“The Case for Christ: - Kingdom/God: Marriage & Family”

Our text for tonight is found in Hosea 6:6 in which God said: ‘I take pleasure in love, and not in sacrifice; and in the knowledge of God more than in burnt offerings.’

Jesus spoke of marriage and family and, when He did, He affirmed it in the highest and noblest of terms as a symbol or type of the kingdom of God.   

His thought was that the relationship between husband and wife, parent and child, portrayed the divine character of God’s love for His people.

And, that figure of the kingdom of God was the figure carried over to represent Christ and His church, as the writers of the New Testament introduced it. 

In the two passages of Mt 19 and Mk 10, Jesus made the creative act of God the main point.

He took His inquirers back to God’s creation of male and female made in His likeness and sharing His image with each of them. 

The two became one flesh, representing the love of God in a fullness, in a completeness unlike anything else.    

So, it is interesting to note that in these two passages of Matthew and Mark, the marriage issue is carried through to the portrait of children being brought to Jesus by their parents.

It is for this reason, we continue on in the context of God’s creation act as it is represented in the scene that follows the marriage discourse in Matthew and Mark.

Jesus’ words are ‘spirit’ and they are ‘life’, and they are as much so here in this event as in any other.  

To see that, we will use the passage in Mk 10:13-16 - Mk 10:13-16.

Here, a crowd had gathered, seemingly for the purpose of bringing the ‘...young children to Him, that He should touch them’ or - as Matthew 19:13 reads, to ‘...put His hands on them and pray...’. 

The disciples, however, ‘...rebuked those that brought them.’

‘But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.’ (v 14)

Now - I am aware that many interpret this comparison of the little children making up the kingdom along the lines of a child’s characteristics.

The explanations given are thoughts of the child coming in his simplicity, of his believing with unquestioning faith, of everything being real and vivid to him.

He, in all humility, simply believes and believes simply.

It is Spurgeon who has said of this: ‘When a child comes to Jesus, he does not argue the point: he just comes.’

And, although all these thoughts are certainly true, and can probably be applied to the intent of the verse, yet we must apply the context of this passage to this event.  

Since Jesus had taken the subject of marriage to its highest plane earlier, the key for understanding this passage lies in the reasons Jesus gave for letting the children come to Him freely.

Perhaps the most obvious, but superficial, reason centers in the attitude toward children in that day.

They were placed on the same social level as slaves and were considered ‘non-persons’, as well.  

The disciples needed to see, and to know, that Jesus did not consider them in that light at all!

In fact, He was moved with indignation and said to them: ‘Let them come to Me!’ 

They are not ‘non-persons’ as you perceive them to be!

Do not think of children as any less important to the kingdom of God than you are!

So - do not try to stop them - never stop them!

For of such is the kingdom of God’!’

That is it - that is the main reason, the underlying thought here that correlates with God’s creation.

Here is where the spirit and life of Jesus’ words are observable.

It is the kingdom of God, it is marriage and family living in the kingdom of God, that is the important part about all of this!

The creation of husband and wife in God’s likeness and image that is extended to family represents His kingdom: that is the thought here.  

How does it represent the kingdom of God?

Let us start with the creative love of God in making male and female in His image and likeness, husband and wife as one flesh.

It was in becoming one flesh in marital love which, in turn, created a little child.

In that creation, the child has been divinely given its essential spirit life.  

It has been given the potential to realize the kingdom of God.

In every one of them, God cooperates and creates eternal spirits that has the capability of carrying His love onward.

How?

When God created, He created with a tender, loving, divine tie to His creation.

He let His love fall into their hearts and soaked it into them, a soaking in which fellowship flourished.

And springing up in their hearts was a corresponding love toward God. 

It had its roots in the knowledge of God, in pleasing Him while in vital fellowship with Him.

By the time of this event, of course, sin had gained such a foothold in man that the healing and restoration of an intimate relationship was a paramount thought of God’s mind with His creation: He ‘...so loved that He gave His Son...’. 

To the prophet, God had said: ‘I take pleasure in love, and not in sacrifice; and in the knowledge of God more than in burnt offerings.’   

‘It is true love I have wanted; a tender heart wins favor with Me, for I desire lovingkindness.’ (Hos 6:6)

Human love is fickle, like the morning fog that disappears when the sun comes up.

We often hear these days of people who ‘fall in love’ and of people who ‘fall out of love’, as though ‘love’ is like a piece of fruit that can be picked off a tree one day and discarded the next. 

That is not the love God responds to nor is Himself.

His endures. His perpetually and incessantly moves onward in its most noblest way - through the tie to His creation.

So - Jesus - Who had given Himself to restore this loving, tender tie between God and man - registered His deep displeasure with the disciples’ intrusion.
   
