Children Need to be Brought to Jesus

16 August 2025  Matthew 19:13-15

“Children were brought to Jesus….” Matthew 19:13

Children did not “come” to Jesus. They “were brought” to Jesus. Somebody had to bring them.

Countless sermons, homilies, books and articles have utterly misunderstood this text, and presented it in a superficial, sentimental fashion in which Jesus welcomes the children because they are weak, and vulnerable, have an innate knowledge of His goodness and so rush to be near Him. Discipleship is then likened to children climbing up into Jesus’ lap, and calling Him “Daddy.”

This is utter, saccharine drivel, and completely misses the point.

Children don’t have an innate knowledge of God any more than they have an innate knowledge of spelling. They have to be taught. They don’t have an innate knowledge of virtue either. They have to be taught. Children do have the innate capacity to learn those things, but they cannot learn without teachers. Someone has to bring them to an understanding of God and virtue the same way that someone has to bring them to the alphabet and the multiplication table. When Jesus said of the children “to such belongs the kingdom of heaven,” he meant that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the ones who are brought there.

Children did not “come” to Jesus. They “were brought” to Jesus. In this text Jesus is blessing the bringing.

The sentimental interpretation of this text treats children like puppies – they are small, weak, vulnerable and cute. They do adorably awkward things, and they can’t hurt us because we are much bigger than they are. But you can make children mean the same way you can make puppies mean – treat them roughly and inconsistently, with no concern for the redemptive purpose for which they were made in the first place, and children, like puppies, can turn into snarling bullies. That, or they can become whimpering doormats. Either way, apart from careful, consistent and compassionate instruction, children can become adults who are just takers – they do not add anything, they just take away.

All the good, true, and beautiful things in life children must be brought to. It is easier to bring children – they don’t have to unlearn anything. Adults frequently have to unlearn many wicked, false, and ugly things before they can see the good, the true, and the beautiful. But nobody gets to the good, the true, and the beautiful who isn’t brought. Everyone in heaven is brought there.

And Jesus blesses the bringing.

The disciples “rebuked” the parents who were bringing their children to Jesus (Matthew 19:13). The verb “rebuked” in Greek is the same one used when Jesus “rebuked” the weather and calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 8:26). It is the same one used when Jesus “rebuked” the demon that was tormenting a little boy, and the disciples were unable to help (17:18). The disciples were treating bringing like foul weather and evil spirits, and once again Jesus had to turn their thinking around 180°. The bringing is the most important thing, because children do not “come” to Jesus. Nobody does. We have to be brought there.

That means there have to be bringers.

And that is the real message here. People who have been brought to Jesus, people who have learned the language of redemptive grace, who have calculated the value of Jesus and concluded that His message is the “pearl of great price” (Matthew 13:45-46), all of us who understand all that, then we are the bringers.

“And to such belongs the kingdom of heaven,” because Jesus blesses the bringing.