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Christ Blessing Little Children.
v. 13. Then were there brought unto Him little children that He should put His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them.
The ministry of Jesus was by no means limited to adults. He had only very recently used a little child to emphasize a very important truth in the kingdom of God, Mat_18:1-14. And the child, on that occasion, had willingly submitted to His kind advances, Mar_9:36. That He was a friend of the children appears also from Mat_21:15-16, where the little children sing His praises. In this case the mothers brought their little children to Him. Their request was suggested as much by their manner as by any words they may have spoken. They wanted Jesus to lay His hands upon them in token of kindly blessing. His prayer over them would be their fitting consecration to God. There is no question in the minds of the mothers as to the faith living in the hearts of the little ones, even as Christ had expressly stated that they could believe in Him, Mat_18:3-6. All attempts to deny and disprove this must come to naught before the simplicity and directness of the statements. Reason must not rule Scriptures, but at all times, and in all matters, be directed by it. The disciples had not taken the recent lesson to heart very seriously, or else they had managed to forget it very quickly, for they spoke to the mothers of the little ones in a very harsh way for disturbing their Master with trifles and for worrying Him, whose thoughts were engaged, as they supposed, with far too weighty matters to bear such an unwelcome interruption. A similar excuse is made by people for not presenting all their difficulties to the Lord in prayer.