesus treat the children with kindness and love by showing how much He valued them. The most well-known account of Jesus interacting with children is found in (Mark 10:13-14): Some people brought their small children to Jesus so he could touch them. But his followers told the people to stop bringing their children to him. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was displeased. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them. The kingdom of God belongs to people who are like these little children. Notice that Jesus not only welcomed the children into His presence but also blessed each one individually.

The Bible records that many parents knowing Jesus’ love for children and His ability to perform miracles brought their ailing children to Jesus to be healed. These healings included curing diseases (John 4:46–54), casting out demons (Mark 7:24–30; 9:14–29), and raised a child from the dead (Matthew 9:18-19, 23-26, Mark 5:21-24, 35-43, and Luke 8:40-42, 49-56).Over the course of His ministry, Jesus often presented children as an example of the type of faith adults needed to have. When Jesus blessed the children, He told His disciples:” I tell you the truth. You must accept the kingdom of God as a little child accepts things, or you will never enter it.” (Mark 10:15)

In another instance, when the disciples were fighting about who would be the greatest in God’s kingdom, Jesus brought a child to stand in their midst. He then chided His disciples: “Jesus called a little child to him. He stood the child before the followers.  Then he said, “I tell you the truth. You must change and become like little children. If you don’t do this, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  The greatest person in the kingdom of heaven is the one who makes himself humble like this child.” (Matthew 18:2–4). According to Jesus, the qualities of children that are worthy of emulation are humility and simple acceptance.

Jesus wants each of us to possess a childlike faith; that is, a pure, unassuming, and humble faith. This straightforward type of faith allows us to receive God’s gift of salvation without pretention or hypocrisy. It allows us to believe unswervingly that God is who He says He is. Like children who rely on their parents’ provision for daily needs, we should humbly depend on our heavenly Father for provision in both the spiritual and physical realms. Below are three scripture passages where Jesus demonstrated God's heart for children, and His opinion about them:

 

·        Christ's stern warning about protecting children-“If one of these little children believes in me, and someone causes that child to sin, then it will be very bad for that person. It would be better for him to have a large stone tied around his neck and be drowned in the sea. ⁷ How terrible for the people of the world because of the things that cause them to sin. Such things will happen, but how terrible for the one who causes them to happen.” (Matthew 18:6–7)

When Jesus had something important to say, He often used hyperbole, which is involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis. This was His way of communicating the pure magnitude of what He was trying to communicate. You see this in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus tells the crowd, “If your right hand causes you to sin, then cut it off and throw it away. It is better to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into Hell. “(Matthew 5:30)

When it comes to temptation, we're all responsible for our own behavior. Here Jesus wants His listeners to understand the dangers of being the vehicle through which temptation comes. If your behavior leads innocent children astray, it's better to be tossed into the depth of the sea than to face the judgment of God.

 

·        Greatest in the kingdom of heaven-At that time the followers came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus called a little child to him. He stood the child before the followers.  Then he said, “I tell you the truth. You must change and become like little children. If you don’t do this, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  The greatest person in the kingdom of heaven is the one who makes himself humble like this child. “Whoever accepts a little child in my name accepts me.  (Matthew 18:1–5)

Jesus often used things in His environment to teach spiritual truth. In this case, there were children in the crowd and Jesus used them to make an important point. "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" It seems like a simple question. From the disciple's religious context, they likely would have answered, "One who keeps the law." No one answers right away probably because they’re all waiting for Peter to give the wrong answer. Meanwhile, Jesus calls a child over and tells them: “I tell you the truth. You must change and become like little children. If you don’t do this, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  "

There's a lot of conjecture about what Jesus means. Are we supposed to become innocent like children? Do we need childlike trust? Luckily, we don't have to guess what Jesus meant. He tells us. Children didn't have a lot of rights in the first century. Kids were seen and not heard. We see this in Luke 18 when parents were bringing their infants to be blessed by Jesus, and the disciples try and chase them away. In their opinion, the Lord had more important things to do.

Jesus uses this opportunity to reiterate one of His most common points about godly leadership. Like children, kingdom-minded leaders shouldn’t be jockeying for position, looking to have power over others, or worrying about how people perceive them. They should serve God by serving others. He then makes a point that He'll come back to in a parable about sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31–46). By welcoming and serving those that society doesn't value, we welcome and serve God. In this case, we serve God by serving children.

 

·        Jesus raises a child from the dead-Jesus turned and saw the woman. He said, “Be happy, dear woman. You are made well because you believed.” And the woman was healed at once. Jesus continued along with the ruler and went into the ruler’s house. Jesus saw people there who play music for funerals. And he saw many people there crying. Jesus said, “Go away. The girl is not dead. She is only asleep.” But the people laughed at Jesus. After the crowd had been put outside, Jesus went into the girl’s room. He took her hand, and she stood up.  The news about this spread all around the area.  (Matthew 9:22–26)

During Jesus ministry, He raised three people from the dead. One was Lazarus (John 11), who Jesus loved. Another was a young man in the town of Nain. Jesus got caught in a funeral procession and was moved by a mother's grieving so he raised her son (Luke 7). In the third case, a synagogue leader named Jairus comes to Jesus because his daughter is sick and near death (Luke 8:41-56).

He begs Jesus to come and do something, but by the time our Lord gets there, the child has died. And, in a time when the child mortality rate was likely very high, Jesus was moved enough by this man's faith (and this girl's untimely death) to intervene. He demonstrates His compassion and love for children by raising Jairus's daughter from the dead.

 “I'm trying to imitate Jesus in the fact that he said to be like children, to love children, to be as pure as children and to make yourself as innocent and to see the world through eyes of wonderment and the whole magical quality of it all.” (Michael Jackson) [i]

---

[i] Sources used:

·        “3 Times Jesus Showed His Care for Children” by Jesus Film Project

·                “How did Jesus interact with children?” by Got Questions

·        “Hyperbole” by Literary Devices

·                “What Jesus Thinks about Children” by: R. Kent Hughes

 

All verses are taken from the International Children's Bible.

 

           This post is dedicated to my daughter, Allena, who has a wonderful child-like spirit about her. The video below is of my missionary daughter dancing with the children in Ghana, Africa, as an example of the above. Below is a link to paste on the address line, and watch.

 

https://www.facebook.com/allenadesiree.kinker/videos/2635182933258183/