Jesus · c. AD 30
Chapter 46
Let the Children Come
Jesus summoned them, saying, “Allow the little children to come to me, and don’t hinder them, for God’s Kingdom belongs to such as these.
For parents
In this chapter Jesus speaks in plain words about divorce and adultery (Matthew 19:3–9; Mark 10:2–12) and about eunuchs, men who could not father children (Matthew 19:10–12). He also tells the twelve that he will be handed over, mocked, spit on, whipped and killed (crucified, in Matthew), and that he will rise on the third day (Matthew 20:17–19; Mark 10:32–34; Luke 18:31–33).
When had finished saying all this, he left and came into the region of beyond the . Great crowds followed him, and he healed them there. Mark says he came into Judea and beyond the Jordan, that crowds came to him again, and that he taught them again, as he usually did.
Some came to test him. “Does the law let a man divorce his wife for any reason?” they asked.
“Haven’t you read,” Jesus answered, “that the one who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘That is why a man will leave his father and mother and join himself to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So now they are not two, but one flesh. Then what God has joined together, don’t let anyone tear apart.”
“Then why did command us to give her a certificate of divorce and divorce her?” they asked.
“Because of your hard hearts, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives,” he told them, “but from the beginning it has not been that way. I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery.”
Mark tells it in another order. There, when the Pharisees came to test him and asked whether it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife, Jesus first asked, “What did Moses command you?” They said that Moses allowed it: a man could write a certificate of divorce and divorce her.
“He wrote you this commandment because of your hard hearts,” Jesus told them. Then he said that from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female, and that a man will leave his father and mother and join his wife, and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one. “So what God has joined together,” he said, “don’t let anyone separate.”
In the house, his asked him about this again. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. If a woman herself divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
In Matthew, his disciples said, “If that’s the way it is for a man and his wife, it’s wiser not to marry.”
“Not all people can receive this saying,” he told them, “but only those who have been given it. For some are because they were born that way, from their mother’s womb. Some were made eunuchs by men. And some made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake. Whoever is able to receive this, let him receive it.”
Then little children were brought to Jesus so that he would lay his hands on them and pray. In Mark and Luke, people were bringing them for him to touch, and Luke says it was their babies they brought. But the disciples scolded them. Mark says they scolded the people who were bringing them.
When Jesus saw it, Mark says, he was angry. He called them to him. “Allow the little children to come to me!” he said. “Don’t forbid them, for God’s Kingdom belongs to such as these.” In Matthew, he said, “for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to ones like these.”
“Most certainly I tell you,” he said, “whoever doesn’t receive God’s Kingdom like a little child will not get into it at all.”
Mark says he took the children up in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. In Matthew, he laid his hands on them, and then he left that place.
Mark says that as Jesus was going out onto the road, someone came running up to him and knelt in front of him. Luke calls him a ruler. “Good Teacher,” he said, “what do I need to do to inherit eternal life?” In Matthew, he asked, “Good teacher, what good thing should I do, so that I can have eternal life?”
Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one: God.” In Matthew, he went on, “But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
“Which ones?” the man asked.
Jesus said, “‘Don’t murder.’ ‘Don’t commit .’ ‘Don’t steal.’ ‘Don’t give false testimony.’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ And this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
In Mark and Luke, Jesus said, “You know the commandments,” and named them without the one about loving your neighbor. In Mark he named “Don’t cheat people” among them, and in Luke, “Don’t commit adultery” came before “Don’t murder.”
“Teacher,” the man said, “I have kept all these ever since I was young.” In Matthew, the young man asked, “What do I still lack?”
Mark says that Jesus looked at him and loved him. “There is one thing you lack,” he told him. “Go, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, taking up the .”
In Matthew, Jesus began, “If you want to be perfect,” and told the man to go, sell what he owned and give to the poor. Then he would have treasure in heaven. After that, he was to come and follow Jesus.
The man’s face fell at those words, and he went away sad, because he owned a great deal. Luke says he became very sad, because he was very rich.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter God’s Kingdom!” Luke says he said it when he saw how sad the man had become. In Matthew, he said, “Most certainly I tell you, a rich man will find it hard to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answered again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter God’s Kingdom!”
“I tell you again,” he said, “it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter God’s Kingdom.”
When the disciples heard it, they were deeply astonished. “Then who can be saved?” they asked. Luke says it was those who heard it who asked.
Jesus looked at them. “With people it is impossible,” he said, “but not with God, for all things are possible with God.”
Then said, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” In Matthew, he also asked, “So what will we have?”
“Most certainly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “in the regeneration, when the sits on the throne of his glory, then you who have followed me will sit on twelve thrones too, judging the .
“Everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or land for my name’s sake will receive a hundred times over, and will inherit eternal life.”
