Matthew 19:13-15: Let the Little Children Come

Have you ever tuned someone, or something out? You know what I mean—you have that person that is so annoying or bothersome that you don’t really listen to what they are saying? You nod your head in agreement and give a few “uh-huh’s”, but you’re not really listening to what they say. Or maybe it’s a noise that your furnace or your air conditioner unit repeatedly makes that you’ve learned to tune out. Or perhaps you live near an airport or train tracks, and you can tune out that noise.‌‌ In our passage today, the disciples desired the same thing for Jesus. They wanted to cancel out the noise of things which they thought were too unimportant for the master. To them, he was too important to be bothered with the insignificant background noise of a group of people who were coming to him. He didn’t need to be bothered by unimportant things. These unimportant things that Jesus wasn’t to be bothered with were not things at all; they were not distracting noises or sounds, they were people. They were children in fact. . . We find in our story today that the disciples thought Jesus was too busy to be bothered with children. People were bringing children to Jesus, and even though his disciples thought he was too important for them, Jesus told them to let the children come to him. What a profound statement Jesus offered in this text: “let the little children come.” This morning we’re going to talk about how Jesus viewed children. We’re going to be in Matthew 19 this morning, and from this passage we learn one key truth for us today:‌‌ We must value children as Jesus did