Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, October 3, 2021
Many moons ago there was an English singer/songwriter called Kate Bush who had a hit with a song that was hauntingly titled, ‘The Man with the Child in His eyes’. The song was about a strained unfaithful relationship that she had become involved in. In our reading from Mark’s gospel this morning, Jesus has a child in His eyes as He illustrates the nature of true faith.
I like the way Eugene Petersen tells this story in ‘the Message’ Bible:
“The people brought children to Jesus, hoping He might touch them. The disciples shooed them away. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: "Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." Then, gathering the children up in His arms, He laid His hands of blessing on them.”
In an earlier passage in Mark, that is about about greatness, Jesus used a child to teach the disciples that if they really wanted to be great, they should look to the needs of the least able to help themselves who were around them. In serving them, they would be doing the work of His Kingdom. This time a child is used as an illustration of genuine faith and trust.
The account begins with people trying to reach Jesus but being prevented from doing so by His disciples. We then see Jesus rebuking His disciples for getting in the way and how Jesus uses the simple trust of a child as an illustration of genuine faith. The story concludes with Jesus blessing the children. Let’s follow this story through.
1) The desire of the people for blessing.
I have encountered people who have said to me that they are looking for a spiritual life, but that they feel the church is not the place to find it. Their encounters with church folk have not been helpful. Whilst not physically having been ‘shooed’ away, they went along to a church… and just did not feel they fitted in.
Some felt ignored. Nobody welcomed them. Others felt overwhelmed. It was as though as soon as they walked through the door everybody wanted them on their committees. Some just could not relate to the unwritten rules of a particular church, what they should wear, where they should or shouldn’t sit, when they should stand up, how they should sing.
We may not physically ‘shoo’ people away but in a hundred different ways we can give the impression that ‘This is our Church and if you want to be a part of it, then you better wise up and do things our way.’ The tragedy is that those who come through our doors are looking for something no different than those who were around Jesus that day.
They are searching for a blessing, an encounter with God that lets them know they are loved by God and valued by God. That’s what we are here for! To offer the Good News! The good and great news that the Grace of God is greater than all our needs, able to transform the lives of everyday people like you and me. And so, we see the second aspect of the story.
2) Jesus rebukes the disciples and offers up a child as an example of true faith.
Jesus scolds the disciples in a similar way to a parent scolding a naughty child. “Stop pushing people around. Get over yourselves and let them come to me.’ Oh… those disciples… so like us. They knew exactly who should be allowed into Christ’s presence and who should not. They made the rules. Potential Pharisees… every one of us. We would love to get to say who was in the in-crowd and who was left out.
The Grace of God is so much more lavish than we are prepared to be. The Grace of God shown through Jesus welcomed sinners and outcasts and dirty faced children and immoral men and women and lepers and those who were considered of no account. The Grace of God is offered to all, and those who seek to get in the way, are rebuked.
Elsewhere we find Jesus proclaiming, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)
I went for a physical the other day and aside from needing to make a few dietary adjustments, I am in good physical shape. Not as good as I was when I was five years old… but I am, in general, physically fine.
Spiritually speaking I suspect my diagnosis is a lot worse than when I was five years old. When I was five years old, I’m sure I had bad days but, generally speaking, life was a mystery approached with wide eyed innocence. I did not have all those worries and concerns that I now have. I could laugh and cry and not care if it were appropriate. I liked to play because playing was an exercise in discovery. I got excited by bright colors and little creatures. I hadn’t learnt to hold grudges but knew how to give a hug that meant nothing but ‘Boy, it’s good to be alive…Thank you… I love you…Catch me if you can.’
Where did all that go? Paradise lost. Innocent no more. No matter how much we may desire to fly away with Peter Pan, Neverland remains just what it says, a place we can never get to, because we have lived our lives and we have made compromises. We have as many regrets as we have causes for pride and whatever it was in childlike innocence, we presumed life would bring our way… we managed to warp it, to twist it, or make it less than it should or could have been.
Someone told me one time they were looking for the perfect church. I wished them all the luck in the world, but I told them, “Look, if you find it, warn me. I do not wish to walk through the door of a perfect church. Scripture teaches that we are all sinners, we are all imperfect. If I become part of a perfect church, it is ruined
The wonderful thing about Jesus is that He never accommodates such a view. He never says to sinners like us, “You don’t belong here.” However, He does tell all those who would keep others from the presence of God, “Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in.”
Being the intelligent adults that we are, we could no doubt spend a whole lot of time analyzing exactly what Jesus meant by ‘simplicity’ and who exactly He was referring to when He spoke of the ‘child.’ I suspect that the act of doing so would cause us to completely miss the point.
I remember watching kids one Christmas visiting Santa’s Grotto. Whilst there were always a few of them who had their suspicions that the old guy with the beard was not all he was made out to be, the majority would just run up, jump on his knee, and get busy with the wish list.
Santa asked one of them, “Have you been good this year?” The kid said, “Well, I didn’t try to be bad.” In my minds eye I picture Jesus blessing the children in this passage as something like that. A smile. An acknowledgment of their importance and significance.
Or maybe something like the way He is pictured in stained glass window cradling a little lamb in His arms, the Good Shepherd who cares for His Sheep. The prophet Isaiah reminds us, ‘We all like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to their own way.” (Isaiah 53:6). Which brings us to our third part of the story.
3) Jesus blesses the Children
Verse 16 “Then, gathering the children up in His arms, He laid His hands of blessing on them.”
Can we allow Jesus to take us in His arms this morning? We who have entered into this time of worship with our sin stained, compromised, oh so grown-up lives, can we humble ourselves before God and admit defeat?
Are we prepared to let go and let God? Can we who are so obsessed with doing rediscover the simple fact of being? Being a child of God! Knowing that God cares for us! Trusting God that as we place our lives into God’s care then the Holy Spirit will come as our Counsellor, as our encourager and as our Helper that we may live in the way Christ calls us to?
Can we say to God, as we come to the communion table this morning, “I have messed up. I need help. Without Your Grace I am lost.”
See… this is the Good News. God sent Jesus Christ to die upon the Cross to forgive us and free us from all our sin, that we may be born afresh, born anew, born again. He was raised from death that we may know that there is nothing in death or life, in the way the world is or the way the world shall be that can separate us from the love of God.
Jesus promises that as we seek to live by the values of God’s Kingdom then God will send to us the Holy Spirit to empower us and encourage us.
It is not complicated. It is not rocket science. It is about being able to trust our life, with all of its garbage and all of the things we are going through, to be guided and molded by the love of God.
Then we will taste and see the salvation of the Lord and know that the Lord is good and we will desire to share that goodness with others in the way we live our life. “Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in.”
But if you do accept God’s Kingdom with childlike trust then you are in for some wonderful times ahead! I pray this morning we will be able to simply place our lives in Jesus arms and seek to be blessed by God.
Jesus was the man with the child in His eyes. He was already to receive all those who would come to Him. He values each of our lives and calls us each to follow Him. So, come in the simple faith of a child and share these gifts of bread and wine. You are cherished, you are welcomed, you are loved.
To God’s name be the glory.
Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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