Mark 10:2-16 Commentary

These two texts are more than a bit difficult to homiletically combine. They mostly share a setting, as Jesus and the disciples transition from a conversation with the Pharisees and enter yet another house where children are present. In terms of the lectionary sequence, we’ll be staying put in chapter ten for the whole month of October; so maybe these two scenes have been put together for expedience.

Since my husband and I are presenting our daughter for baptism this Sunday, you’ll have to give me a little leeway for focusing my attention on the last three verses of the lectionary text. (Though if you’re looking for some thoughts about verses 2-12 you can find some from my colleagues and myself on our website.)

This scene is reminiscent of one from just a couple of weeks ago. Jesus is with his disciples in someone’s home and there are children involved. Before, Jesus called a child to him in order to make his teaching point; now, the neighbours appear to be bringing their children to Jesus in order to receive a blessing.

We also know from that Mark 9.30-37 incident that the disciples like to position themselves as gatekeepers. It isn’t hard to imagine this scene: there is a growing presence of people who want to get close to Jesus, including parents and caregivers bringing children to Jesus in order that he might touch them.

But the disciples find this inappropriate, likely viewing it as a waste of Jesus’s precious time. They “speak sternly” to the people with the children, blocking the way to Jesus with a tone of disapproval in their voice. Here we are again, though, the disciples have messed it up. The disciples might have disapproved of the children, but Jesus feels even more strongly about what they have done: Jesus is angry.

“Indignant” is not a word readily found in most of our vocabularies so I looked it up. And like the Greek word Mark chooses here, the English word is directly connected to being angry about something that is wrong or unfair. Jesus is angry because the disciples are in the wrong and treating these children unfairly.

Perhaps here’s where the link between these two parts of the lectionary selection lie: the consequence of hard-heartedness towards God is unfair treatment and attitudes that hurt other people. If the disciples had really listened and understood what Jesus was telling them the last time they were in this sort of situation, then they would have been more hospitable and welcoming to these little ones even though children held no perceivable value to them or Jesus’s movement.

So Jesus speaks again on the subject, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them…” But he doesn’t stop there. Jesus tells the disciples to welcome the vulnerable into their midst and then he tells them to become like them. The way to soften our hardness of heart towards God is to become vulnerable, being in need so that we are willing to receive.

Receiving and entering seem like opposite motions. Can you both take into yourself something you are going into? Can you have something enter you even as you enter it? But isn’t that the all-encompassing nature of the Kingdom of God? We welcome it through a heart and soul hospitable to being reshaped and reoriented, we enter it through the thoughts and actions of our mind and body.

And as children, we are taught by the one who takes us close, lifts us up and hugs us, lays his hands upon us and blesses us. Entering his arms is receiving the Kingdom, receiving his blessing is entering the Kingdom.

At least, that’s what I’ll be thinking about and making my lifelong prayer for my daughter Phoebe as she is baptised. And if I want to be like the beautiful child she is, I’ll make it my personal prayer too.

Textual Points

If you’re talking about marriage and divorce this week, you’ll want to consider closely the foundational passage from Deuteronomy 24.1-4. Some scholars argue that the meaning the Pharisees make from Moses’s command is not the main point of these Old Testament verses. Some, like R.T. France, argue that the precept is guarding against a principle of re-marriage, not divorce.

Also from R.T. France is the reminder that this saying about children is an “Amen” saying (though your translation may have left the word out entirely from verse 15). There are thirteen such sayings in Mark; just look for the modern translation “Truly I tell you…”

Illustration Idea

Perhaps because I’m watching my husband be a millennial dad now, this section about children reminded me of the Pew Research Center’s findings about fatherhood. Millennial dads are significantly more involved in parenting than previous generations. From staying at home to care for small children, to viewing fatherhood as a key component of their identity, and just generally being more present and involved with their children as they grow up, it seems as though we are shaping a culture where men are making their lives more hospitable to children. For a whole myriad of reasons, the stereotypical aloof, bread-winning father is not what younger dads want to be (the stats are proving the same story for Gen Z dads). But it’s not the reasons that draw me to this comparison; it’s the results. When I imagine the Kingdom of God, the image of welcome embodied by Jesus hugging and blessing these children is of intergenerational love and connection. It’s the way of the millennial dad (and countless generations of mothers), but expanded.