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(Read this series from the beginning at Part 1 and Part 2.)
Our reading this week ends with Jesus’ blessing of the children.
I like the way Rev. Wilda C. Gafney, Ph.D., translates this portion of our reading in her A Woman’s Lectionary for The Whole Church: Year W.
“Now people were bringing little children to Jesus in order that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, he was angry and sad to them, “Let the little children come to me, do not prevent them; for it is to such as these that the realm of God belongs. Truly I tell you all, whoever does not receive the reign of God as a little child will never enter it.” And Jesus took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.” (p. 296)
I read this story on the blessing of the children as primarily about social location. It grounds the early Jesus moment in the work of blessing and liberating those on the most peripheral edges of any society. In The Shape of the Past: Models and Antiquity, Thomas Carney describes childhood at the time of Jesus, “Early training was harshly disciplined. It was not until early adulthood that the young person began receiving serious consideration as a member of the family group.” (p. 92)
In most societies, children within marginalized groups are the most marginalized, the most outcast among the outcast, the most disenfranchised among the disenfranchised. How children are treated then, is the proverbial canary in the coal mine.
In this story, Jesus states that those with privilege and power must be willing to live in in solidarity as those forced to the bottom and edges by their present society to enter the reign of God. This is one reason why it’s also very “hard for the rich to enter” the reign of God in the gospels. (see Mark 10:23, 25.)
Something else I appreciate in Jesus’ blessing that I rarely hear spoken about is his anger. This story legitimizes anger toward attempts to keep hindering anyone from coming to Jesus. More broadly, it also legitimizes anger as a valid emotion for Jesus’ followers to have toward all injustice. It’s not just okay but it’s actually right for us to be angry when we see vulnerable people and communities being harmed.
There’s a lot to ponder in this week’s passage. Regardless of your own interpretations, may the way we interpret these stories lead us ever deeper into our work of making our world a safer, more compassionate, just home for everyone.
Till the only world that remains is a world where love reigns.
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