Homily on Christian Education :: Luke 18:15-17

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Can you see it now? In our Gospel reading, there was a stream of parents knocking on the door of the house where Jesus was staying. Matthew and Mark seem to indicate this home was just across the Jordan east of Jericho. Our Lord stopped here on his final journey to Jerusalem, where he will draw all people to himself. 

And here they come. They’re coming because they most certainly have seen Jesus healing many people. They’re coming because they’ve heard him teaching about the value of God-given marriage. They’re coming ... bringing their children, notably their babies, to Jesus, so that he would lay hands upon them ... so that he might bless them and pray for them and make them whole. They’re coming, living out their vocations as fathers and mothers.

When the disciples saw them bringing noisy children to church, they rebuked them.

Why? ... Why would the disciples do such a thing? 

I’m sure the disciples must have been exhausted at this point of Jesus’ ministry. Can you imagine being surrounded by so many people longing to receive the gifts of God? ... hearing them cry out from every street corner? ... longing to be touched? ... longing to be healed? Can you imagine pressing in upon you constantly? 

Could that be why the disciples tried to shield Jesus, as if Jesus needed to be shielded?

Or were the disciples infected with the same theological malaise that affects far too many pulpits around us? 

1.

It is shocking how many churches today PREVENT parents from bringing their children, especially their babies, to the waters of holy baptism ... and even prevent them from attending the Divine Service. This was an actual conversation taking place at one of our sister churches in Illinois, just two weeks ago. 

It is shocking how many say that our Lord’s means of grace are not important. 

It is even more shocking to see how many people prevent themselves from receiving the gifts of God’s means of grace every week, too.

Then Luke writes, Jesus called [the disciples] forward, saying, Allow the children to come toward me, and do not prevent it, for to those such as these [infants] belongs the kingdom of God. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a child will certainly not enter into it. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, when Jesus says ... “Let them come” and “Don’t stop them”, and then adds an “Amen” to it all, he wants you to pay extra attention to what he is saying. He’s encouraging all of us to live out our vocations as pastors, and fathers, and mothers, and brothers and sisters in the faith. And he punctuates it all by providing you with a vivid image of our future in the Kingdom of God. Those received by Jesus are the Children of the Heavenly Father safely in his bosom gathered. 

This is an image of wholesome dependence, openness, complete trust, and sincerity ... true faith. Jesus came for such as these ... that is, for you and me ... by living and dying and rising from the dead ... because he desires all men to come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. Our Heavenly Father has promised to show love to the thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. So he says, Let the children come to me.

2.

That vision of the kingdom is exactly why today's agenda matters. We have a couple of items that are really important to our life in the house of God, the church ... notably discussion about Christian education in both school and church. We all know all of us need more catechesis. As Luther himself reminds us in the preface of the Large Catechism, “Therefore, I again beg all Christians ... especially pastors and preachers ... not to think of themselves as doctors too soon and imagine that they know everything.” 

So let us always keep our eyes on finding ways to bring the children to Jesus. As Peter says in his Pentecost preaching, the promise is for you and your children ... in Jesus’ name. 

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