We continue the experiment of exegeting the life of a congregation in order to discern the word of God incarnated.
What is the role of children in the community of faith? Are they the responsibility of the adults who are charged with nurturing them in the faith? Are they the bearers of faith to those adults who associate with them in the congregation? Are they an irritant in an organization which without them would be far more peaceful?
Was the latter what was in mind when Luke records, “Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.”? (Luke 18:15) Every church has had to struggle with the issue of a member of the church asking the pastor to baptize their grandchild during a home visit even though it is clear that the parents of the child are not involved in a church community. Baptism is treated as a magical rite in our society which even nonbelievers and certainly nonparticipants seek for their children.
Were those who brought the infants to Jesus that he might touch them participating in the same wishful thinking? Yet there is no evidence of Jesus’ having questioned the parents as to the depth and sincerity of their faith before he was willing to lay his hands upon the children. While the disciples may have seen such a request of Jesus as a irritating nuisance, Jesus apparently saw it as a promising possibility.
