The events Mark describes in 10:13-16 are simple in nature: they seem to be no more than an incident of a certain day (10:13). Parents come with children to Jesus, and the fathers are in any event active here (as appears from the masculine forms: tois prospherousin and autois). Apparently it is not an organized bringing of children; the verb form seems to suggest that various fathers (parents) come after each other: prosepheron must mean that they “came to bring” children. The idea is that Jesus touches them (and prays for them: Matt. 19:13). By his touch he has healed many (1:41, 3:10, 5:27ff., 6:56, 7:33, 8:22). With these children it is not a matter of sickness; at issue are weak and vulnerable lives that still have the future ahead of them. Parents desire a blessing from Jesus: his touch will benefit the life and future of these little ones. Their arrival shows how they expect from Jesus the future for Israel’s coming generation.

The disciples object to this new development. Jesus needs his time to instruct and heal. These children are not urgent. And so they even rebuke the parents for bringing these little ones. Jesus has other things to do: bringing the kingdom of God. Important interests come before unimportant issues!

Jesus sees it (10:14): he is not preoccupied with himself but watches the environment. The discussion at the door of the house (see 10:10) irritates him. Mark uses a strong expression: Jesus shows himself to be upset and indignant. Disciples who want to help show in fact complete lack of understanding. They are ordered to allow the children to come to Jesus and not to prevent them. He embraces them (or: takes them on his arm) and blesses them, laying his hand on them (10:16). Israel’s youth receives from Jesus’ hands the blessing for the future.

What is the reason that this little story is told by as many as three evangelists? Wohlenberg¹ sees a close connection with the earlier talk about marriage: do the children not follow upon a marriage? This idea implies that the child is then placed at the centre of this passage. Also when Jesus in 10:14b speaks of “such” to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs, he (according to this view) intends to say that children certainly are entitled to receive his blessing — and that older people must have the disposition of a child. The exegesis is then controlled by the exclamation, “Do not hinder them!” However, objections can be raised against this: 1. Luke (18:15-17) has the story of the children but not the pericope about marriage; so at least in Luke the story about the children must be explained without reference to what has been said about marriage; 2. There is a separate reason to speak about children, one that comes from the circumstances at that moment, so that a direct teaching connection between the marriage pericope and the incident about the children is not to be assumed; 3. All the evangelists have in longer or shorter form Jesus’ general application of the incident (Matt. 19:14b, Mark 10:14b-15, Luke 18:16b-17), but Luke leaves out the final event (the blessing of the children); this suggests that the central issue is to be sought in Jesus’ general application, not in its cause (the children); 4. Jesus’ general application is not about the reception of children, but about the reception of the kingdom. We conclude that the arrival of the children was the reason for a memorable declaration by Jesus at the address of the disciples and that this declaration about receiving the kingdom of heaven is the reason for relating the story of the parents with their children; it constituted the cause!

By closer inspection, Jesus’ instruction to the disciples (10:14b-15) appears to touch upon an unexpected theme: who participates in the kingdom, who enters it? At first glance this theme has not much to do with the “coming to Jesus” and the “being allowed to enter the house where he is.” By connecting these two issues, however, Jesus indicates that these children, who come to him to ask a blessing for the future, are in fact on the way to receive the kingdom of heaven. And parents who try to come with their children to Jesus are in fact on the way to enter the heavenly kingdom. It is this surprising equalization of the way to the kingdom of heaven with the way toward Jesus’ blessing that has moved the disciples to preserve this word for all times. That the Lord really intends this equivalence appears from the verb “to receive”: it is only here that it is used in connection with “kingdom of heaven.” It indeed does not really fit with it all that well: the kingdom of heaven is not “received,” but “entered.” The verb “to receive” does fit the touch and the blessing for which they are coming. Jesus now compares the receiving of his blessing with the entering into the kingdom, and connects the two with the expression “to receive the kingdom.” This combination of words is used only for this event and can be used only in this connection. It is possible, however, because there is an inseparable connection between Jesus’ blessing and the kingdom of heaven. He is the gate, the way, the admission! Far more than the parents realized, the future of Israel’s youth is in Jesus’ blessing hands.

This striking connection enables us now to understand what Jesus is teaching his disciples. “To such belongs the kingdom,” namely, to children and adults who come to receive everything for the future from Jesus’ hands. “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive [as a child that does not yet make and give, but receives] the kingdom of God shall not enter it”: when the disciples think that they and Jesus are too busy with the preparations for the coming kingdom to be able to receive children, they have not yet understood that people must not prepare the kingdom but must learn to receive it from Jesus, out of grace.

The general word is spoken with reference to the time: on the way to Jerusalem, at the time when disciples prepare themselves for the glory of the kingdom and their part in it (9:34; 10:28, 37), and when Jesus prepares himself to give his life as a ransom for many (10:45). Receiving the kingdom demands reverence for Jesus’ pierced and blessing hands. Disciples must leave behind their own contributions and ambition. On the way of the cross all that remains is “accepting.” At that moment the heads of little children that allow themselves to be blessed by Jesus (10:16) can be a lesson!

Since early times this pericope has been used as defence of children’s baptism (see already Tertullian, De baptismo, 18:5). But since the subject is not baptism, there is also not a direct indication about children’s baptism. Jesus’ blessing by itself does not have to lead to baptism. It is important, of course, to realize that grace is so truly the gate to the kingdom of heaven that little children can already receive Jesus’ blessing. When baptism is a sign of God’s grace (and not of our works or faith), then, because of the generality of this grace as mentioned in the text, indirectly a conclusion can be drawn in favour of baptism. In the matter of exegesis, however, there is always the disadvantage that the interest in baptism moves the emphasis from general statements (14b-15) to the special words and events (14a; 16).

If we do not accept the pericope as it is given in the textual tradition of Mark’s Gospel, the road opens for other approaches. Duncan Derrett² believes that 10:13-16 and 9:33-37 are part of an original unity where the motif of Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen. 48) is dominant. When attempting to explain it with reference to the source of the pericope in the oldest church, the question arises whether it originated in a debate about children’s baptism (Jeremias,³ attacked by Aland⁴ ), in a discussion about the application of miraculous healing to children (Sauer⁵), or in the need to insist upon receiving travelling preachers, who move through the world like helpless children (Ringshausen ⁶