One day Jesus was in Judea, when a great crowd came to hear him preach. The children came also in great numbers. The disciples, perhaps caught up in their own self-importance, saw them as a nuisance and an annoyance and ordered them away. There position doubtless was: This is serious business; we don't have time for this; don't bother the man.

It is hard to imagine the disciples taking such a position. It strikes us today as rather uncaring and cold. I can assure you, however, that I have been in churches that, in their own subtle way, are not child friendly. I well remember a congregation where a group of people bitterly fought opening up the annual children's Easter party to the community. Their reasoning went something like this: We don't know who these kids are, they will run wild through the building, they will damage the building. Now, doubtless they thought they were doing the right thing. The disciples thought they were doing the right thing. Yet, Jesus took a very different position. Suffer the little children to come unto me, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God. He then went on to proclaim: Unless you become as one of these, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Strange words. What did Jesus mean by them? Well, as always, there have been some who have taken the words literally, because they believe that everything in the Bible must be taken literally. You may be interested to know a little historical footnote. In the 13th century, in what is today Switzerland, there was a popular movement that said that Jesus' words (you must become as a child to enter the Kingdom of God) must be taken literally. I want you to know that tens of thousands of people quit the farms and quit the mills and started playing ring around the roses and acting as children, for they reasoned that there eternal salvation was at stake if they did not. Finally the government came in and forced people back to work. It actually happened.

Well, if we can mutually agree that Jesus' words in this case are not to be taken literally, that they require interpretation, then what is the interpretation?