Simple Like a Child

June 2, 2002

The Rev. Dr. Anthony J. Godlefski, Pastor

Montgomery United Methodist Church

Matthew 9:35 – 10:1

Brothers and sisters in Christ, good morning!

This month, June, might as well be called “Children’s Month” or the “Month of the Child.” We’re celebrating baptisms and first Holy Communion; we’re celebrating a special youth service next Sunday and children’s presentation the Sunday after that. So this morning I’d like to talk with you about a beautiful reading from the Gospel that involves Jesus and the children. May I share it with you?

From the Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 10:

Some people brought children to Jesus to place His hands upon them and bless them. But the disciples scolded them.

When Jesus heard this, he was angry and said to His disciples, “Let the children come to me and do not stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I assure you that whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never into it.”

Then He took the children in His arms, placed His hands upon each of them, and blessed them.

This is the word of the Lord. [Congregation: Thanks be to God!]

I want to talk to you about one word today, and the word is simplify! Simplify! The title of our message is “Simple Like a Child.” Isn’t this an amazing piece of Scripture? You see, what happened back then is that Jewish mothers brought little children to rabbis and asked for special blessings. “Would you say a good word over my child?” “Would you surround my child with God’s light?” And the rabbi, hopefully, would comply.

But the disciples were defending Jesus. Jesus had great big grown-up important things to do. And so, when the mothers persistently tried to bring the children to Him, the disciples said, “Sorry, can’t go through. Jesus has more important things to do than bless children.”

When Jesus noticed this, said the Holy Scripture, something happened. It’s something we don’t read about too much in the Bible, but it happened right at this moment. Did you notice it? Jesus became angry! He became angry. How often do we read that in the Holy Scripture? Not very much at all. But when He saw that His disciples were trying to prevent children from coming to Him, He became angry. He said, “No, let the children come to me, for of such is the kingdom of God.” And then he said another thing that was just as amazing: “I assure you that whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter into it.”

And then He took the children in His arms and placed His hands on each of them and blessed them with a good word.

Jesus was doing two amazing things at this point. First, He was affirming children. That was unheard of. (Jesus also affirmed women – that was unheard of in His day.) Here He was, affirming these folks, saying children are important, children have rights, children are special. Doesn’t that give you a glimpse into the heart of the Lord, who He really was? It thrills me to hear those wonderful words. Children were special to Jesus. That’s number one.

And number two, He startled everybody and said, “Unless you become like a little one, you’ll never really see the kingdom of God.” Wow! They were shocked. In those days, they thought children were what they called pabla rasa, that they were blank tablets upon which adults had to write. But Jesus was saying, “There’s something to be discovered here. There’s something about children that gets us close to God in a unique way.”

Now, of course, we as adults have responsibilities to teach children and to let them benefit from our experience and our knowledge, and that’s a good thing. But we must always be aware of the unique qualities that children bring to the worship of God, and that’s what Jesus was saying, so let’s look at that together, shall we?

What is it about a child that is so close to God? In other words, what is it about you, the childhood in each of you, that is so special and close to God? Well, there are a couple of qualities. As Jesus held that child, I wonder what He was thinking. Perhaps one quality of children that we tend to lose as adults – tell me if children have this quality – is persistence. How many of you have children and have ever known a child who really wants something and makes a suggestion once and then forgets about it? No, I don’t think so. Children have a way of being persistent. And in my experience, sometimes that persistence isn’t so bad – it just tells us what this helpless child really needs. And so, the first thing we learn to do with God is to be persistent. Be persistent in your prayers. Be hope-filled. Every child is hope-filled that his or her requests will be answered. We need to be hope-filled and persistent when we pray to God. I think that’s one of the great qualities of children that we can imitate with God.

Another quality is trust. Children are trusting, and they deserve the highest level of our trust. We are called upon to trust in God. It breaks my heart when I hear people say, “This experience happened to me back then and I just lost all my faith in God because of that.” Oh, Lord, how sad! Don’t lose your faith in God because something went wrong. In God you live and move and have your being. God puts air in your lungs and surrounds you with life. That’s who God is. Trust in the Lord, because the Lord will always be there for you.

When I was an older child, and I could drive a car, I got into a little trouble with the car. I didn’t negotiate the angle of the car in relation to the angle of the car that was parked next to me, if you know what I mean, and scrape! I was devastated. I was scared out of my mind. And my father was what the Bible would describe as a hard man; he was a good man but he was strict. I was shaking in my shoes. I didn’t know what was going to happen.

But you know what? He didn’t miss a heartbeat. He came right through for me. He could see how scared I was, and he helped me fix things up. I could trust him. I could trust my mom. Blessed are you if you know that feeling of being able to trust. Jesus saw the trust in the child, and He wants us to trust God in the same way.

And children are resilient! They have bounce-back-ability. Children can fight with each other and the next day go look for them and want to be friends again. Jesus knew that, and I think He wants us to have that feeling with God, too. Don’t give up so easily. God is there for you. God is trustworthy; God is good, and He wants you to trust Him. He wants you to be able to bounce back.

Finally, children have remarkable faith. I love working with our Confirmation Class and with the children in the church school. I love watching their faith and their expressions of faith, because they’re so direct and sincere and clear. As adults, we complicate things. I tell you, there’s no more complicated place in the world religiously than a place called seminary. Let me tell you, if you think you’re going to go to seminary to get faith simplified, forget it. In seminary, they teach you to use all kinds of big words, like salvific and pericope and one of my favorites, Christological trajectory. Don’t you love that one? It sounds like a Holy rocket ship or something. It has to do with the appearance of Christ’s references through a given portion of Scripture. I never like to use those terms, because I don’t think they’re useful. What we need to do is simplify and be direct and plain. The faith of children teaches us to do that.

Friend, I have one request for you this week. If your faith is getting complicated, if your doubts are tangling you up, go back to the child within you. Go back to the simple faith in the Lord, trusting the Lord, loving the Lord, knowing that the Lord is there for you and will come through for you, and you will be like that child that Jesus is holding. And you can know, deep in your heart, that you are close to the kingdom of God.

God loves you. I do, too. Have a wonderful week. Amen.