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Little Children, the Poor In Spirit....

             Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3 & 10)

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

The verses above are the complete and comprehensive list of those who whom the kingdom of heaven belongs. The quote from John 14 makes it clear that the first two passages are not sufficient of themselves. If you are a child or poor in spirit or even persecuted because of righteousness, that you get the kingdom of heaven as your reward. In fact, seeking Heaven (as distinct from God) is idolatry. If you are after It and not Him, you will have neither. But that is not the point I’m pondering today.

Instead, I want to consider the type of person to whom heaven belongs. First and foremost is that heaven belongs to the one who is in or with Jesu; to the person who belongs to Jesus by choice. This is so much more important than anything else that it’s understandable that we might forget or ignore all else. That being clearly stated, let’s move on.

The first passage, which was the verse of the day at Biblegateway.com, tells us that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are such as children. It does not say that the kingdom belongs to children. Usually, people discussing this describe “children” as innocent, full of faith/trust, uninhibited, pure in their love, forgiving, etc. Certainly, ideal children are like that. I’ve also seen children who are petty tyrants, hateful, violent, out of control, and generally not the sort of being with whom anyone would want to spend time. Five seconds later, the sweet children can become the nasty, and the nasty, the sweet.

In this case, the children in this passage were going to Jesus in hopes of a blessing…a touch…a bounce on His knee… a kind word… By any other name, they wanted His love. The problem was that Jesus’ disciples and probably quite a few adults around were trying to be good Secret Service agents and good hosts - the children were getting in the way of more important people and more serious issues. I can almost imagine John (supposedly the youngest) being glared at by the older disciples because he was assigned baby-sitting duty. Why didn’t he keep twenty or a hundred kids “over there” while Jesus taught, or the adults talked. In the two verses from the Beatitudes, those who are poor in spirit and those who are persecuted because of righteousness are also granted the kingdom.

The question of the day is what these three have in common, that Jesus would declare that the kingdom of heaven is theirs. If it is their behavior, then like them, we should earn our salvation. If it is their class, classification, or collective, then we should all wallow in victimization. Another possibility is that they are given the kingdom of heaven because regardless of their class, these specific children on that specific day, and the poor in spirit and those who are persecuted because of righteousness are responding to Jesus or in some way seeking Him.

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