Chapter # 10 Paragraph # 2 Study # 1
July 25, 2023
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: Entrance into the Kingdom of God will only be granted to those who adopt a child-like attitude.
Introduction: In our last study, we considered the "problem" of divorce in Mark's particular literary design. He did not intend that we should see "divorce" as a kind of "pinnacle sin", but rather that we should see that the issue is the attitude one takes toward one's own wishes and the love-will of God. Because God created a relational universe and it will endure for all eternity, there is nothing as important as "relating". Thus, the failure of "relating" in marriage becomes a very appropriate illustration of the particular "attitude" that keeps one from the Kingdom of God.
This evening we are going to consider the pinnacle of Mark's chiasm: Entering the Kingdom as a Child.
- I. The Larger Context.
- II. The Details.
- A. The main discernible connection between the divorce section and this following one is the degree to which the disciples denigrated the family relationships.
- 1. A love-less attitude in marriage, leading to divorce, is the root cause also of many other love-less attitudes in the family.
- 2. Making children unimportant is simply the same kind of love-less foolishness.
- 3. It was not the parents who had relegated the children to this level of valuelessness; it was the "disciples of Jesus".
- a. The parents wished for Jesus to lay His hands upon their children. In every case of Mark's use of "touch" (there are 10 of them), the "touch" was supposed to heal some form of affliction, beginning with leprosy (1:41). This does not mean that the parents were bringing "afflicted children" to Him (else the disciples would not have acted so). It does mean that the parents wished for their children something greater than they could give them.
- b. Mark's first (of eleven) use of "child" was in reference to Jairus' daughter.
- 1) His second context regarding "children" is the Syrophoenician woman's demonized daughter (7:28ff).
- 2) The next context is 9:36-37 where the arrogance of the disciples in their argument regarding "the greatest" is confronted. There is, here, an implication that the "child" is very liable to be "greater" than the "adults" in the room.
- 3) Mark's final context is 10:13-16 where no one enters the kingdom without entering as a "child".
- 4. The disciples "censured" the parents for their action. Mark used a word that, normally, would have signaled "honor-upon" (epitimao), but had been turned into its opposite; to dishonor, or relegate to "no value".
- B. Jesus was seriously grieved (aganakteo).
- 1. Mark first used this term in this text.
- 2. The next time he used it is in 10:41 where the "ten" were characterized by it in respect to James and John and their attempt to get the "choice" positions in the kingdom.
- 3. The last time is 14:4 where "some" grieved over the waste of expensive perfume being lavished upon Jesus.
- 4. There is a thread through this text that indicates that the disciples were still, seriously, clueless about what is important to God.
- C. Jesus deliberately ties God's Kingdom to "children".
- 1. It is "of such" that the Kingdom consists.
- 2. NO ONE enters that Kingdom who does not "receive it as a child".
- a. The "as a child" phrase is central.
- b. The text/context generates certain contrasts between children and adults.
- 1) First, it is the parents that are "bringing" the children to Jesus. The word is prosfero; it is used in 2:4 where the invalid is having to be carried to Jesus on a pallet.
- 2) Second, the over-arching theme of the disciples is their debate over who is the greatest on the basis of performance/privilege amid this denigration of the children.
- 3) Thus, the phrase seems to be tied to "worth by reason of skills developed" in contrast to the general ineptitude of children.
- 3. Mark uses the intensive forms of "embrace" and "fervently bless" to describe Jesus' handling of the children.