When He saw what they were doing, ‘...He was much displeased, and said unto them. Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.’ (Mk 10:14-16) 

He welcomed the little ones, took them up in His arms, and blessed them and said: ‘Of such is the kingdom of heaven.’

And it is here that He flashed light into the souls of His disciples!

Jesus was bringing home to them the significance of the creation act.

So when these parents brought their children to Jesus, they were representing, in a very infinitesimal way, the tender tie of God’s love soaking into His creation.

They were representing the divine love between the Creator and the created, between God and man.

They were bringing their ‘created ones’ to Him for love to be ministered to them, just as God ministered love to His created beings.

They were perpetuating that, sustaining that, eternalizing that love when they were pressing their offspring back into God’s love in Jesus. 

It was He Who could minister the endless love, the love of the Eternal!

It was He, the very Personification of Love, Who was bringing ‘restoring, healing, protecting’ love to them.  

They were looking to Him for this.

No doubt, without realizing nor understanding the magnitude of their conduct, they were pressing their ‘created beings’ back into the womb of eternal love - eternal love that governs the kingdom of God.

It is the kingdom - yes, it is the kingdom made up of persons so pressed into this atmosphere of God’s love that they are able to breathe it in freely and fully, spontaneously!  

‘Look at how that past beginning of God’s creation has been brought to fulfillment in the present.

Look at how it has been brought about in this messianic way that I am showing you right now,’ was the indication of Jesus when He was enfolding His arms about the little ones.

‘If you desire to enter the kingdom of God, you must receive the kingdom as this child receives it, by connecting back to the love of God through Me.

You must become like a child soaking in God’s love.

You must participate in the rule of God and bring it to bear in every situation that will press you back into His enduring love,’ is the message.

This is an amazing and tremendous mystery, I know.

But this is how God has united Himself to humanity and how His love is brought to bear in the earth through marriage and family.

                      ************

How, then, can marriage be the most fitting image for conveying the divine heart of love?

Let me say this first: there ought to be nothing more natural for all of us than to make our way to the King of the Kingdom to be nourished and upheld by His unlimited supply of love.

And, since marriage is the closest bond possible between two human beings, it is in marriage where this is probably most crucial.

Marriage is the state of being that has a way of attracting all the ‘slings and arrows’ of life.

They make us vulnerable to each other in every part of our make-up.

It is the state in which the heart and soul can be so ripped wide apart that everything lies exposed and defenseless before us.  

In it, we are made to see the other clearly, but - more importantly - to see our hateful selves as we really are -  we no longer see through rose-colored glasses when marriage has done its work!

And these things can either ‘press into’ or ‘repel from’ God’s handiwork in His kingdom.

It takes an act of will - no - more than that - it takes a power greater than two feeble, weak persons can muster up - to make it work, and to make it work in God’s rule of love.

It can prove to be the most demanding, the most harrowing, and the most unglamorous work we will ever have to do.

Yet it also can be the most exceptional, amazing work we do. 

I have often thought of the young people of today who are looking for a challenge in life to relieve their boredom and satisfy their spirit of adventure.

They look everywhere and into all manner of pursuits to fulfill themselves.

But - God has given us the greatest challenge of life when He instituted marriage. 

And for that reason, it is one of the most crucial states of existence on earth where the supernatural love of God must - and can - emerge in its fullness and completeness.

Therein lies the challenge!

It is there that the kingdom of God is known! There is where vital fellowship with Christ lies!  

The design of the kingdom is to ‘press’ into living in His light and in His love, in the consciousness of His presence. 

Under that influence is where the power of God to embrace and cooperate with Christ’s love that constrains us comes forth!

However, when it is ignored or replaced in some ungodly way, God takes no pleasure in it!

Whenever a situation calls for the constraining love of Christ to take over, it is natural to bristle at the thought.

But it is only that constraining love that will actually cause us to draw from His grace.

It will cause us to forgive one another freely. 

It will cause us to submit to one another.

It will cause us to be so consistent to Christ that His love - His actual, divine love - flows freely.

Yes - actual, supernatural love springs up!

We receive His highest glory when we become those agencies of Christ for manifesting His love and conveying His power. 

That is the fitting image the disciples were to grasp in this tenderness of Christ’s love to the children.

In other words, the supernatural love of God in the union of His created beings through the earthly condition of marriage is being perpetuated - God is moving onward through Christ in us!  

How blessed the marriage and family is when this eternal truth of God’s love works its good work.

What delightful training takes place - training by the divine hand of God’s love - in such an atmosphere!

It represents Christ and His church in the highest and noblest way!

And, when such families represent Christ and His church, His church is blessed and God is blessed for He takes ‘pleasure in love’.

I close here for tonight!

May the Lord’s blessing in the power of His love rest upon each one of us this week in a new and living way!

Amen. 

Let us pray!