Commentary - Luke 18:15-17

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent interaction, Jesus delivers one of the most fundamental lessons on the nature of saving faith. The scene is simple: parents, in an act of faithful piety, bring their infants to Jesus for a blessing. The disciples, operating under a worldly calculus of importance and efficiency, try to run interference, viewing the children as a distraction. Jesus responds with a sharp rebuke to His men and a warm welcome to the children. He then uses this interruption as a living parable, a divine object lesson. The kingdom of God, He declares, belongs to those who are like these children. More than that, the only way for anyone, no matter how mature, intelligent, or accomplished, to enter the kingdom is to receive it with the same dependent, un-selfconscious trust of a little child. This passage is therefore a radical indictment of all forms of self-righteousness and a glorious affirmation of salvation by grace alone, received through faith alone.

This is not a sentimental passage about the cuteness of children. It is a profound theological statement about the terms of entry into God's kingdom. The disciples saw status, importance, and adult business as the priorities. Jesus turns this completely upside down. The qualification for entry is not what you can bring, but your recognition that you can bring nothing. The qualification is a helpless, receiving posture. This is a cornerstone text for a covenantal understanding of the church, as it shows Jesus embracing the children of believers, and it is a foundational text for the gospel itself, defining the very nature of the faith that saves.

Outline

Context In Luke

This episode is strategically placed by Luke. It immediately follows the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14), where the central lesson was that God justifies the humble man who knows he has nothing to offer, while rejecting the proud man who trusts in his own righteousness. This account of Jesus blessing the children serves as a real-life illustration of that very principle. The children have no righteousness to boast of; they can only be brought and receive a blessing. Immediately after this, Luke presents the story of the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-23), a man of great accomplishment and moral standing who cannot bring himself to abandon his own assets and achievements to simply follow Jesus. The children, the tax collector, and the rich ruler form a triptych, a three-panel display of the nature of true faith. The tax collector and the children model the humility required, while the ruler exemplifies the pride that bars the way. The entire section is a powerful discourse on the one and only door into the kingdom of God: humble, dependent faith.

Key Issues

The Un-gatekeepers

The disciples in this scene are acting out of a very common, very worldly, and very wrong-headed assumption. They believe they are serving Jesus by protecting His time and energy. They see a great and important man, the Messiah, doing great and important work, and they see these mothers with their noisy babies as an unseemly interruption. They appoint themselves as gatekeepers, as bouncers for the kingdom. But in their zeal to protect Jesus' dignity, they insult His character. They fundamentally misunderstand the nature of His kingdom and the nature of His heart. Jesus is not a modern CEO whose schedule must be jealously guarded by a team of assistants. He is the Good Shepherd, and His business is precisely with the helpless and the dependent. The rebuke they receive is sharp because their error is so grievous. To stand between Jesus and one that the Father has given Him is a perilous place to be. This incident is a permanent warning to the church against ever developing a spirit of officious pride that despises the small, the weak, or the seemingly insignificant.

Verse by Verse Commentary

15 And they were bringing even their babies to Him so that He would touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they were rebuking them.

The scene opens with an act of simple, parental faith. People were bringing their children to Jesus. Luke's choice of words is significant. He uses the Greek word brephos, which means infant or baby. These are not toddlers who decided to wander over to Jesus on their own initiative. They are infants in arms, entirely passive, being carried to the Lord. Their coming is entirely dependent on the action of their parents. The parents want one thing: for Jesus to touch them, to lay His hands on them and bless them (as Matthew and Mark clarify). This was a common and pious desire. But the disciples see it as an imposition. Their rebuke is not just a mild suggestion; they were sternly warning them off. They saw themselves as managing the ministry, and in their view, babies were not a strategic demographic.

16 But Jesus called for them, saying, “Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Jesus' reaction is immediate and decisive. He overrules His disciples completely. He "called for them," summoning the parents and their infants to Himself. His command is twofold, a positive and a negative. Positively: "Permit the children to come." Let them come. This is My will. Negatively: "and do not hinder them." Stop getting in the way. Your priorities are upside down. Then He gives the foundational reason for this command, and it is a thunderclap. "For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." He does not say the kingdom will belong to them when they grow up, or that it can belong to them if they make a decision. He says it belongs to them, present tense. This is the language of ownership, of inheritance, of citizenship. This is a declaration of their covenant status. They are not outsiders to be shooed away; they are the very exemplars of the kingdom's citizenry.

17 Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

Having established the status of the children, Jesus now pivots to the universal principle that their status illustrates. He prefaces it with "Truly I say to you," His formula for a statement of solemn, non-negotiable truth. The condition for entry into the kingdom is that one must receive it like a child. Notice the verb: receive. The kingdom is not achieved, earned, purchased, or built by human effort. It is a gift that must be received. And how does a child receive a gift? With empty hands. With simple trust. Without any illusion that they have done something to deserve it. An infant cannot bargain, cannot boast, cannot bring a resume of accomplishments. An infant can only take what is given. This is the nature of saving faith. It is a radical dependence, a complete casting of oneself upon the mercy and grace of the Giver. To refuse to become like a child in this respect is to disqualify oneself from the kingdom entirely. The gate is low, and all who would enter must stoop.

Application

This passage has two powerful lines of application that cut right to the heart of our lives as individuals and as a church. First, it must radically shape how we view our children. The children of believers are not little pagans who we hope will one day get saved. They are covenant children, members of the household of faith from their birth. Jesus says the kingdom belongs to them. Our task as parents and as a church is not to shoo them away until they are more mature, but to bring them to Jesus constantly. We are to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, treating them as what they are: young disciples. This means they belong in our worship, they belong at the table, and they belong in our prayers. We must never adopt the worldly pragmatism of the disciples, who saw children as an inconvenience to the "real" work of the ministry. Bringing our children to Jesus is the real work of the ministry.

Second, this passage is a diagnostic tool for our own hearts. How are we approaching God? Are we coming like the Pharisee, with a list of our accomplishments, trusting in our own religious performance? Or are we coming like a helpless infant, with nothing in our hands to offer? The gospel message is that you cannot earn your way in. All your righteousness is as filthy rags. All your spiritual maturity and theological knowledge is worthless as a basis for your acceptance with God. You must come with empty hands. You must receive the kingdom as a sheer gift of grace, bought and paid for by the blood of Christ. You must simply trust Him. If you are trying to enter the kingdom on any other terms, you are like a man trying to climb over the wall instead of going through the gate. Jesus here makes the way plain: become as a little child. Abandon your self-trust, and fall in utter dependence upon Him.