“Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.” – Mark 10:15,16

Many times we hear about grace and quickly say, “Amen!” However grace is really understood when grace is demonstrated – especially by our Lord Jesus!

While Jesus was privately with His disciples answering questions, a continual flow of parents brought their children to Him so that He would lay hands upon them and pray a blessing on them. Therefore the disciples took it upon themselves to rebuke the parents for this interruption. This displeased the Lord Jesus because He just taught the disciples about humiliation, and now they were doing the opposite. Instead of humbly making room for the children, they were pushing them away and rebuking the parents.

The Jewish legalistic mindset was that young children were not profitable to the Kingdom of God. So, we have the Lord Jesus once again going against the conventional wisdom of established religion by identifying with these little children and taking them up in His arms.

How awesome it is to see that the Lord Jesus does not see it as a burden to take up children and pray a blessing on them. In Numbers 11:11-14, Moses complained to the LORD about how the Children of Israel was a “burden” to him. He did not want to take them up and carry them. This is a great spiritual lesson, because John 1:17 says, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” This teaches us that Moses, who represents the law, sees God’s people as a burden and refuses to take them up in his arms and carry them. Understand that the law has no compassion for the people. The law only complains about the faults of the people and cannot help. That is the law. However the Lord Jesus is the personification of grace in that He found pleasure in receiving these children into His arms, and all who come to Him in child-like faith. Jesus showed grace to these parents and grace to the children, while at the same time He demonstrated to the disciples what grace means, what grace looks like, and what grace sounds like.

Dear soul we can never make too much of grace. The law is quick to condemn you, complain about you, and reject you as an unfit burden not to be helped, but grace is ready to receive you. Grace takes you up in His arms with great pleasure and does for you what you could not do for yourself while pronouncing a prayer of blessing upon you eternally.

All who come to the Lord Jesus with a child like spirit is promised to find grace and will enter into the Kingdom of God!

David C. Hale, Pastor Email: reasons4believing@gmail.com