Jesus blesses little children ( Mk 10:13-16) Gospel of Mark Series

GOSPEL OF MARK SERIES.

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JESUS BLESSES LITTLE CHILDREN. Mk: 10:13-16.

During 2019, each week, I will write a weekly post about the Gospel of Mark, as I review and explore each of the 16 chapters and how it may be applied in our daily lives. If you are following this series for the first time, you will find this series under Scripture- New Testament- Gospel of Mark. 

Click here to read the first post in the series. I have written this series in different years (2012, 2015, 2018) with some irregularity, but am determined to complete this series this year since I am more than half way through this Gospel.

My goal is to understand and pray the Gospel of Mark. I hope you will join me on this journey as we travel through the liturgical season.  In today's post we explore chapter 10:13-16 which is called Jesus blesses little children.

The well-known scene of Jesus blessing the children is placed here by Mark, maybe because children are so obviously the little ones who are called to be who follow the ‘way ‘of Jesus.

There is a difference in being childish and being childlike.  Childishness is selfishness, a refusal to grow up and become part of the world, not its centre.  To be childlike is something else, and it is to this attitude Jesus calls His disciples.  It is a necessary condition to belong, to receive, or to enter the kingdom of God, the favourite phrase of Jesus for the gospel.

Jesus welcomes the intrusion of the children. Contrast the unwelcoming attitude of his disciples.  He is angry when the disciples rebuff them.  Within this human affection for children we sense something of the depth of his mysterious sensitivity of the kingdom of God.  When he takes the children within his arms and blesses them, placing his hands upon them, we can see how human and affectionate Jesus is, but we see also in him a sign of God’s power coming into the world.

An important teaching of Jesus, recognisable by the characteristic phrase used by him to give emphasis, ‘Truly I say to you’, stands at the centre of the passage.  One must receive the kingdom of God like a little child to enter it.

Children naturally wonder at things.  They are readily taken out of themselves and become absorbed in whatever is happening.  The gift of wonder, natural to a child, usually lessens in adults.  The disciples of Jesus, on the contrary, are called to grow in wonder at the ever-new things of God as they grow in years.  Surely this is the root of the simplicity one senses in Jesus himself.  It makes cynicism or disillusionment impossible for disciples who follow the; ‘’way’’ of the little ones.

JOURNAL REFLECTION

In our journal and/or our discussion group we may wish to reflect on this passage as follows:

• Name the key points that you have learnt about the person of Jesus in this passage of scripture?

• Imagine that you are one of the disciples- What do you see and hear and feel. What can I learn from this?

• Imagine being one of the children that Jesus blessed- what would you have felt?  

• What is reading the Gospel passage with the eyes and ears of disciple mean to me?

• How does Jesus show Himself as the healer Christ to me?

• What are the areas in my life I need to be blessed/healed and transformed to be a true disciple?

• Am I willing to be a true disciple of Jesus in the light of this teaching?
  
  
• How will I kill/transform these areas in my life? What will I say/do? 

• In the light of this passage, how will you respond to Jesus as a true disciple?

• If a fellow parishioner had read this passage, what might he/she say about this passage?

• In the light of this Gospel passage what positive change will you adopt in your life and in your spiritual life.  How will you implement these changes?
  
  
• What do I know about the needs of children especially those have physical and emotional struggles? How might I be able to help them?