Lange Commentary - Mark 10:13 - 10:16

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Lange Commentary - Mark 10:13 - 10:16


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

SECOND SECTION

THE RABBINICAL (BAPTIST) HOUSEHOLD DISCIPLINE OF THE DISCIPLES; AND THE THEOCRATIC AND NEW TESTAMENT HOUSEHOLD DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD

Mar_10:13-16

(Parallels: Mat_19:13-15; Luk_18:15-17.)

13     And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them; and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. 14But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. 15Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. 16And he took them up in his arms, and put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

See on the parallels of Matthew and Luke.

Mar_10:13. That He should touch them.—The modest form of request, as in Luke; not necessarily the expression of a superstitious notion of magical influence resulting from it. Matthew tells us that imposition of hands was what was meant.

Mar_10:14. He was displeased.—This feature is peculiar to Mark. Displeasure against displeasure: the displeasure of the Master against the displeasure of the disciples; or, indeed, the displeasure of the Church, which believes in the blessing of children in Abraham and in Christ, against Separatism.

Mar_10:15. Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God.—The same rebuking sentence in Luke: comp. Mat_18:3. A man must first have received the kingdom of God into his heart if he would gain admission into the kingdom of God. See Mat_5:3; Mat_5:10; Joh_3:3.—The kingdom of God, which a man may receive, is Christ as the personal kingdom of God, with His salvation in His word (hence Theophylact is right, in a certain qualified sense, when he explains it of the preaching of the Gospel); the kingdom of God, into which a man is received, is the heavenly society and Church of Christ’s kingdom. The kingdom, as a principle in the heart, is unfolded and developed into the fellowship of the kingdom of Christ’s manifestation.—As a little child.—In that spiritual condition which the child, in unconscious symbolism, represents by its disposition. And yet the Lord welcomes the little children not as mere figures of the poor in spirit and of simple believers. The symbol is inseparably connected with the reality: the child and the believer are one. In the childlikeness there is present the typical precondition of faith; that is, a germ of susceptibility which the word of God will fructify.

Mar_10:16. He took them up in his arms.—Abundant answer to the prayers of pious mothers. He was expected only to touch them; He took them up in His arms, laid His hands upon them, and blessed them. Moreover, He made them a type to the disciples and adults.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See on the parallel passages of Matthew and Luke, as also the previous notes.

2. The blessings which Christ has brought into the world of little children. Jesus Himself is the proper Protector (patron and saint) of children: not the archangel Michael, not St. Nicolas, not St. Martin; although, as under the Lord, all angels and saints are appointed to love, guard, and minister to children.—We read twice of our Lord’s taking to His arms or embracing: in both instances children were the objects.

3. The disciples, infected with the rabbinical zeal for inquiry concerning the laws of marriage, would not have the Lord interrupted by their coming. Jesus, on the other hand, regards the children themselves as the final word concerning the question of marriage.

4. We have no definite account of any ordination of the Apostles by the laying on of Christ’s hands; but we do read of a laying on of hands upon children, and consequently of their ordination to the kingdom of heaven.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See on Matthew.—How pious women here understood the Lord better than His apostolical disciples did; and why? 1. The fact. Similar examples: Mary in Bethany; the believing announcers of the Risen Lord. 2. Why? Because themselves nearer to children, and better acquainted with childhood and the childlike nature.—The disciples on the byeway of rabbinical ostentation called back by the Lord to true simplicity.—The sign of rising pedantry: offence at sound life in its most innocent and beautiful forms and expressions.—How often the high school in its pride has oppressed the true schools of life; especially, 1. the school of children, and 2. the school of childlikeness, or of simple faith.—What it signifies, that the Lord demanded childlikeness almost as often as repentance and faith, in order to entrance into the kingdom of heaven: 1. Repentance and faith must have the stamp of childlikeness; 2. true childlikeness is penitent and full of faith.—The cry of the Lord through all ages, Suffer the children to come unto Me, etc.—Jesus the Friend of children.—The great Friend of the little ones: the Founder of infant baptism, infant schools, infant catechising, and of all good institutions that care for children.—The Son of Man among the children of men: 1. As the heavenly new and fresh related to the earthly new and fresh; 2. as the humble One to the artless; 3. as the Prince of faith to the confiding ones; 4. as the great Warrior to the strivers; 5. as the great Hope to the hoping; 6. as the Blessed with the happy.—Christ embraced the children: 1. The fact: a. an act of God, b. an act of Christ, c. an act of holy humanity. 2. A sign of judgment: a. for the childhood-hating kingdom of darkness, b. for the children despising proud world, c. for Christendom still too little childlike.

Starke:—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Alas! how many Christians are there who bring their children, not to Christ, but to the devil! who hinder them from entering the kingdom of heaven by their bad example, etc.!—Quesnel:—Nothing is so precious to God as true simplicity.—All blessings come from the hand of the Lord Jesus.

Braune:—The Lord, who is so gracious to the fruits (the children), is not less so to the tree (marriage).—Klopstock, in the “Messiah,” brings many souls of children, before they are conducted by angels into human bodies, to the cross of Christ, in order that they may receive a deep impression of it, such as will fit them afterwards to receive the doctrine of the Crucified.—The source of our life lies beyond any investigation of ours.—Be only a child, that thou mayest be able to become a child of God.—Christ’s embracing and laying on of His hands, and blessing, is a gracious figure of the love of God, which works upon us and for us long before we know anything about it.—Gerlach:—Children, to whom the feeling of helplessness and simplicity is rendered easier by their natural weakness and inexperience, enter most easily into the kingdom of God.—Lisco:—To us all, a regeneration for the kingdom of God is necessary.

Schleiermacher:—We should know that a future is coming after us, when the light of the Gospel will shine more clearly.—It is the proper nature of a child to live altogether and absolutely in the present. What the present moment brings, it receives with simplicity and joy; the past vanishes from its vision, of the future it knows nothing, and every passing instant suffices for the happiness of its innocent nature.—(Here simplicity merely is painted.)—Gossner:—The greatest condescends to the least. Oh, how dear to Christ is man!

Mar_10:14.—And forbid them not. The êáß is wanting in many documents.

Mar_10:16.— Êáôåõëüãåé , Tischendorf, after B., C., L., Ä ., and before ôéèåßò .