The Covenant Belongs to Your Kids Text: Matthew 19:13-15
Introduction: A Crisis of Belonging
We live in an age that is profoundly confused about children. On the one hand, our culture sentimentalizes them, treating them as fragile idols to be protected from every scraped knee and harsh word. On the other hand, it treats them as disposable inconveniences, commodities to be planned or terminated according to adult desires, and now, as blank canvases for the most grotesque forms of social and sexual experimentation. Our world simultaneously worships children and devours them. This is the inevitable outworking of a culture that has rejected God's covenantal framework for the family and for the world.
Into this confusion, this short account in Matthew's gospel speaks with the force of a thunderclap. It is a story about access, about belonging, and about the very nature of the Kingdom of God. And like so many interactions in the gospels, the disciples, in their well-intentioned but wrong-headed pragmatism, get it completely backward. They see children as a distraction from the "important" work of the kingdom. Jesus sees them as the very definition of it.
This passage is not a sentimental Hallmark card about Jesus being nice to kids. It is a profound theological declaration about the nature of the covenant of grace. It is a foundational text for understanding how God relates to the children of believers. Our Baptist friends often want to treat this passage as though Jesus is simply illustrating the kind of subjective, humble faith an adult must have to be saved. And while the principle of childlike humility is certainly taught elsewhere, that is not the primary thing going on here. The issue is not about the subjective state of the children's hearts; it is about their objective status. It is about to whom the kingdom of God belongs. And Jesus' answer should rattle our modern, individualistic assumptions to the core.
We are going to see three things in this text: a misguided rebuke, a glorious invitation, and a tangible confirmation. This is not just a story for parents; it is a lesson for the whole church on how to view the kingdom, the covenant, and the children God has placed in our midst.
The Text
Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. 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.” And after laying His hands on them, He departed from there.
(Matthew 19:13-15 LSB)
The Gatekeepers' Error (v. 13)
We begin with the action of the parents and the reaction of the disciples.
"Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them." (Matthew 19:13)
Notice first the faith of the parents. They are bringing their children to Jesus for a specific purpose: that He might lay His hands on them and pray. This was not some superstitious ritual. The laying on of hands in the Old Testament was a tangible way of conferring a blessing, of setting someone apart, of identifying with them (Gen. 48:14). These parents believed Jesus was a man of God, a prophet, the Messiah, and they wanted His blessing pronounced over their children. They were acting in faith, not for themselves, but on behalf of their kids. This is the essence of covenantal thinking. They understood that their children's relationship with God was bound up with their own.
But the disciples saw this differently. They "rebuked them." The "them" here likely refers to the parents bringing the children. Why did they do this? They were not being cruel. They were being pragmatic. In their minds, Jesus was engaged in serious, adult business. He was teaching, debating with Pharisees, and healing the sick. This was important work. Children, in their view, were a distraction. They couldn't understand the theology, they couldn't contribute to the cause, they were just getting underfoot. The disciples were acting as Jesus's event managers, his security detail, and they were trying to protect His time and energy for what they deemed most valuable.
This is a perpetual temptation in the church. We create programs and priorities that are geared toward adults, toward the movers and shakers, toward those who can "contribute." We measure success by numbers, by budgets, by influence. And in this economy, children often seem like a net loss. They are noisy, they are messy, they require immense resources and patience, and they don't put anything in the offering plate. The disciples' rebuke is the voice of a pragmatic, results-oriented, adult-centered ministry that has forgotten the heart of God.
The King's Declaration (v. 14)
Jesus's response is swift and sharp. Mark's gospel tells us that He was "indignant" (Mark 10:14). This is a strong word. Jesus was angry with His disciples for turning away the children.
"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.'" (Matthew 19:14 LSB)
His command is twofold: a negative and a positive. "Let the children alone," or "Suffer the little children." Stop bothering them. And then, "do not hinder them from coming to Me." Get out of the way. You are a stumbling block. You have set up a roadblock on the way to the King, and you have set it up in the wrong place.
But it is the reason He gives that is the theological bombshell. "For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." He does not say the kingdom might belong to them one day if they make a proper decision. He does not say it belongs to those who have a faith like a child. He says the kingdom belongs to them. It is their possession, their inheritance. The word "such" here does not create a hypothetical category of "childlike people." It refers to the very children standing right in front of Him. The kingdom of heaven is for these kids.
This is covenant language. Throughout the Old Testament, God's promise was always to His people "and to their seed after them" (Gen. 17:7). Children were not probationary members of Israel, waiting to opt-in. They were born into the covenant. They were members of the visible people of God by birthright. The sign of that covenant, circumcision, was applied to them as infants. Here, Jesus affirms that this principle carries over into the New Covenant. The children of believers are not little pagans who need to be evangelized out of the kingdom of darkness. They are covenant children, born inside the church, and they are to be treated as such. The kingdom belongs to them.
This is why we baptize our infants. Baptism is the sign of the New Covenant, replacing circumcision. It is the sign of entrance into the visible church. If the kingdom belongs to our children, then the sign of the kingdom must also belong to them. To withhold baptism from the children of believers is to do exactly what the disciples did: to hinder them, to forbid them, to deny them the sign of the belonging that Christ Himself has declared is theirs.
The Tangible Blessing (v. 15)
The scene concludes with Jesus doing exactly what the parents had hoped for.
"And after laying His hands on them, He departed from there." (Matthew 19:15 LSB)
Jesus gives them a tangible, physical sign of His blessing. He lays His hands on them. This is not incidental. God's covenant dealings are never abstract. He gives us physical signs and seals: water, bread, and wine. He gives us a physical book. He came in a physical body. And here, Jesus imparts His blessing through a physical touch. He is confirming their objective status in the covenant community with a concrete act.
This act of blessing was not a guarantee of their final salvation. Not every circumcised Israelite was saved, and not every baptized child will persevere in the faith. Membership in the visible covenant community comes with blessings, but it also comes with responsibilities and warnings. To be a covenant child is a great privilege, but it is also a sober responsibility. They are to be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, called to own the faith of their parents for themselves, and warned of the consequences if they forsake their covenant Lord (Heb. 10:29).
But the starting point is not neutrality. The starting point is belonging. We are to raise our children assuming their election, presuming their inclusion in the covenant of grace, and calling them to a life of faith and repentance that is consistent with the identity that has been sealed upon them in their baptism.
Conclusion: Stop Hindering Them
The disciples' mistake is one we are prone to repeat in a thousand different ways. We hinder our children from coming to Christ whenever we treat them as outsiders to the covenant. We hinder them when our churches are designed solely for the tastes and comforts of adults. We hinder them when we offer them a flimsy, moralistic, flannel-graph faith instead of the robust, worldview-shaping truth of the Scriptures. We hinder them when we fail to catechize them, when we fail to pray with them, and when we fail to bring them to the waters of baptism to receive the sign of the covenant that Jesus says belongs to them.
And we hinder them most profoundly when we fail to believe God's promises for them. The promise is for you and for your children (Acts 2:39). This is the bedrock of Christian nurture. We are not trying to coax God into loving our kids. We are resting on the fact that He already does, that He has placed them within the circle of His covenant love, and that His promises are true.
Therefore, our task is not to get our children "saved" in a one-time, emotional decision. Our task is to raise them as what they are: young Christians. We are to teach them the Scriptures, discipline them in love, model for them a life of repentance and faith, and constantly point them to Christ, the one to whom they belong. The kingdom is theirs. Let us, therefore, stop acting like gatekeepers and start acting like guides, leading our children deeper into the inheritance that Christ has already secured for them.