<p>10:13 <i>And they were bringing to him little children-</i> This continues the connection with the beginning of this section in Matthew 18, which began with a little child being brought to the Lord and Him making the disciples open their closed circle in order to accept the one whom they considered so far beneath them spiritually. He taught then, and teaches again here, that they were to see in the children symbols of themselves, in all their weakness and misunderstanding. In the same way as here the children are &ldquo;brought&rdquo; to Jesus, so we often read in the Gospels of people including the disciples being &ldquo;brought&rdquo; to Him. Their and our salvation depends partly upon others having brought us to Him.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><i>That he should touch them- </i>The Lord agrees to the request, blessing little ones for the sake of the efforts of third parties who bring them to Him (as in Mk. 2:5 and so often in the work of saving and curing men). As the children &lsquo;received&rsquo; this blessing, so the Lord urges the disciples to &lsquo;receive&rsquo; the things of the Kingdom- for Mk. 10:15 records the Lord&rsquo;s further comment that &ldquo;whoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no way enter into it&rdquo;. Those children receiving His grace and blessing, all the more gracious because they received it thanks to others bringing them to it, represent each disciple who receives the grace and blessing of the Kingdom.</p><p><i>And the disciples rebuked them</i>- This is such a theme, of the disciples barring those who wanted to come to the Lord. We think of the Syro-Phoenician woman and other children, and the &quot;little ones&quot; of John's disciples. Such attitudes provoke the Lord's anger with us (:14).&nbsp; And they were doing this yet again despite the Lord&rsquo;s sober warning that turning away little ones is making them stumble, and will lead to eternal rejection from God&rsquo;s Kingdom. The disciples in their preaching, of which the Gospels are transcripts, were stressing how they had so failed to grasp this vital teaching.&nbsp;</p>