Well, once again, I just want to wish the mother’s in the room a happy Mother’s Day. You have a very important role, and I am glad that we get to have this holiday to celebrate you guys. Not that we shouldn’t celebrate you all the time too.
But at the same time, I do know that Mother’s Day can be a difficult day as well for some for a number of different reasons. If that is the case for you, I just want you to know that we’re all here, and we’re family, and we care, and there is an awesome God that cares even more than we ever could. We all struggle with different things, but we’re all here to help and support each other through difficulty.
Because today is Mother’s Day, we’re actually going to jump ahead a little bit in Matthew 19 and deal with what would have been next week’s passage, but it just seems more fitting for today. And then we’ll backtrack and catch-up next week. But for today let’s …
Read Matthew 19:13-22
As this passage starts, it highlights the importance of children in Jesus’ teachings. The disciples initially tried to prevent children from coming to Jesus, but Jesus rebuked them and commanded that the children be allowed to come to him. Jesus doing this shows us that children hold a special place in God’s heart, and they are valued in his eyes.
Remember, we have talked before about how kids in those days were oftentimes seen as basically property and just to be dealt with, and not necessarily cared for and nurtured well. But Jesus was bringing a different example to the table. He was welcoming, He was caring, it was probably very evident, and because of that this passage is talking about parents bringing their children out so that He could bless and pray for them.
That’s what the disciples were trying to stop. And we could easily be like why in the world would they do that, but remember the culture, this is what they have lived in, and habits and traditions aren’t always easy to break. Maybe they didn’t see the kids as worth Jesus’ time investment, maybe they thought Jesus needed to be about adult business, but they were totally wrong.
Not only is that not like Jesus’ heart at all, but it also completely misses the fact that these children represented their future. These kids were going to grow up, they were going to be the future leaders, maybe church leaders, workers, moms, dads, friends, members of society and what better place for those kids to be, than in the presence of Jesus?
As we celebrate Mother’s today, let’s consider the great responsibility that comes with that role. And this isn’t exclusive to just Mother’s, but it’s a good opportunity to talk about these things today.
There are many responsibilities as parents, but what I would want us to see as Christian parents is that our greatest responsibility is to … BRING OUR CHILDREN TO JESUS
We can’t make them believe in Him, we can’t save them, but we can bring them to Jesus, to teach them about Him, to be an example of what it means to walk with Him, to show them what it means to live for Him, to love like He loves, and to build a life that is all about Him. We can do that in front of them and with them.
If we had to answer honestly right now at this moment … what would we say are our current goals for our children? What are we leading them towards?
Is it Jesus? Or maybe it’s a whole bunch of other stuff with maybe a little bit of Jesus snuck in there? I want to look at a passage together in Psalm 78.
Read Psalm 78:1-8
In these verses, God is talking to the people of Israel and He’s like, LISTEN TO MY WORDS, LISTEN TO MY LAW. He says that we must not keep these things from our children, that each generation has the responsibility of sharing the praise, the strength, and the wonderful works of God to the next generation.
For Mothers, and of course for Fathers too, that is a great responsibility, but it’s so important.
We do this so that as it says in verse 6, that the next generation might come to know all of these things, that they too would rise up and share the same truths with even the next generation, to the grand kids. But why? What’s the end goal here?
To see children and grandchildren and beyond that actually follow the Lord.
It’s shared through the generations in verse 6 so that verse 7 happens. So that we see these kids down through the generations SET THEIR HOPE IN GOD, REMEMBER HIS WORKS, and KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS.
The hope is that we are sharing these things, and we are growing stronger in the Lord, from generation to generation. So that we don’t become like those in verse 8 that have gone before us that were stubborn and rebellious and weren’t faithful to God. We want to see the tide turn towards Him and not away. But if we as parents aren’t leading our children to follow Jesus, there’s plenty of other things in this world that will happily lead them elsewhere.
Back in Matthew 19, these kids needed to be in His presence, Jesus knew that, the parents knew that, the kids probably knew that to as they stayed there as He prayed over them and blessed them. The disciples didn’t quite get it yet, but I’m sure this interaction was helping them see it. But we really need to see it too, because there is no material thing, or accomplishment, or event, or even eventually job, or degree, or anything else, that our kids need, like they need Jesus.
And it’s really interesting because in the next verses we can actually see an example of how this plays out with a young man in this passage.
After Jesus spent some time with those kids, He took off from there. But somewhere after leaving the children He is approached by a young man and let’s read through their interaction again in verses 16 through 22.
Read Matthew 19:16-22
This young man is usually referred to as the “Rich Young Ruler”. And these days that sounds like some pilot for a new reality TV show, but it’s not, it’s the story of this young man and his conversation with Jesus.
And maybe we’re like, how does this connect to the talk about kids and how in the world does it connect back to Mother’s Day, but let’s take a look at this.
For one, this is a “young man”, which means he’s maybe not that far out of childhood or adolescence. He’s still on the younger side of life. And we don’t know his past, we don’t know his story beyond the things that he says, but the man that he is now has probably been shaped and molded by his parents and his upbringing. The way that we are raised generally has a pretty strong effect on the way that we view life, and the world, and that’s probably the case with this guy too.
So, what do we learn about him from the things that he says at least?
