Do Not Hinder Them
There is a secret I want to share with you which illustrates a powerful essence of God’s heart that is trying to be changed, assaulted, and veiled by our deviant culture today. That secret is: God defends innocence.
I say secret because there seem to be two opposing and polarizing messages that have been in a fight to the death playing out in the public realm. One side is the militant, invasive, and terrorist-managed movements that have gained popularity among the deceived. This fifth-generation warfare wants to mutilate and propagate our children and culture into oblivion. They have no remorse about threats of bombings (like in the Target stores). They delight in forced pornography in our schools, and the White House lawn (if you look that up, shield your eyes…), even to the extent of enshrining these assaults in state law. They are trained in terror tactics like destroying pregnancy centers, churches, and small businesses just for the dastardly crime of disagreement. Our children are their fodder, our beliefs are their punchlines, and our existence is the fuel in their war machines that track through the amber waves of grain leaving carcasses of bloody carnage on the canvas of their “tolerant,” sadistic movement.
Then in the other ditch, you have the “conservative” mouthpieces, self-justified in their ignorant battle tactics of fighting hate with opposite hate, and repaying evil with a different evil. These folks cloak themselves with Old Glory and paper-mache capes made from the torn pages of the King James Bible as they rage against the culture with spittle flying from their articulate lips. They have been convinced that if they scream louder than the chaos of the war noise, they win some heavenly trophy or merit badge that they can show off at their next convention to inspire more financial support… that can buy more weapons… that can cause more damage… that can win more virtue-signaling badges.
Crouching behind their hypnotized minions, these two trigger-happy armies engaged in endless warfare launch their biological weapon arsenals of vile words and destructive indictments filled with faux hopes of victory because they are convinced they are the ones who are right. Right? Both of them are adamant about their just position at the same time and will argue to the death that they are right… right?
In between the two crushing forces are the innocent. The children. They are the ones who hate death, and war, and pain, and the monsters who breed in the scorched rubble. The opposite of evil is not always good, sometimes it is just a different evil.
Now people were bringing the little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them, and the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and told them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them, and blessed them.
Mark 10:13-16 BSB
Notice the, “people,” were bringing their children to Jesus. Please stop and consider for a moment the type of atmosphere that must have been produced by Jesus’ heart and words for these mommies and daddies of an era where this type of activity would have had some taboo associated with it. It was not a thing to take your rug-rat to the holy Rabbi for a blessing and a hug… but something was different about this Rabbi. He defended the innocent.
Just like in today’s complicated world, the disciples of that day had a very difficult job. They were required to manage the environments in such a way that protected Jesus from the wastefulness of mundane activities while also being congruent with His heart to, “seek and save that which is lost.” That must have been a thin rope they needed to tread upon daily. Here, they thought themselves totally in the right to “refuse” these parents for not honoring Jesus’ personal space… boy were they wrong. Have you ever been wrong? I have.
I often wonder how many of the arrogant “influencers” of today, adamantly rebuking those they disagree with, may not be quite as heavenly affirmed in their self-righteous opinions as they assume they are. We should not think more highly of ourselves than we aught…
“But when Jesus saw this”… is an inevitable statement. Jesus is always scanning the cosmos in hopeful anticipation that the innocent are being drawn to Him by the Spirit. AND, He will always remove any obstacles in their route, whether it is from the religious hypocrites or from the predatory culture. This incident was not going to slide under the radar.
When the scripture annotates an emotional display of Jesus, it would be beneficial to perk up the ears of your heart because it was extremely rare when filtered through the totality of His ministry activity. Here we see that He was, “indignant,” which the Greek word “aganakteó” is a pretty simple word that carries a definition like, “feeling or showing anger or annoyance at what is perceived as unfair treatment.” Jesus was kinda… pretty angry about this. Why? These kids were innocent in this conflict and the parents just wanted a divine encounter for them. So here we have Jesus rebuking and getting angry with His disciples… HIS DISCIPLES. In our touchy-feely, fragile version of church-i-anity, the Jesus of the Bible would never hurt anyone’s feelings… especially those folks closest to Him. No way, José! Yahweh…
This should stand as a clear and impactful landmark about what God thinks about innocent children having unfiltered access to Him: the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This is why Jesus breaks off into Mafioso slang like an actor in the Godfather movie promising a concrete necktie to anyone that harms one of His little ones (Luke 17:2). Yet here we are in modern progressivism targeting and grooming innocent children while calling it, “compassion.” That is not going to end well for them… Jesus does not make threats, He makes concrete promises, no pun intended.
He then makes two powerful and revelatory declarations from His indignant position of defending the innocent:
- “the kingdom of God belongs to such as these”
- “anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it”
Not too long ago, we did a series at Beloved Church called, “King and Kingdom,” where we unpacked some of these statements. So, please refer back to those messages for more depth. But, in this message, I just want to reiterate that Jesus is the King of the eternal Kingdom where there is a very strict immigration policy, and not everyone who wants to go will get a golden ticket. These are two citizenship requirements being outlined. It would behoove us all to heed closely these proclamations of The King. A major aspect of what Jesus is alluding to is purity and innocence. This is why I harp incessantly about being authentic, transparent, and humble. It is just literally everywhere in the sacred scriptures.
Here is my favorite part, Jesus goes to the kids. He defiantly crosses the battlelines of public opinion, likely bumps His disciples out of the way, and takes each of them into His strong God-arms of love, defense, and acceptance.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Matthew 5:8 BSB
Can you picture this precious moment, Jesus kneeling in the dust, picking up and speaking blessings over these wide-eyed youngins as the grace and love of His heart blew like a rushing mighty wind into the souls of the innocent? There was likely an ocean-tide of smiles… first from the Most High King, then spreading like contagion over the impressionable pure hearts of the ankle-biters, then the mommies, then the daddies, and like an unavoidable train wreck, the bearded faces of the twelve. A momentous piece of scripture history because some parents were willing to do the hard thing.
Our current culture wants to destroy those smiles, forever… but they have to go through you and me, Beloved. Today, they vie for the weak, but tomorrow they are coming for the innocent. Take your kids, and your grandkids to Kid’s Church. No excuses… pick them up even if they are in unbelievers’ homes. Pastor Jess is giving them the smile and blessing of Jesus with her amazing team. Get them enrolled at the ARC, today, not tomorrow. Get them around Godly father and mother figures as often as possible as soon as possible. BE a Godly mother and father for them, and if you do not know how, ask us… we will connect you and walk with you. No more excuses. When you are out in the dark, predatory world around us, if you see something, say something. Talk to them… like, for real talk… and find out what they know, you may be surprised. If we are too busy to defend the innocent, we are just too busy.
Kids are looking for heroes, and Jesus believes we can image Him to them. Let us show Jesus that His faith is rightly placed.
I love you greatly!
Steve