In Mark, Jesus spoke of leaving them for his sake and for the sake of the Good News. Anyone who did, he said, would receive a hundred times more now, in this time: houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land, with persecutions too. And in the age to come, they would receive eternal life. In Luke, he spoke of leaving house, wife, brothers, parents or children for the sake of God’s Kingdom. Anyone who did would receive many times more in this time, and eternal life in the world to come.
“But many will be last who are first,” Jesus said, “and first who are last.”
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household,” Jesus went on. “He went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. When he had agreed with them on a , a day’s pay, he sent them into his vineyard.
“Around nine o’clock he went out again and saw others standing in the marketplace with nothing to do. ‘You go into the vineyard as well,’ he told them, ‘and I will pay you what is right.’ So they went.
“Again he went out, around noon and around three o’clock, and did the same.
“Around five o’clock he went out once more and found others still standing around. ‘Why have you been standing here all day with nothing to do?’ he asked them. ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they said. ‘You go into the vineyard as well,’ he told them, ‘and you will receive whatever is right.’
“When evening came, the vineyard’s owner said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, from the last ones back to the first.’
“The ones hired around five o’clock came, and each of them was paid a denarius. When the first ones came, they thought they would get more, but each of them was paid a denarius too.
“When they got it, they grumbled against the master of the household. ‘These last ones have been here just one hour,’ they said. ‘You have made them equal to us, and we did the heavy work of the whole day in the scorching heat!’
“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I’m not being unfair to you. You agreed with me on a denarius, didn’t you? Take what is yours and go your way. It’s my wish to give this last one just as much as you. Isn’t it my right to do as I like with what I own? Or are you jealous because I am good?’
“So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Now they were going up to , with Jesus going in front of them. Mark says they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Once more Jesus took the twelve aside, and on the way he told them the things that were about to happen to him.
“Look,” he said, “we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the and . They will condemn him to death and hand him over to the to mock, to whip and to . And he will be raised up on the third day.”
In Mark and Luke, he said they would mock him, spit on him, whip him and kill him, and that he would rise again on the third day. In Luke, he began, “All the things about the Son of Man that are written through the prophets will be completed,” and said he would be handed over to the Gentiles and treated shamefully.
Luke says the twelve understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they didn’t understand what he told them.
Then the mother of the sons of came to Jesus, bringing her sons. She knelt and asked him for something. “What do you want?” Jesus said to her.
“Give the word that my two sons here will sit, one on your right hand and one on your left hand, in your Kingdom,” she said.
In Mark, the two brothers came to him themselves: and , the sons of Zebedee. “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we will ask,” they said. When Jesus asked them what they wanted him to do for them, they said, “Let us sit, one at your right hand and one at your left hand, in your glory.”
But Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
“We can,” they said.
“You will indeed drink my cup,” he told them, “and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. But to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to give. It is for the ones it has been prepared for.” In Matthew, he said, “prepared by my Father.”
The other ten heard it, and they were angry with the two brothers, James and John.
Jesus called them together. “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them,” he said, “and their great ones use their power over them. It won’t be that way among you. Anyone among you who wants to become great will be your servant, and anyone among you who wants to be first will be your servant.” In Mark, he spoke of those who are recognized as rulers over the nations, and said that whoever wants to be first will be the servant of all.
“For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a for many.”
Then they came to . Matthew says that as they were leaving the city, with a great crowd following Jesus, two blind men were sitting by the road. Mark tells of one blind beggar sitting by the road as Jesus went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd. His name was , the son of Timaeus. In Luke, a blind man sat by the road, begging, as Jesus came near Jericho.
In Luke, the blind man heard a crowd going by and asked what this meant. They told him that Jesus of was passing by. In Mark, Bartimaeus heard that it was Jesus the , and in Matthew, the two men heard that Jesus was passing by.
In Mark and Luke, the blind man began to shout, “Jesus, you son of , have mercy on me!” In Matthew, the two men cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!”
Many people scolded him and said he should be quiet, but he cried out all the more, “You son of David, have mercy on me!” Luke says it was the people walking at the front who scolded him. In Matthew, the crowd scolded the two men, but they cried out even louder, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!”
Jesus stopped. “Call him,” he said. In Matthew, Jesus called the two men himself, and in Luke, he commanded that the man be brought to him.
They called the blind man, saying to him, “Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you!”
He tossed his cloak aside, jumped up and came to Jesus.
Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
“,” the blind man said, “let me see again.” In Luke the man called Jesus “Lord,” and in Matthew the two men said, “Lord, we want our eyes opened.”
In Matthew, Jesus was moved with compassion and touched their eyes. Right away their eyes received their sight, and they followed him.
“Go your way,” Jesus told the man. “Your faith has made you well.” In Luke, he said, “Receive your sight. Your faith has healed you.”
Right away he received his sight and followed Jesus on the way. Luke says he followed him, giving glory to God, and everyone who saw it praised God.