Matthew 19: suffer little children to come unto me

On the road to Jerusalem

Jesus has left Galilee and is moving through Judea beyond the Jordan toward Jerusalem. The chapter is full of difficult teaching. Pharisees test him on divorce, and he points them back to Genesis, to the man and woman who become one flesh. After the children, a rich young man asks what good thing he must do to have eternal life, and goes away sorrowful when told to sell what he has. Jesus then says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom, and adds that with God all things are possible.

What does “Suffer little children” mean?

In between, parents bring little children so that Jesus might put his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuke them, perhaps thinking the teacher had more important people to see. In the King James English of 1611, “suffer” means allow or let, not endure pain. So verse 14, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, means simply: let the children come, and do not stop them. Jesus adds, for of such is the kingdom of heaven, and he lays his hands on them before moving on.

Children in the ancient world had little status, and their words counted for nothing in public life. By welcoming them, Jesus reverses the scale of importance, just as the chapter ends with the saying that many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. The kingdom belongs to those who receive it as children receive a gift, without pretending to have earned it.

At the font and in the nursery

Mark 10 tells the same scene and adds that Jesus was much displeased with the disciples and took the children up in his arms; Luke 18 specifies that some were infants. The Mark version was read in the traditional Anglican service of infant baptism, and many churches that baptize babies cite this passage, while churches that practice believer's baptism often use it for the dedication of children. The verse is painted over countless Sunday school doors and makes a gentle print for a nursery, a christening or a children's ministry room.

Becoming like a child

Just one chapter earlier, in Matthew 18, Jesus sets a child in the middle of the disciples who are arguing about greatness and tells them that unless they become as little children they will not enter the kingdom. Psalm 127 calls children a heritage of the LORD, and Psalm 131 compares a quiet soul to a weaned child resting with its mother.