Biblical Text

You can read Mark 10.13-16 here.

Sermon Video

You can watch the sermon video here.

Sermon Transcript

[Note: The actual sermon will differ somewhat from what I had typed.]

Simile and metaphor are powerful aspects of language and in the hands of a skillful wordsmith they can move a person to the very depths of the soul. Unless the person reading or hearing the simile or metaphor is completely unable to interpret it on its own terms. Then, all to often, the figure of speech is lost and what is comprehended is something not even worth saying.

Take some common similes. Busy as a bee. Blind as a bat. Cute as a kitten. Or slightly more powerful ones like: They fought like cats and dogs. The house is as clean as a whistle.

Simile could be used in a humorous way: “A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” (Steve Martin) “I felt like one of Apollo’s sacred cows- slow, dumb, and bright red.” (Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian) “Anxiety’s like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you very far.” (Jodi Picoult, Sing You Home)

A simile can be profound: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” (Albert Einstein) “A house without books is like a room without windows.” (Horace Mann) “Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?” (Mark Twain)

And perhaps the best to communicate the reason for the use of simile: “Telling someone about what a symbol means is like telling someone how music should make them feel.” Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code) The humor of a good, subtle joke is lost as soon as you have need to explain it. And the beauty or humor or profundity of a simile is also likewise lost as soon as you have need to explain it.

But the key to understanding a simile is to understand first the thing which or person with whom the comparison is being made. But a word of caution. Jesus was not an English speaker. And he did not live in the post-Reformation period. And he never encountered such things in our past as the Enlightenment or the Renaissance. He was a first century Jew, who spoke mainly Aramaic and Hebrew and some Greek, who lived in a Roman occupied Israel, surrounded and influenced by Greco-Roman and Hebraic ideas.

So when we are doing our comparison, we need to understand what that thing or person represented and meant to those who first heard the simile being used.

When Jesus said, “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” what did he mean? What did he mean specifically by “like a child”?

As might be expected, there are numerous interpretations. Some common ones are as follows:

“Like a child” means “with humility” because children are humble. I don’t know about you, but I know I wasn’t humble as a child. I was quite boastful and proud – announcing my accomplishments to all who would hear.

“Like a child” means “with innocence” because children are innocent. Really? Even infants are known to fake crying when they simply want the attention of a parent. And toddlers learn quickly how to lie and deceive.

“Like a child” means “with trust” because children must trust some adults in order to live. Hmm… That would make it something involuntary, something that we are compelled to do in order to live. But Jesus seems to be presenting a choice, something we could accept or reject.

In all these lines of thinking is the idea that “like a child” means “having childlike characteristics.” They only differ in which characteristic they hold primary.

Then there is the idea that “like a child” refers to the promise that a child bears – the promise of a life that could be spent in God’s service. But that could also be spent working against God! Today’s exemplary child may end up being tomorrow’s oppressor. Also, this interpretation completely misses what a simile is!

Then there are the unfortunate interpretations that make baptism the lens through which the passage is interpreted, completely missing the simple fact that this passage is not about baptism.

But are these the correct ways of looking at the text? If you were here two Sundays back you would have witnessed a great example of narrative preaching by Bishop David Nichols. He had all of us riveted in the retelling of an episode in Mark. And something he repeated a number of times really rings true. He said, “Nothing is wasted in the narrative.” Every little word has a role to play. It’s another way of saying, “Look carefully at the context.”

And what do we see in the context?

Some parents had come to present their children to Jesus. They wanted Jesus to receive the children. But the disciples thought that Jesus was too high and mighty, to unapproachable, to be bothered with having to receive the children. But Jesus reprimands them and then receives the children.

This is the only occasion in the Gospels that the disciples actually refuse to allow someone an audience with Jesus. Why do they do that? In order to answer that and to understand what Jesus was doing here, we need to understand what it meant to be a child in a Greco-Roman context.

Children, in the first century Greco-Roman context, had absolutely no rights, no status. They were considered to be property of their fathers. A father could sell his child into slavery without anyone even questioning his motivation. Children had no recourse to any legal protections. Abandonment was common and even recommended at times of economic hardship. Infanticide and filicide – killing of children – also was common as a means of population control. The slaughter of boys in Bethlehem under orders of Herod would not have raised any eyebrows among the Greeks or Romans. Child sacrifice to appease various pagan gods was not widespread, but also not unheard of.

So when Jesus tells us that we must receive the kingdom of God like a child, he is not telling us we need to be humble or innocent or trusting though I am sure he would like that. What he is saying is that we must be people who do not cling to rights or status, people who do not believe that the world owes them anything, people who do not lay claim to anything in the world.

But also Jesus phrases his words in a somewhat ambiguous way. He could mean, “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God will the attitude of a child will never enter it.” This is the meaning we have explored.

But it could also mean “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child is received will never enter it.” This makes sense when we consider that the first thing he does after this is receive the children, place his hands on them and bless them.

What Jesus is telling us is that not only do we have to have the attitude of a child in order to be a part of the kingdom of God but also we need to welcome anyone who is treated like the Greco-Roman child – anyone who is without rights, without recourse to the law, without a legitimate place in the world.

This suddenly becomes so relevant today. Migrants in India, immigration in the US presidential debates and the refugee crisis in Europe are directly addressed by Jesus. In his simple act of taking the children in his arms, Jesus tells us that all of these people, who have no homes, no livelihood, no legal standing, are those we, as people of his kingdom, need to welcome.

Christians around the world should be telling their governments to welcome the refugees rather than be afraid and close the borders. Or does our fear make this too tall an order for us?