Pastor Marcus Blair, Grandview Baptist Church, Centralia
Mark 10:13-16
Children are important to God and should be important in the life of every church. The old expression is true: “if a church doesn’t cry, it’s going to die.” That means that if all of your services are nice and quiet, and there’s never any noisy children around, you’re on your way out. Churches die all the time for lack of vision for young people – how to reach them, how to disciple them, how to retain them. We need to be particularly mindful of how we minister to kids.
How did Jesus feel about kids? He was touching them and holding them and blessing them. In the same story from the Gospel of Luke, it says they even brought infants to him. “Bless my baby!” What a precious scene. But the disciples, they thought it was bothersome and that children were a low priority. Jesus has no time for this! He needs to be healing the sick and raising the dead, not blessing these children who are just fine! How did Jesus react? It says he was indignant. He was bothered! “Greatly displeased” and “grief” are the same word in the Greek. It grieves the heart of Jesus when we fail to notice and love our children.
This was no new teaching. The disciples might’ve known better had they paid attention to the Scriptures such as Joel 2:15-16 and Exodus 12:26-27.
It’s clear from these passages that on high and holy days, children were expected to be there, to be included in worship, and to be taught by parents and others.
What happens when children are prioritized and included in the activities of the faithful? It encourages them to come to Jesus. The Master himself said to let them come, and don’t forbid them. We want to never shove kids away from Jesus; in fact, we need to be introducing them to Jesus.
What do I mean when I say that we must bring our children to Christ? First, I don’t mean that we can cause their salvation or make Christ bless them. Salvation is only by God’s grace.
For the complete column, see this week’s edition of the Centralia Fireside Guard
