“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a
little child will not enter it.”

Now “the kingdom of God” was the main topic of Jesus’ whole teaching career.  And in Mark’s narrative of his life, there are fourteen “kingdom of God” sayings.  We have just heard two of them, and three more come up immediately six verses later in the next episode.  So there is something more important going on here than some simple thought like, “Be nice.”

In the framework of the Bible and first-century Jewish expectations, “the kingdom of God” means the long-awaited coming of God in power bringing about the restoration of Israel, the end of spiritual exile, a fresh outpouring of the Spirit and a new way for human beings to find community with a new sense of the presence of the one God.  If we ask, “When?  Is that kingdom accessible now, or is it something we have to wait for in the future?”—Jesus responds in this passage, “Both!  . . . Whoever does not accept the kingdom of God [NOW], will not enter it [FUTURE].”  So entry into the fullness of the kingdom of God depends on how we accept it in the way that kingdom is already available to us now.  And we adults are going to have to be childlike in some crucial way if we are going to recognize and accept that kingdom already present to us now.

So, in the face of such a mandate, what’s a graying, balding, jaded, wounded adult to do?  Find some way to be cute?  Innocent?  Naïve?  Ignorant?  Or does he mean us to be self-centered the way some little kids can be?  Hardly.  We don’t hear Jesus advocating those childlike qualities anywhere.  What then?  Utter dependence.  Children know that they absolutely depend on the big people.  They know that everything is a gift.  They know that they depend on others.  And if they have been taught to pray, they recognize immediately that they are dependent on the ultimate Other.

Utter dependence.  That’s not a much-valued quality in our post-modern world, or, for that matter, in most models of maturity.  To be an adult is to have learned to stand on your own two feet and make your way in this world.  And any parent wants those qualities for their growing child.  Yet here is Jesus saying that we are going to miss the gift of the kingdom, if we are not childlike enough to receive it here and now.

What does that mean “on the ground” in daily life?  Prayer, for one thing.  Asking for what we need like little kids running to a parent with their needs.  If we are looking for a more adult-sounding example, Mark provides one in the next episode.  That’s the one where the rich man comes to Jesus with the question, “What should I do to inherit eternal life?”  And Jesus recognizing that the man is focused on adult DOING before he has mastered the art of childlike RECEIVING.  Since he has locked his identity into his possessions, Jesus advises him to let go of those possessions and follow him.  He goes away sad.  So Jesus comments in the form of the famous saying about how difficult it is for rich folks to enter the kingdom of God.  When the disciples wonder, “Who, then, can be saved?”  Jesus says, “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.  With God, all things are possible.”

That’s a key to the childlike quality Jesus means.  Wealth, and the power that comes with it, can delude a person into thinking that they are not really dependent on anything.  In that condition, we can lose the childlike capacity to receive the kingdom of God already present to us.  So, ironically, grown-up spirituality means that—without becoming dumb or irresponsible--we have to become a child, to “let go and let God.” 

This reflection is from the archives for this date in 2002.