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Advent Devotional for Thursday, December 16
This passage is childlike in its imprecision. Babies being brought to Jesus, or children coming to him? The passage suggests both. What precisely are we supposed to emulate? No details. Many adult-minded commentators, frustrated, look to context for bearings. “Children” is a socially constructed category, they say. And in Jesus’ day, to be a child was to be a non-person. “Children” signifies “marginalized”: We should approach Jesus as do the marginalized. Some Scriptures certainly support this emphasis. But here, doing so is mean: All children disappear. And sure, “children” is a socially constructed reality. But seriously — we can travel from Disney World to impoverished internal refugee communities, and we will recognize children and childlike spirit when we see it.
Another commentator warns that this is “not an occasion for idealizing childhood.” Fiddlesticks. If ever a passage called for giving free reign to the ideals, innocence, openness, and cherished memories of childhood, this is it. Indeed, with its childlike imprecision, the passage positively calls us to approach it just as it calls us to approach Jesus: like children.
How do children approach? Unless taught otherwise, children are indeed innocents. They approach with hope, confidence, and trust, anticipating the best. (Parents actually have to work to teach their children to fear strangers.) Even in cases where a history of abuse has been a bitter teacher, an incredibly powerful and profoundly poignant desire to trust and connect can long endure. Perhaps Jesus had in mind that native openness, trust, and hopeful expectation that one finds in children around the globe. Imagine the world—the peaceable kingdom — in which all relationships are so characterized.
Images of Jesus surrounded by children are beloved. We find ourselves smiling and warmed. Invited. Jesus’s word is for adults. Can we let down our defenses, our need to control? Can we be utterly vulnerable, open, and trusting? Can we come to God wholly expecting goodness, affirmation, safety, joy, and acceptance?
Finally, amazingly, audaciously, at Advent we proclaim that “as a child” is precisely the character of God’s most intimate coming to us.
“Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, God loves me.” [Repeat 70x7 times]. Amen.
William Greenway
Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.
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