The Little Children Defend Jesus

 

Just moments before, Jesus had forcefully driven the money changers and "those who sold doves" out of the temple.  You can just imagine the anger of Jesus as well as those purchasing their sacrificial animals in the temple.  The stage is set for what could have been a coup in the Israeli holy place.  Jesus is full of angst because his house of prayer has become a slough of criminals.    Not only are the money changers robbing the Jews coming to offer sacrifices to God, they are taking advantage of the most desolate people - only the poor would have sacrificed doves (see Lev. 12:8).  These are the ones who probably could have used more protection and care, rather than being cheated while trying to atone for their sins.

It is after this that the most unfortunate of the underprivileged come to Jesus for healing.  "The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them" (Mt. 21:14).  Jesus was available for those who needed the touch of God even after his determined cleaning of the temple.  However, this was more than the pastors and scholars of Jesus' time could take.  Who was this man from Nazareth, son of Mary and Joseph, to rampage through the temple, disrupt an orderly way to worship and then cure a bunch of unclean delinquents?

Not only was Jesus doing all these disorderly, humiliating and powerful things, but there were also a bunch of kids "crying out in the temple" (21:15).  They were yelling in church; though one must imagine the church as a large structure with many rooms and courtyards.  In all my years working with children, I've never heard a child yell in a remotely quiet voice.  Kids are loud in a way that suits them best, unconcerned what anyone else is going to say about their deafening cries.  And after they begin their shouts they are loud until someone quiets them.

To make matters worse for the scribes and chief priests, the children were not just playing a game or shouting for the fun of it.  They were praising the man who just ravaged the temple: "Hosanna to the Son of David" (21:15).  Literally, "Save us Son of David!"  The kids were acknowledging Jesus not only as a descendant of David's royal line, but as one who had the power to save them.  They were not going to the scribes and teachers to be saved - they were going to the illegitimate son of a carpenter. 

However, it did not matter to the children, they had nothing to lose.  They are not the poor standing around the money changers' tables buying their pitiful birds for sacrifice.  They have no pennies or pigeons.  They do not even have the status of the "blind and the lame" (21:14).  They are children, they own nothing.  They are nothing.  In fact, they still belonged to their parents.

Jesus knew they were nothing in that culture.  When the disciples asked Jesus who was the greatest in his kingdom he responded by calling "a child, whom he put among them and said, ‘truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest‘" (18:2-4).  Children were thought of as the least of all people - the most abject or humble.

Thus, the kids were free to say what they pleased, they had lost nothing because they never had anything.  It is often those who have nothing to lose who are the greatest defenders of a cause.  Defenders are truly what these children became as the story progressed.  The priests, who had everything to lose, were not content to confront only Jesus.  They saw the children as the threat they were and the priests were full of contempt.  They wanted Jesus to make them quiet.  They wanted Jesus to denounce the children who were fearlessly espousing the truth.

Jesus responded by telling the accusers that God had ordained praise from little children (21:16), which was part of Psalm eight: "You have set your glory above the heavens.  Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger" (8:1b-2, italics mine).  Jesus was not giving the children permission to praise him.  He was not defending the children.  Jesus was saying the children had every right to defend as the end of the verse in Psalm eight clearly states.  The worship from these children was a fortress silencing true enemies.  Jesus only quoted the first part of the verse.  The teachers of the law would have known this scripture, probably by heart.  The praises of the children then became the appropriate conclusion - a conclusion defending Jesus as the Son of David, ready to save.

What an honorable place God has for children!  They were there in the temple shouting praise to the Son of David.  Most of the important people had already left the scene of Jesus' angry upheaval at the temple.  Only the infirm, the Pharisees and the children were left (21:14 & Mk. 11:16), none of whom were defending the Savior other than the least of them all - the kids.