13 And they were bringing children to him, that he might touch them; and the disciples rebuked them.
After the confrontation Jesus had with the Pharisees over the status-quo of permitted divorce, Mark takes us through the other component of the family unit, the fruits of marriage: Children. Although thematic, that does not mean that this is not literally the order of events, some find it to be an either/or situation, things are placed in the order of chronology or placed in the order of themes. I do not think we have to choose.
The crowds have been surrounding Jesus in his public ministry for a couple of years at this point. Wherever he goes, hundreds maybe even thousands flock to him. They bring their children with them to see Jesus, in order to be touched by. This laying on of hands was typical in order to pass on blessings in second temple Judaism, even a cursory glance at the Old Testament shows many examples. Most people think this touching with hands was limited to the conferring of an office but it was the common action of all blessings.
There is no indication that the children are being brought because they are sick and in a later verse Mark specifically says they are here to receive blessings from the holy and wise itinerant rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth. Unfortunately Jesus’ over-protective disciples rebuke the people do this. They always seem to be able to be pro-active when its wrong, disordered zeal.
14 But when Jesus saw it he was indignant, and said to them, “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.
Jesus, upon seeing what the apostles are doing “was indignant”. The Greek word for this phrase is ēganaktēsen which gives the impression of an internal grief or anger, in this case at an action that he perceived as an injustice. The apostles denial of the children being in the presence of Jesus is perceived as an injustice to the Word made Flesh. We should attempt to acknowledge the gravity of this. Jesus gets irritated at his disciples lack of understanding at times but rarely do we see an internal grief generated by injustice. That means this activity of withholding the children from Jesus is worse than misunderstanding him.
Jesus then corrects his apostles behavior with the phrase “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” Although this phrase is typically used in apologetics as an argument for infant baptism, we should look at the actual meaning in its context. Why are children owners of the Kingdom of God? Saint Paul speaks of us as co-heirs with Christ, as we made into his body. This makes God the Father, our very own Father through covenant. This would make us children. Even though we grow old, there is a permanent aspect of childhood within us, we will never outgrow the divine fathership of God.
On top of the theological and eschatological implications we should look at the contemporary context. In this time period the lowest people in society were children. Even the child of a noble was no better than a slave until he reached his inheritance. This did not mean there was some kind of equality between all children across classes, but that they were unable to hold any power. Without power comes absolute surrender to those around you. Living in submission to those around you. Some postulate that this notion of barely human status of children came from the infant mortality rate but I think that is a rather shallow materialistic understanding. It is about inheritance and authority, a child simply has none. Even a child king has a figure actually managing the power called a King Regant. This happened in the Kingdom of Israel’s own history as elsewhere. Children cannot hold power, therefore they have none. Something to the divine mystery of things seems to enforce this concept but because of it, children become the first in the reverse hierarchy that Jesus brings in the New Covenant.
Children are then to be the model, we are to imitate the submission and surrender like powerless children do in order to be entirely dependant on God the Father and be members of his Kingdom.
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