We find Jesus angry only a few times in the Bible, and this is one of them. According to custom, parents desired a blessing for their children from the rabbi. But prior to his opportunity to bless the children on this occasion, the disciples have shooed the children away so as not to bother Jesus.
These verses paint a vivid scene in our mind as parents and children, crying babies, squirming toddlers surround Jesus, desirous of his touch. How we all long to be blessed, touched by the Holy. In an attempt to honor and perhaps protect the rabbi, the disciples take decisive action to stop this nonsense. They work to remove this distraction from their real work.
I often work a hard deadline. Sunday keeps coming. My phone rings; even with my office door shut, someone knocks; a person experiencing homelessness wants to talk to a pastor. The request comes, “Pastor, would you pray with me?”
I could shoo people away, not take the call, ignore the e-mail—view it all as distraction from my real work. Yet, interruptions for Jesus often get redefined as blessings: the woman at the well, the one who touches the hem of his garment, the hunger of the five thousand. Each moment becomes a blessing.
Ancient societies did not value children, viewing them as nonpersons, distractions. So the disciples shoo away the insignificant ones. Jesus is angry with the disciples’ inability to see the possible blessing. Jesus not only comes to the defense of the children, he advances them as examples in the kingdom. Christ-followers are to help others gain access to the holy, always seeing divine possibilities.