Learning From the Children

This week in our church we are celebrating our ministry with children. By this we mean, what we do for the children of our church and the community to introduce them to Jesus. That is all very important and necessary, but I wonder if maybe we have it around the wrong way.

According to our reading from Luke 18, Jesus makes a particular point of telling his students (the disciples) that they must learn from the children. These are not even older children who might have had some teaching, but infants who really have had none. The disciples were reluctant to allow the infants the come to Jesus for blessing, but Jesus insists upon receiving them and tells the adults to come like them.

The Key to what Jesus is teaching is the life of the Kingdom of God. How does one enter that life? Logically, and by all their learning, they knew it was by obedience. If a person learned the law of God and was obedient to that law then God would accept him. It would require religious observances, moral living and a commitment to their culture and heritage.

I think Jesus came with a different view of the Kingdom and a different means of entry. They saw the Kingdom as linked to the nation as an earthly and political reality. In there view it had always been related to the history of Israel. Jesus saw it as a spiritual reality which exists where God is King. In his view it is not just tied to nation, but also to individual, group and community life where the values and qualities of God find expression. It is a past and present reality, but also a vision of the future when God’s will, will be done on earth as in heaven.

In this simple story of the infants, Jesus is saying we must enter as infants. Therefore we cannot learn or obey or action our way in. That all comes later. What comes first is trust and faith and unconditional love. What comes first is humility.

Last week I spoke of humility as “accurate self perception”. Here we are faced with the fact that we are powerless, vulnerable, unable to control the situation. We cannot provide for our own entry into the Kingdom of God, so we come as an infant who must trust its parent for everything. So the Kingdom begins with trust and faith not with law and actions. The Kingdom is about following a life of faith, hope and love as qualities of our being. From there the infant Kingdom person grows into a relationship with God which blossoms and produces all kinds of fruit of God’s will, naturally.

We have a lot to learn from the babies.

Adrian.