“When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
Mark 10:14 (NIV)
We don’t see many passages in the gospels that refer to Jesus as being indignant, except when He scolded the Pharisees for misleading the people, or the money changers who used the temple for their personal gain. So two things that definitely made Jesus angry were false leaders and the misuse of His Father’s house.
There was another thing that also made Jesus indignant, which was when children were prevented from coming to Him. Parents attempted to bring their children to Jesus, so that He would bless them, but the disciples pushed them away and kept rebuking them. Mark says that this made Jesus “indignant.” He saw it as an injustice done to the children, treating them as unworthy of His attention. Bringing all the children to Jesus was deeply meaningful to Him.
I heard a woman in her late eighties share a story she remembered from her grade school days. She grew up attending a Catholic grammar school in Evanston, Illinois, during the Second World War. Her school was eight miles east of a well known Illinois Naval base at the time. Each time a naval military plane took off from that base, everyone knew it was headed for combat in wartime. Whenever they heard a naval plane flying over the school, the teacher would have every child stop what they were doing, bow their heads and pray together for that specific pilot flying over them.
Years later, whenever the lady heard war stories about a pilot’s rare survival who originated from that naval base, she always wondered if it was because of the prayers offered up by her classroom during the war.
The kingdom of God belongs to children, as Jesus said, and He invites all children to come to Him. He stood a child in front of the crowd and told everyone to become like that child, because children are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 18:3-4)
Jesus also said that the pure in heart shall see God, and children have the purest hearts. Each time the teacher told her classroom to pray for the specific pilot flying over their school, the children prayed with pure hearts, believing every prayer was truly making a difference in a pilot’s life.
It’s what Jesus is looking for in everyone, the pure and simple heart of a child. I believe there’s a childlike heart buried within all of us, or else Jesus wouldn’t have told us to “become like a child.” He knows that we can rediscover the childlike heart within us. It may have been buried by the problems and worries of adult living, but it’s there and He knows we can find it again.
If children are the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven, then so are their prayers. Eternity will one day reveal all the miracles that ever happened, simply as the result of the greatest prayers offered by little children.
Lord, bless the children in the world by answering their prayers, and help us to rediscover the childlike heart within us, that we may pray with the pure hearted faith of the child. Amen