It seems at least from his own descriptions that he is a pretty decent guy. He approaches Jesus politely, calling Him Good Teacher, and asks what good that he needs to do to get eternal life. So, he’s polite and willing to do good. Jesus tells him to make sure he keeps the commandments, and the guy responds that he has kept all of them from his youth. That’s kind of hard to believe that he has been perfect in these things, but maybe he’s done pretty good. He seems to have a pretty good moral character. So, he’s polite, he’s willing to do good, he has a pretty good moral character, and then from the rest of the verses we see that he’s wealthy, and he’s still young.
This sounds like the person that most parents hope their child grows up to be. It seems like he’s got it all together. But he’s still missing something, he has come to Jesus in pursuit of eternal life and I’m curious what his mindset or understanding of this is. Is he just wanting to live forever or is he actually wanting a relationship with God?
Jesus doesn’t answer his question directly, He doesn’t tell him that there is some specific task he can do for eternal life, because that’s not how it works, but Jesus leads the conversation to point of telling this young man to follow Him. Unfortunately, we see in verse 22 that there is something that is keeping him from being able to follow Jesus. And we can see there that the something that is holding him back, is his attraction to his wealth and possessions, and he is not willing to give that up to follow Jesus. Jesus challenges him to sell everything and give it to the poor, and then come and follow Him. But the young man isn’t prepared to do that, and he walks away sorrowful. This reminds me of verses that we have seen already in Matthew:
- “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:19-21
- “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” – Matthew 16:26
These are lessons, these are truths, that we have already learned on our way through Matthew. Are we teaching our children these truths and this mindset? Are we examples of living this out in front of them? This young man was standing there looking Jesus right in the face and he couldn’t pull himself away from the money and the stuff. He obviously still felt like he was missing something in life. It sounds on the surface like he had everything, but he was still missing something. He came to Jesus asking how he could get or earn eternal life. He knew that there was more to be concerned with than just the things of this world. But the things of this world had such a tight grip on him that they clouded his view. Remember what Jesus said back in Matthew 16:
- “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” – Matthew 16:24
That’s essentially what He is asking this young man to do at this moment, but the young man just can’t do it. Like I said, we don’t know his past, he was obviously aware of the commandments to an extent, but I wonder what was impressed on him spiritually, I wonder what examples he had growing up. Did he have parents that really wanted him to know God, and lead him that way, or did he have parents that just wanted him to be successful?
As parents, it is our responsibility to teach our children about Jesus, to be an example of what it means to walk with Him, to show them what it means to live for Him, to love like He loves, and to build a life that is all about Him. We need to be intentional about leading our children towards Jesus and laying up treasures in heaven rather than on earth. This interaction with the rich young ruler serves as a reminder that even if we have good morals and material wealth, it is not enough to secure our eternity. We must be willing to surrender everything to follow Jesus. The Bible gives us the responsibility to pass all of these things on to our kids.
- “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” – Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (NKJV)
- “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV)
As parents, it’s easy to become caught up in the daily tasks and responsibilities of providing for our children and fail to lead them towards Jesus being the main point of it all. We want our children to do well, we generally want them to be successful, we want them to have a good character, and we can try to help them with some of that, but I really want you to notice that the Rich Young Ruler had all of that and he still ended up sorrowful and walking away from Jesus.
If we really love our children, it’s not just about giving them what they want, it’s not just about keeping them healthy, it’s not just about making them successful, it’s not just about making them good people.
It absolutely has to be about Jesus or there will be sorrow at the end of that road. We see that in this guy, and I don’t want any of our kids to have to end up there.
He was a nice guy and he had tons of stuff, but He didn’t have Jesus, and he wasn’t headed for eternal life. We need to see the lesson here as we lead this next generation.
I know last week that Eileen was teaching all of the kids here about considering what greater thing God might have for their lives than just all of the regular things that young people go after. I challenge you as parents and grandparents to continue that lesson. Will we encourage our kids to seek God’s plan for their lives and how they can honor Him? Or are we just trying to direct them towards all of the things that the Rich Young Ruler had.
We really need to think about how we define success in our parenting or success in our children’s lives. Does success equal a fruitful life with Jesus, or something else?
Maybe God has prepared some of these kids for ministry, maybe in missions, maybe in local churches, maybe in community outreach organizations, maybe in worship ministry. Would we actually encourage them to consider these things? If they do these things the right way, it’s probably not going to make them wealthy or give them the easiest life. But is that what matters? Maybe God’s plan is that they go to school, maybe work a normal job, but are we preparing them to build that life AROUND JESUS, or just hoping that they tack Him on in some way?
As our children are faced with their own decision to follow Jesus, I hope that they have heard plenty of the truth, I hope that they have seen the examples, I hope that they aren’t so caught up with the things of the world, that they choose all of that junk, over Jesus, like this young man.
As we celebrate Mother’s Day, let us remember the great responsibility that comes with being a parent, or guardian, or adoptive parent, or grandparent, or even spiritual parents and grandparents in the church. We’ve got this next generation coming up and we can’t just leave it to them to figure things out when they grow up. They need the truth of Jesus shared with them constantly now. They need the example of Jesus followers living right in front of them, right now. We love having them here at church and I know Eileen and Rosie have been teaching them the truth out there in the living room, but we have to keep that going at home too.
Moms, you have a lot of influence and opportunity with your kids. Leverage every bit of that and direct them straight towards Jesus. It is a great responsibility, but it’s also a great privilege. Let us not become just caught up in the distractions and busyness of life, but make sure we are focusing on our children’s spiritual growth and development. Let’s make sure we are focusing them completely towards Jesus.