Daily Devotional For Monday, January 5, 2026
Good morning Southside. We are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew. Having spent several devotions on looking at divorce, we now come to another subject dear to the heart of Jesus – children. Today, we come to Matthew 19:13-15:
“Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. (14) But Jesus said, ‘Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’ (15) After laying His hands on them, He departed from there” (NASB).
Most children who are adults now, (if they grew up in a Christian home or attended a Children’s Sunday School Class or Children’s Church) will remember singing “Jesus Loves Me” or “Jesus Loves the Little Children Of the World”. The Greek New Testament word translated as “children” can refer to children from infancy to elementary age. The disciples rebuked the parents and the children to approach Jesus.
The Greek New Testament word for rebuke here is [ἐπιτιμάω; epitimaō]. It can mean “to threaten.” The tense implies continual rebuking. As more and more parents tried to get their children to Jesus, the disciples were relentless in doing everything they could to keep the children away from Jesus. Can you even imagine this? In Jesus’ time, Jewish men were at the top or seniority, then women and then children. Children were to be seen and not heard. They were never to take center stage nor take the times of a Rabbi.
Makes you wonder why they never got the lesson. In Matthew 18:1-4, Jesus took a child into His lap and used this child to teach God’s truth about humility. The disciples would have been familiar with the Talmud, a Jewish commentary that taught parents to bring their children to rabbis for blessings. So, what was going on here? Why the continued rebuking and threats? Jesus was always compassionate to children. The disciples knew this or at least they should have known this about Jesus. New Testament scholar Richard C. H. Lenski writes this about children:
“As the flower in the garden stretches toward the light of the sun, so there is in the child a mysterious inclination toward the eternal light. Have you ever noticed this mysterious thing that, when you tell the smallest child about God, it never asks with strangeness and wonder, “What or who is God? I have never seen Him”—but listens with a shining face to the words as though they were soft loving sounds from the land of home? Or when you teach a child to fold its little hands in prayer, it does this as though it were a matter of course, as though there were opening for it that world of which it had been dreaming with longing and anticipation. Or tell them, these little ones, the stories of the Savior, show them the pictures with scenes and personages of the Bible [and] see how their pure eyes shine, how their little hearts beat” (Source: Richard C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel, p. 743).
We learn from Mark’s Gospel that Jesus was indignant with His disciples over their continued rebukes and threats (see Mark 10:14. I think Jesus was angry with His disciples. First, because He loved children. Second, He knew that children were born into a sinful and evil world and would one day be impacted by both evil and sin. Third, Jesus knew that one way to parents’ hearts is to love their children. It opens doors. Fourth, Jesus knew that no one, not even the youngest infant, is outside the love, compassion and grace of God the Father. Fifth, I think He was angry with them because they were still not getting it about His love for children. And sixth, Jesus had already said that the Kingdom of God belongs to children (see Matt. 19:14). Jesus was not saying the Kingdom of God belonged only to children, but that anyone who wants to come to God must do so with a childlike faith and attitude.
Jesus’ major point to His disciples that they should never prohibit anyone from coming to Him, especially children. It seems Jesus’ disciples had forgotten what He taught them in Matthew 18:4-6. Just like R.C.H. Lenski said above, Jesus welcomed children because they were some with the right attitude to God. In our world, only those with wealth, power, prestige and positions get access to certain people. Not so with Jesus Christ.
Jesus was always turning Jewish cultural rules upside down. Jesus never favored the wealthy, the powerful or those with high positions or with prestige. What I love about his passage is that the parents knew something the disciples did not: they could bring their children to Jesus and He would welcome them and bless them. They had no fear or hesitation in doing this. I like what New Testament scholar William Barclay writes:
“There is a strange difference between Jesus and many famous preachers or evangelists. It is often next to impossible to get into the presence of one of these famous ones. They have a kind of retinue and bodyguard which keep the public away lest the great figure be wearied and bothered. Jesus was nothing of the sort, and He wouldn’t allow His disciples to wear the badges of His personal security escort. As soon as they tried to limit access to Him, the Lord put them in their place. Children, as much as anybody, were worthy of Jesus’ time and His gentle touch” (Source: William Barclay, The Daily Bible Study Series, “The Gospel of Matthew,” Vol. 2, p. 247).
There is something about a child’s openness, simplicity, innocence, honesty, and wonder that Jesus loved. I will remind all of us of Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:3, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (NASB). We adults tend to come to God with pretenses, agendas, inhibitions, reluctances, and self-consciousnesses that interfere with our ability to commune with God the Father.
Assignment: How committed are you personally in getting children to Jesus whether they are your own children, your grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or neighbors’ children? When you are with children, do you talk about how much Jesus loves them? Do you ever praise a child in how they pray to God? Has your attitude or actions ever done anything to keep children from Jesus or turn them away from Jesus?
Scripture To Meditate On: Deuteronomy 6:6-7, “And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. (7) Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, help me to help get children to You. I know you love all the children of the world. Help me to come to You with a childlike heart in my attitude and actions. Lord, I do not want to do anything that causes a child to be kept from You or turn from You. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly