Let the Little Children Come
13 Then little children were brought to him that he should lay his hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But Jesus said, “Allow the little children, and don’t forbid them to come to me; for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to ones like these.” 15 He laid his hands on them, and departed from there.
The disciples turn away parents bringing children, and are overruled in one sentence.
Then little children were brought to him that he should lay his hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them.
The scene is in the earlier account Mark 10:1–31, which adds that he was indignant about it. What the parents want is modest — a hand on the head and a prayer, which is what any respected teacher might give.
The disciples block it, and their reason is not hard to reconstruct. He has been arguing with Pharisees, the road to Jerusalem is ahead, and children are an interruption of serious business. It is protective, and it is the third time in two chapters they have been wrong about who matters.
But Jesus said, “Allow the little children, and don’t forbid them to come to me; for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to ones like these.”
The correction is placed one chapter after a child was stood in the middle of them as the answer to a question about greatness Matthew 18:2–4. They had watched that happen and still turned these away, which is worth noticing before anyone finds them slow: an illustration understood is not the same as an instinct changed.
He laid his hands on them, and departed from there.
He does what was asked, exactly and without a lesson attached, and then leaves. The last thing recorded before the rich young man arrives is a group of children being blessed and nothing being required of them.
settled What this mark means