By: Pastor David Grousnick

One day Jesus was in Judea, when a great crowd came to hear him preach (Mark 2). The children came also in great numbers. The disciples, perhaps caught up in their own self-importance, saw them as a nuisance and an annoyance and ordered them away. Their position doubtless was: This is serious business; we don’t have time for this; don’t bother the man.

It is hard to imagine the disciples taking such a position. It strikes us today as rather uncaring and cold. I can assure you, however, that I have been in churches that, in their own subtle way, were not child friendly.

I well remember a church congregation where a group of people bitterly fought opening the annual children’s Easter party to the community. The reasoning went something like this: We don’t know who these kids are. They will run wild through the building. They will damage the building. Now, doubtless they thought they were doing the right thing.

The disciples thought they were doing the right thing. Yet, Jesus took a very different position. Suffer the little children to come to me, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God. He then went on to proclaim: Unless you become as one of these, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Strange words. What did Jesus mean by them? Well, as always, there have been some who have taken the words literally, because they believe that everything in the Bible must be taken literally.

You may be interested to know a little historical footnote. In the 13th century, in what is today Switzerland, there was a popular movement that said that Jesus’ words (you must become as a child to enter the Kingdom of God) had to be taken literally.

Tens of thousands of people quit the farms and quit the mills and started playing ring around the roses and acting as children, for they reasoned that their eternal salvation was at stake if they did not. Finally, the government came in and forced people back to work. This actually happened.

Well, if we can mutually agree that Jesus’ words in this case are not to be taken literally, and that they require interpretation, then what is the interpretation?

The story is told of a prosperous, young investment banker who was driving a new BMW sedan on a mountain road during a snowstorm. As he veered around one sharp turn, he lost control and began sliding off the road toward a steep cliff. At the last moment he unbuckled his seat belt, flung open his door, and leaped from the car, which then plummeted to the bottom of the ravine and burst into a ball of flames.

Although he had escaped with his life, the man suffered a ghastly injury. Somehow his arm had been caught near the hinge of the door as he jumped and had been torn off at the shoulder.

A passing trucker saw the accident in his rearview mirror, pulled his rig to a halt and ran back to see if he could help.

When he arrived at the scene, he found the banker standing at the roadside, looking down at the BMW burning in the ravine below. Incredibly the banker was oblivious to his injury and moaned, “My BMW! My new BMW!” The trucker pointed at the banker’s shoulder and said, “You’ve got bigger problems than that car. We’ve got to find your arm. Maybe the surgeons can sew it back on!”`

The banker looked where his arm had been, paused a moment, and groaned, “Oh no! My Rolex! My new Rolex!”

The point of this humor in this context is to underscore the Disciples mixed up priorities.

A new principal was checking over his school on the first day. Passing the stockroom, he was startled to see the door wide open and teachers going in and out, carrying off books and supplies. The school he came from had a check-out system that required the teachers to indicate what supplies they had obtained.

Curious about the practice here he asked the school custodian, “Do you think it’s wise to keep the stockroom unlocked and to let the teachers take things without asking?” The custodian responded, “We trust them with the children, don’t we?”

Life and living are all about priorities!

Jesus wants us to trust in him and let the child within to be free. It is the only way to receive the kingdom of God. He wants us to give the child within the freedom to express itself, being creative, having fun and sharing emotions and feelings. He wants us to accept others who are different realizing that God makes us all and wants us all to be genuine, authentic human beings.

The end result is absolute joy and the opportunity to experience life in its fullest.

I pray you a wonderful weekend while you check your priorities!

David Grousnick, is the Pastor at the First Christian Church in Artesia.