Theme: Jesus touched the newborn babies
16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
17 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.
In Mathew and Mark, we have already shared many about learning from children. Here once again, Jesus told that the kindom of God belogs to such of these. But such of what, actually?
In French version, these babies are recorded as "newborn babies". The term "newborn" leads me to think of the dialog between Jesus and Necodemus, while Jesus didn't physically talk about reborning, but rather in a spiritual way. Similarly, we can spiritually understand the meaning of newborn babies here. In ver.17, we learned that people who can enter the kindom of God should be those who can receive it. But what kind of people can receive the kindom of God? That is the newborn ones. That is to say, first of all, only when our hearts is newborn, can we receive God to come in. And secondly, only when we keep our life being reborn all the time to maintain God within our whole life, can we enter that eternal promise. Consequently, the term "newborn" is not a phase, but a dynamic and an onging movement.
Parallel with the example in ver.11, the Pharisee, whose prayer, offerings and fastings are completely routinized. In Chinse version, it is described as "a prayer of talking to himself"(自言自語的禱告). What a terrible comment to him. In God's view, is our prayer also a 自言自語? Do we really talk to God, or just do a routinized prayer but travel our mind in nowhere? Do we always have a feeling of in want of God like the tax collector in ver.13? We should keep in mind that, our God is living water, so that our faith should be living as well. Day by day, we should try to be newborn and ask for being touched by Jesus.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment