Mark 10 - Those Darn Kids!

"Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." - Mark 10:24-25


A couple weeks ago, while getting the service together for church, I was going through Mark 10 and noticed something interesting that got me thinking. The chapter has several short episodes, all pretty well-known, and I want to look at the first four of them. In the first, vv. 1-12, the Pharisees make one of their many attempts to make Jesus look foolish. The second, vv. 13-16, is when the children came to see Christ, and He had to tell the disciples to let them through. This is followed by the visit of the rich young ruler, vv. 17-22, and finally Jesus' discussion with the disciples in vv. 23-31 about general people's and their own dedication to Him.

Considered together, there are two intertwined threads in these four anecdotes. The first is thematic, and is obvious: all four are about people coming to Jesus, with different results. The second, and the one that caught my attention, is the idea of “children” in relation to the disciples. More specifically, in the second story, it's the disciples versus the children, as they tried to get the kids to leave the Master alone, while in the fourth Christ turns around and, in verse 24, refers to those same disciples as “children”. We'll consider the first, and then find that it wraps back around to the second.

Taking the stories in order, we can discern two pairs of contrasts. The first is between the Pharisees and the children: the former were allowed full access to Jesus, but the latter denied any access at all, even though it's apparent in Christ's reactions that the opposite would have been preferable. The second is between a person who has everything yet lacks, and those who have nothing and yet lack nothing. In both cases, the people who were ultimately successful had what the world would consider impassible obstacles in their way – the children, their social status, and the disciples their lack of worldly goods – while, conversely, the ones who seemed to have nothing in the way couldn't quite make it. It seems, in fact, that the children and the disciples didn't see the obstructions at all, or at least as such, while the others ran up against an invisible, impenetrable wall that caused them to miss Christ's point completely.

The previous paragraph is a conclusion in itself, one that's obvious from the text. But let's consider the disciples, who, besides Jesus, were the only ones involved in both pairs of stories. Interestingly, they switched parts between the two. In their discussion with Jesus, we see that they were committed to allowing nothing to keep them away from Him. But with the children, they bowed to social propriety and actively became obstacles to keep them from getting to Jesus. In other words, they understood the Christian life for themselves, but acted as if it didn't apply to others in the world. And here, incidentally, is where we wrap back to Jesus' rather poignant choice of identifiers for the group.

The disciples had missed the fact that the children were obeying the same motivations they were, only acting them out in accordance with their own childish natures. Since children are different from adults, it only stands to reason that their approach would be different, but their heart was the same. And that's why, in verse 15, Jesus told His disciples to be like children in approaching Him. It wasn't to imply, I think, that they weren't doing so (our usual interpretation), but to explicitly point out that this was exactly what they were doing. In other words, their fault wasn't in not following God enough – it was in denying others' authenticity in doing the same, and thus making themselves obstacles to their co-disciples.

How often do we do the same? There are obviously limits to proper seeking – if it's not seeking Christ, or otherwise contravenes the plain meaning of scripture, there's an issue there. But within those confines, there are a lot of different ways of following Christ. Just consider the number of denominations, para-church and social ministry organizations, Bible studies, theological schools, etc. there are out there, and it's awe-inspiring. What is actually important in it all? That people give it all up, “and come, follow Me.” (10:21) All the other details can be viewed as a challenge to “proper” Christianity (“proper” in whatever sense or facet you like) to be stifled and corrected, or, it would seem more correctly, as an opportunity to see and encourage our brothers and sisters in the heartfelt pursuit of their faith. All it takes (hehe - “all”) is to drop some of your own pride and evaluate yourself and the other person in the light of that goal, not your ideas about it. You may discover a fellow disciple.