Pentecost +18 – A Child in the Midst

Sermons – St. Brendan's Anglican Church

Rev. Doug Floyd

Pentecost +18 2024 Revision
Rev. Doug Floyd
Mark 9:30-37

³⁵ And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶ And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” ^[1]

Jesus sits down to teach his disciples. Now this is a Jewish tradition. We see it all through the Gospels. Jesus often sits down to teach. When I’ve taught at Messianic churches, they expect me to sit down. For this morning, we are going to follow that pattern.

A child is apparently playing in the midst of them, and Jesus picks up and holds the child. Who is the child? Some have suggested that it may be Peter’s child because they are most likely at Peter’s house. We know that Jesus is addressing the disciples, and His Word is ever alive.

Hans Urs von Balthasar reminds us that when we read about Jesus addressing the disciples or addressing the crowds, His Word is alive and present right now, so he is addressing us as well. That’s why I set a stool out here, not for me, but to help us think about him and the way he would be addressing his disciples. So he’s addressing us this morning.

Who is the child?

Think of the children you know or have known. It could be one of your children. It could be one of your grandchildren. Maybe your niece or nephew. Maybe your friend’s child. Jesus is holding this familiar child. He encourages the disciples to receive this child. For in receiving this child we receive Jesus and in receiving Jesus, we receive the Father in heaven.

Children had no formal legal status in this world. While adults have developed skills, make decisions, and can exert control, the child is totally dependent.

Peter Marty writes, “In the Greco-Roman world, children were the least-valued members of society. A father had the right to punish, sell, pawn off, or even kill his own child. Treatment of children in the Jewish community was more positive. But even there, Jewish children could be diminished socially and religiously. In Mark 10:13–16 we find the disciples shooing children away from Jesus and Jesus getting irate over their action. In the Judaism of our own day, children are not required to adhere to the commandments before the bar mitzvah (twelve years), since they are not considered mature.”[2]

Even the disciples didn’t understand the role of the child. In Matthew 19:13, parents are bringing their child to Jesus and asking him to bless them. The disciples are trying to stop them and even rebuke the parents. Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”^[3]

In his book, A History of Childhood: Children and Childhood in the West from Medieval to Modern Times, Colin Heywood argues that in the Medieval world children were just considered little adults.[4]Their clothes looked like a miniature version of the adult clothes. Even in the early nineteenth century, Dickens depicts the difficult life of children in his novels. In Nicholas Nickleby, a headmaster beats a child to death. Dickens himself worked at a factory as a child while his father was in debtor’s prison.

Then things change in the Victorian era. Partly because of Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol. He creates a modern Christmas with the child at the center of the family. The Victorian idolized their children and treated them as a separate stage in life from adults. As we move toward the present era, children are still seen as a separate age. In fact, many adults want to revert to childhood. It is common among some adults to buy toys for themselves, and even to talk about the difficulties of “adulting.”

Jesus offers an alternate view from the ancient world and from today. He picks up a child who is the very weakest and lowest member of society. He identifies himself with the child. In Matthew 18:1-4 Jesus says, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ² And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them ³ and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” ^[5]

In our Mark passage, Jesus identifies with a child and says that as we receive them, we receive Him, and ultimately, we receive the heavenly Father. George MacDonald picks upon on this theme when he writes, “Jesus is represented in the child, for that Jesus is like the child. Therefore God is represented in the child, for that he is like the child. God is child-like.”[6]

G.K. Chesterton develops MacDonald’s theme when he writes, “Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”[7]

Jesus tells us to receive the child and to be converted and become like children. He invites us to emulate the child.

I asked you to think about a child you know or have known. There’s all sorts of children that might go through our minds. For many years, I’ve had a house group in my house, and when my brother’s family was much younger, they would come over to the house group, and his son was two or three years old, and he would sit on my knee, and the whole time I taught he didn’t move completely still. His sister would go sit with Kelly, and they would draw the whole time.

But not all children are that way. We’ve had children pee on our couch. We’ve had children color on our tablecloth with a marker that does not come out. Some of you may have thought of children who throw temper tantrums. Some children can be holy terrors. Screaming and fighting and destroying the house. We can distinguish between a childishness and a childlikeness.

To be childlike is to be dependent, to be weak, to be needy. Children have an inexhaustible capacity for wonder. The world is a wonder. Chesterton said of wonder “If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are perfectly safe; if you look at it a thousandth time, you are in frightful danger of seeing it for the first time.”[8]

Children have a surprising resilience. They are always learning. Always mimicking. It is said that the average four-year-old asks up to 400 questions a day. Dallas Willard has said that children are more transparent than adults. Their faces reveal their heart. If they are happy or sad or angry, it shows instantly on their face. Whereas adults have learned to hide ourselves beneath a cloak.

Children can also be pretty selfish. Their neediness can cause them to think that the world revolves around them and their needs. They can scream. Embarrass parents in public. Fight with siblings. Lose patience quickly. And much more. We see these childish behaviors in our politicians, entertainers, and all through our popular culture. If we’re honest, we see these behaviors in ourselves. We all can be pretty childish.

As the disciples are following Jesus to Peter’s home, they are arguing about who is the greatest. They completely misunderstand the call of the cross and the weight Jesus now faces. Instead, they are consumed with their own status in the world.

In another place, Jesus asks them if they will depart, Peter replies, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”^[9] Peter’s response sounds very much like a child totally dependent on the parents.

Jesus knows the disciples have been arguing about who is the greatest. Jesus sees their childishness. He picks up a child and tells them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” ^[10]

Jesus has received them. He has received his very selfish disciples. And he cares for them as a father. Jesus has received you and you and you. He has received each of us in our childishness and our childlikeness. He holds us. He cares for us. He will not forsake us. Like a child, we are learning to be totally honest, totally bare before him for he already knows us. He will lead us like a parent, like a shepherd. He will bring us home.

He will perfect us and receive us into glory. As Jude reminds us, ²⁴ Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.^[11]

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^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mk 9:35–37.

[2] Peter W. Marty, “Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B,” in The Lectionary Commentary: Theological Exegesis for Sunday’s Texts, Volume Three, ed. Roger E. Van Harn (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 244.

^[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 19:14.

[4] Colin Heywood, A History of Childhood: Children and Childhood in the West from Medieval to Modern Times, Polity; 1st edition (December 21, 2001).

^[5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 18:1–4.

[6] George MacDonald, “The Child in the Midst,” in Unspoken Sermons (London: Alexander Strahan, 1867), 17–18.

[7] Chesterton, G. K. Orthodoxy (Illustrated) (St. Dismas Catholic Classics Book 4) (p. 43). Publisher. Kindle Edition.

[8] G.K. Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill.

^[9] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 6:68–69.

^[10] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mk 9:37.

^[11] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jud 24–25.