The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States Grow Pray Study Guide for Friday, 27 April 2018 "Jesus was on the children’s side" Luke 18:15-16 & Matthew 2:16-18Daily Scripture:
Luke 18:15 People brought him babies to touch; but when the talmidim saw the people doing this, they rebuked them. 16 However, Yeshua called the children to him and said, “Let the children come to me, and stop hindering them, because the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.(Complete Jewish Bible).
Matthew 2:
16 Meanwhile, when Herod realized that the Magi had tricked him, he was furious and gave orders to kill all the boys in and around Beit-Lechem who were two years old or less, calculating from the time the Magi had told him. 17 In this way were fulfilled the words spoken through the prophet Yirmeyahu,
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and lamenting loudly.
It was Rachel sobbing for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no longer alive.”[
Reflection Questions:
Matthew 2:18 Jeremiah 31:14(15))
(Complete Jewish Bible).Pastor John Ortberg wrote, “In the ancient, status-ordered world, children were at the bottom of the ladder….Jesus said the kind of thing that would literally never enter the mind of another human being to say: ‘And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.’” When children were brought to Jesus, “the disciples rebuked the parents. Jesus rebuked the disciples.”* Our world and culture tends to value children highly (thanks in large part to Jesus and his followers), so it is hard for us to realize how little regard most people in Jesus' day had for children. Herod’s brutal action showed much of that day’s thinking.
- We value children and young people, so we try to teach parents how to love their children well. Despite differences about funding levels, most of us agree that we owe children a good education. We grieve over school shootings. Yet we’ve also seen young people rebuked and ridiculed for actively asking for changes to lessen the danger of school shootings. No matter what you believe about specific solutions, what does Jesus' attitude tell you about how seriously Jesus would want us to act to protect and nurture children?
- Plutarch, a Greek writer who lived shortly after Jesus' life, wrote that infants were “more like a plant than a human being.” By contrast, the early Christian book The Shepherd of Hermas said, “All babies are glorious before God.” How crucial was Jesus' regard for children in showing how highly God values children? How do our KiDSCOR and rezlife ministries seek to live out that value? What qualities of children do you believe make them a picture of the spirit God seeks in all of us?
Lord Jesus, you took the children to your arms and your heart. Even if we differ about the best ways to protect our young people, help me never to degrade the young ones you loved and welcomed. Amen.
* John Ortberg, Who Is This Man? The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012, pp. 24, 29.
Read today's Insight by Ginger RothhaasGinger is a graduate of Saint Paul School of Theology. She and her husband Rob have a son, a daughter, and a high energy dog. She loves writing, conversations over coffee, and teaching spiritual classes.
I am in Washington, D.C. this week on a school trip with my fifth grade daughter and her classmates. Eight adults are herding 37 children through presidential monuments, amazing museums, war memorials, historical homes, and so many other wonderful sights. Many things we have seen carry a heavy weight on our emotions as a country, and yet they led to the freedoms in which we are able to live today.
It has been a precious gift to hear the insights of these young minds as they are exposed to learning about historical events. They have asked “Why?” a thousand times. Why did we go to war? Why did the terrorist fly into the Pentagon? Why did someone want to kill Lincoln? Then I was asked the same question for Kennedy. Is our wall with Mexico going to be like the Berlin Wall? Why did people have slaves? Why were they treated so badly? Why are the gravestones in Arlington so small when they died for a big reason? Why are those people with signs yelling in front of the White House? Why did they kill Martin Luther King, Jr. when he was trying to help people?
For some answers, we searched the museum. If we couldn’t find the facts, I said, “I don’t know.” And then, often the question turned into a discussion of their opinions on the topic. Most times, they thought someone should have tried to find a peaceful solution, been kinder, spoken up, helped someone, or protected the weaker ones.
If the historical event involved children dying, their hearts were broken. I watched tears fill their eyes as they realized kids their age died in airplanes in 9-11, were orphaned by violence, and were caught in the crossfire of racism.
They are inspired to make sure this stuff never happens to kids their age ever again. They have ideas about how to stop the bad guys, how to treat everyone equally, and how to resolve our conflicts. At their age, they want love to win and believe that it can. I pointed out this sign to them at the Mount Vernon Education Center:
I leave this trip today more hopeful for our country’s future than when I arrived. But I also realize we have a lot of work to do. Our faith calls us to stand up for the marginalized, speak up with works of light to push back the darkness, and equally love one another. Jesus was on the side of the children, and we must be too.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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