<p>19:14&nbsp;<em>But Jesus said: Let the little children come to me</em>- See on 18:12&nbsp;<em>Leave</em>.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>And do not prevent them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven-&nbsp;</em>The Lord rebuked the disciples for 'forbidding' John's disciples and the little ones to come to Him (Mk. 9:38); and yet He uses the same word to describe how the lawyers hindered [s.w. 'forbad'] people to enter the Kingdom. There's a very clear parallel here between the disciples and their Jewish teachers who had so influenced their thinking. But they finally got there- for Peter insisted that Gentiles should not be forbidden [s.w. 'hinder'] baptism (Acts 10:47); and he uses the same word again when he says that now, he will not &quot;withstand [s.w. 'hinder'] God in hindering people to come to Him (Acts 11:17). The awfulness of the disciples' attitude is brought out by the use of the word in 1 Thess. 2:16, where Paul says that the way the Jews 'forbad' or hindered the preaching of the Gospel was cause for the wrath of God to come upon them &quot;to the uppermost&quot;. And the disciples initially followed their Jewish elders in this kind of behaviour. In passing, there is a sober warning here to those who would likewise 'forbid' baptism to those who sincerely seek it, and who will not allow &lsquo;little ones&rsquo; to the Lord&rsquo;s table.</p>
<p>Mk. 10:15 adds: &ldquo;Whoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no way enter into it&rdquo;. This is exactly how the whole section began in Matthew (18:3). The Greek for &ldquo;receive&rdquo; is often used about people accepting the Gospel. The implication is that one can receive the Gospel of the Kingdom of God- and yet not enter it, because we didn&rsquo;t receive it as a child. We didn&rsquo;t accept that we are the &lsquo;little ones&rsquo;, accepting we know so little, and just marvelling at the special grace being shown us which we accept in awed wonder. The language of &lsquo;entering the Kingdom&rsquo; is used both of our final entry into the Kingdom when Christ returns (Mt. 25:10,21; Jn. 3:5), and of our current entering the Kingdom. The rich man can enter the Kingdom right now if he sheds the load of his wealth (Mt. 19:23,24). The Scribes stopped and hindered those who were entering the Kingdom from entering, locking the door through which the Kingdom could now be entered, all because they chose not to enter themselves (Mt. 23:13; Lk. 11:52). So it&rsquo;s a case of &lsquo;Now but not yet&rsquo;. We do&nbsp;<em>now&nbsp;</em>enter into God&rsquo;s rest, and yet we are promised that we&nbsp;<em>will</em>&nbsp;enter that rest at Christ&rsquo;s return (Heb. 4:1-11). The Lord had warned that our righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes, or we will likewise not enter the Kingdom (Mt. 5:20); but that righteousness is in accepting the blessing of righteousness as a little child; for without&nbsp;<em>that</em>&nbsp;we shall not enter the kingdom. Those who do the will of the Father will enter the Kingdom (Mt. 7:21)- and that will is to be as little children and accept gifts without seeking to justify ourselves or earn them.</p>
<p>Mark and Luke both add that &quot;Whoever shall not&nbsp;<em>receive</em>&nbsp;the Kingdom of God as a little child shall not enter therein&quot; (Lk. 18:17). The Greek word for &quot;receive&quot; is different to that used here in :12, where the Lord bids those able to &quot;receive&quot; the highest standard concerning remarriage to do so. But the idea is surely the same. How do we 'receive' His high standards and challenges in personal decision making? By receiving them as those children received His blessings, not arguing back, accepting whatever comes from His hand, not considering that we are in any position to do anything other than receive what He gives us. Note that the children&nbsp;<em>receiving</em>&nbsp;His blessings become, therefore, the pattern for our&nbsp;<em>receiving</em>&nbsp;His demands upon our personal living, our forgiveness even of adulterous partners, our rejection of legitimate options of remarriage [in some cases] in order to follow His higher standards. This is nothing less than profound.&nbsp;</p>
