Jesus’s teachings on children are among the most powerful statements he made, establishing a profound connection between the treatment of the young and one’s spiritual standing. These statements set a high standard for the protection and value of children within the community. His words elevate children from a position of low social status in the first century to a model for faith, making the act of hurting them a transgression of the highest order.
The Severe Warning Against Causing Harm
Jesus issued an absolute warning against anyone who would cause a child to suffer spiritual or physical harm. This condemnation is captured in the millstone passage (Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, and Luke 17:2). He stated that “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” This imagery refers to the massive, mule-driven millstone, ensuring a swift and inescapable death by drowning.
The punishment Jesus described was not part of Jewish law but was a known, gruesome form of execution practiced by the Romans for crimes of special infamy. By invoking this extreme image, Jesus emphasized that the consequence of harming a child was worse than the most horrific death imaginable. The term “little ones” refers primarily to physical children, but also extends to new or vulnerable believers, emphasizing the protection of those who are weak or dependent.
The core offense is causing them to “stumble,” which in the original Greek, skandalon, means to set a trap or snare that leads someone into sin or away from faith. This warning applies to any action, neglect, or influence that corrupts a child’s innocence, undermines their trust, or leads them into moral error. Jesus made it clear that the spiritual or moral injury inflicted on a child is a transgression that carries a consequence far exceeding any earthly penalty.
The Call to Protect and Welcome Children
Moving from the severe warning, Jesus also provided a positive command, instructing his followers to actively welcome and protect children. This is most clearly demonstrated when his disciples attempted to prevent parents from bringing their children to him for a blessing. Jesus became indignant at his disciples’ actions, rebuking them for trying to hinder the children.
He commanded, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” This statement established a direct link between the status of children and the nature of the divine realm. By welcoming a child, an adult is essentially welcoming Jesus himself, as he stated, “whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.”
This teaching elevates the act of caring for children from a social duty to a spiritual act of worship. It requires adults to create an environment where children are not seen as distractions or burdens, but as individuals whose presence is actively sought and valued. Jesus’s actions—taking the children in his arms, placing his hands on them, and blessing them—provided a physical demonstration of their inherent worth and dignity.
The Child as a Model for Faith
The high value Jesus placed on children is rooted in the theological status he assigned to them, presenting the child as a model for the necessary disposition of faith. When his disciples argued over who was the greatest, Jesus called a child to stand among them and declared, “unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This teaching fundamentally reoriented the disciples’ understanding of greatness, shifting it from status and power to humility.
The qualities Jesus highlighted were not innocence or naiveté, but the child’s complete dependence, trust, and lack of self-importance. Children in that society held no social standing, yet Jesus used their low position to illustrate the humility required for spiritual greatness. He taught that whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
This perspective means children are not merely recipients of care, but are teachers of the very qualities adults must cultivate to approach the divine. The child’s disposition of absolute reliance on a parent becomes the metaphor for an adult’s necessary reliance on God.