People were bringing their little ones to Jesus hoping that He would touch them, but His disciples wanted to put a stop to the practice.  Jesus corrected them saying that unless we receive the kingdom of God “like a little child” we will never enter it.  (Luke 18:15-17)

This is not to say that there is an age limit in the kingdom, nor is it to say that Heaven is for children everywhere; it would seem that Jesus had something different in mind.

This incident is found in the middle of several parables and all of the parables have to do with entering the kingdom of God.  The persistent widow had great faith and persistence; she never gave up.  The tax collector had humility and asked God for mercy while the Pharisee had pride and arrogance and only thanked God for making him better than everyone else: The tax collector was justified, the Pharisee was not.  After this incident we will see that the rich ruler was very well-behaved and followed the rules, but loved money more than God.  We can say therefore that this incident has some context, and that Jesus isn’t really teaching about children, but trying to make us see what we must be like.

Consider a little child: What is there about a little child that God seeks in all of us?

A little child has no great worldly importance, for they are not great professionals, nor are they rich tycoons, and normally they are not great kings.  They are helpless and cannot fend for themselves, and everything they have has come from someone else, thus they are not prideful.  What they receive is a gift, just as what we receive from God is not earned but His gift.  A little child cannot buy his way into anything, for they have no wealth; they are not great in the world’s view. To enter the kingdom of God we must have this attitude.  We cannot demand to be admitted because of our great station in this world, for in God’s sight none of our worldly stature counts for anything.  We cannot earn our way in, because all have sinned and fallen short, even the “best” among us.

Salvation is God’s free gift through Jesus Christ, it is not an entitlement.

There is an interesting pattern in Luke 18: We must die to “self” and be God’s humble servants putting others first, and thus is the man or woman who enters the kingdom of God.