An Attitude the Lord Disdains | Mark 10:13–14a


And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them.  But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant.

Following His teaching on marriage, Jesus is greeted by several parents and their children.  It’s possible that they’re still in the home where He just answered disciples’ question about divorce (vv. 10–12).  How the disciples now react reveals a character flaw Jesus disdains, and we’d do well to recognize and root it out of ourselves.

The disciples’ attitude was one of criticism.  Verse 13 says that they continually turned people away, scolding the parents while they did so.  Perhaps the disciples wanted more from Jesus, and they saw inconvenience in the stream of mothers with children in tow.  Jesus taught too many high and lofty ideas to be bothered with crying infants.

Sadly, this attitude is a pattern.  Peter rebuked Jesus for teaching that the Son of Man must suffer (8:31–32).  The disciples tried to stop an exorcist who believed in Jesus because he wasn’t following them (9:38).  At another time, when the Samaritans don’t receive Jesus, James and John ask Him if they should call down fire from heaven to consume them (Lk 9:53–54)!  The disciples were quick to judge, confront, and rebuke. 

The disciples’ attitude invites the displeasure of the Lord.  Mark records the Lord’s emotions in few places, such as His anger at Pharisaical coldness to the needs of others (3:5) or His compassion to the needs of the lost (6:34).  Here, we also see His indignation over what His own disciples were doing.  This deep, painful emotion—the same irritation Christians sometimes experience (2 Cor 7:11)—came because He found their behavior so repugnant.  They were not only haughty and selfish, they either ignored or forgot His plain words all those months ago (Mk 9:33–37).

Christian desires should align with the Christ’s desires.  However, since their desires were off, so was their attitude.  They may have tried to justify themselves with pious statements, such as saying they wanted to be alone with Jesus and didn’t want to be distracted.  Nonetheless, they were clearly pugnacious and combative with others—an attribute that should be absent in God’s servants (cf. 1 Tm 3:3). 

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