“Become Like a Child”

Mark 2:13-16
March 15, 2026
Matt Goodale

I want to start with a question this morning.

When do you think you stopped being a kid?

For many of us I know it’s probably been decades. But I’m curious:

When was the last time you laid on the ground and watched clouds move across the sky?

When was the last time you picked up a stick and pretended it was a sword…or a wand…or a lightsaber?

When was the last time you made up stories with your friends just to be silly and fun?

Most of us probably can’t remember. But if you watch children, they do things like this all the time.

And somewhere along the way, most of us stopped.

And that’s interesting, because in our story today, Jesus looks at a group of adults and says something pretty surprising: “If you want to enter the kingdom of God…you need to become like one of these kids.

Whoa. Just stop and think about that. If you want to enter God’s kingdom…you must become like a child. How seriously do we dare take Jesus’ words here?

Our story today is one of those Bible stories that can feel a little…cute. It’s easy to picture it like a Hallmark movie. Children running up to Jesus. Jesus smiling and patting them on the head. Everyone feeling warm and fuzzy.

But if we slow down…this story is actually far more shocking than we realize. Because this is not a Hallmark movie. This is life in the ancient world.

And in the ancient world here is a list of words that absolutely would never be used to describe kids: cute, sweet, adorable, precious.

Here are words that would be used in Jesus’ time to describe kids: unclean, disease-ridden (that one kind of checks out), adults-in-training.

In the ancient world childhood mortality was incredibly high, kids were often sick. They didn’t contribute economically yet—they weren’t a benefit to sociey. In fact, the Greek word used here for “little children” could also refer to household servants or slaves. That tells us something about their social status.

Children in the ancient world were essentially seen and treated as adults-in-training. They were not yet fully someone…they were someone in waiting.

So when the disciples stop the children from coming to Jesus, they’re not being cruel. They’re being normal! Jesus is a teacher…a very important one! And important teachers spend their time with important people. Like adults. Not grimy, disease-ridden, adults-in-training.

So the disciples step in and say, “Alright, that’s enough. Jesus has important things to do.”

It reminds me of all the times I say “no” to playing with my three-year-old because I have “important” adult things to do.

And then something surprising happens. Jesus gets angry. It’s one of the few times in the gospels we see that word used. Think about all the things that could make Jesus angry, but don’t…but here he is. Jesus is indignant. He says:

“Let the little children come to me. Do not stop them. For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

And then he takes them in his arms and blesses them, communicating through his actions and words: you matter, you belong, the kingdom of God is yours. This in itself would have raised eyebrows. Remember, kids aren’t given much importance…why is this important teacher bothering to acknowledge them? That should be beneath him.

But Jesus is not done yet. Because then he says something even more radical:

“Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like this child will never enter it.”

But, Jesus, that’s not how it’s supposed to work! Kids are supposed to be trained up in God’s teachings and once they are adult enough/serious enough to embrace and live into those teachings, then they really get it.

Notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “Train these kids to grow up and become like you.” Instead he says: “You need to become like them. Otherwise you have no hope of understanding why I’m really here.”

And that’s the part of this story that if we’re honest can make us a little uncomfortable.

Because most of life is about growing out of childhood. We expect and train kids to grow up. To get serious. Get a job, make money. Be responsible. Maybe to sit still and be quiet in church.

And some of those things aren’t bad. Responsibility is a good thing. Learning to become an adult in many ways is a normal and encouraged progression. But when it comes to understanding God’s kingdom—and I love how one pastor defines God’s kingdom as God’s dream for humanity here on earth…when it comes to understanding God’s dream here on earth, Jesus seems to suggest that kids understand something that we forget as we grow up.

Jesus says, “If you want to experience the kingdom of God…God’s dream here on earth…then become like a child.”

But what does that actually mean? Surely Jesus isn’t saying we should become immature or irresponsible.

So what is it about children that Jesus sees as a window into God’s dream for us?

I’ve been trying this question on as a parent, and I’ve begun to notice a few things that children do naturally that I think I’ve forgotten. I see it in my own kids.

Children have this incredible ability to be present. They live fully in the moment. Anyone who has tried to get a toddler out the door knows this. You’re trying to leave the house and suddenly they’re completely absorbed watching a bug fly around on the window.

The other day Iona was so absorbed in playing that it took considerable effort to get her away from it and into the bath. There was a tantrum involved. She didn’t want to go, but then once she was in the bath she became so fully immersed in what she was doing there that it was impossible to get her out!

Kids have this incredible ability to be fully present to whatever is in front of them. Isn’t that what prayer is? Simply learning to be present with God wherever you are and whatever you’re doing?

I’ve also noticed children are self-forgetful in the most wonderful ways. They don’t spend much time worrying about how they look or whether they sound smart. They dance naked in front of company, they sing loudly in the grocery store, they ask wild questions. They live with the kind of freedom I imagine it looks like to embrace the image of God inside.

And maybe the most magnificent thing about kids is that they play. And when they play, the world becomes the most extraordinary place full of wonder and delight. A cardboard box becomes a spaceship. A walk to the mailbox becomes an adventure. To a child the world is full of limitless possibilities, and I wonder if God’s dream for the world is visible in a child’s play.

Yesterday at John Boots service, as the family was exiting out of the sanctuary, one of his granddaughters, Kinsley, who is probably about 5, paused to give me a picture she had drawn during the service; it’s so bright and beautiful and full of life, a contrast to the difficult emotions that come with death. And I found myself thinking afterwards if maybe this 5 year old understands resurrection better than I do.

And I wonder if Jesus is inviting us to rediscover what it means to be a child; to play in the world, to see the limitless possibilities for life, to be fully present wherever we are, to not care so much what others think of us and live with abandon.

The writer Madeleine L’Engle once wrote something beautiful about this. She wrote: “I am still every age that I have been. Because I was once a child, I am always a child. Because I was once a searching adolescent, given to moods and ecstasies, these are still part of me, and always will be…This does not mean that I ought to be trapped or enclosed in any of these ages…but that they are in me to be drawn on. Far too many people think that forgetting what it is like to think and feel and touch and smell and taste and see and hear like a three-year-old or thirteen-year old or a twenty-three-year-old means being grown up. If this is what it means to be a grown-up, then I don’t ever want to be one. Instead, if I can retain a child’s awareness and joy, and *be* fifty-one, then I will really learn what it means to be grownup.”

I love that. And I think she’s right. Becoming an adult doesn’t have to mean childhood disappears. But the reality is that that part of us often gets buried…under responsibilities, deadlines, bills, schedules, and expectations.

But somewhere deep inside us…the child is still there. The one who knew how to wonder. The one who knew how to play. The one who knew how to trust.

And when Jesus says, “Become like a child,” I don’t think he’s asking us to become something new. I think he’s inviting us to recover something we already carry within us.

And here’s the beautiful thing about this story. Notice what Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me.”

He doesn’t say: “Teach them how to come.”

They’re already coming! Children are naturally drawn toward God in ways adults sometimes struggle to articulate. Which means something profound for the church. It means that children aren’t just people we teach. They’re also people we can learn from.

And that’s something we’ve started to explore more intentionally. What might it look like if church wasn’t just something adults do while children wait their turn, until they’re old enough or trained enough?

What if worship became something we all experienced together?

And what if the curiosity of children, the imagination or children, the playfulness of children, actually helped all of us encounter God in new ways? What if it helped us rediscover the child in each of us that is aching not just to know God, but to play with God and rediscover a world steeped in wonder?

Next Sunday we’re going to try this. It’s going to be super different…we’re going to have a LEGO church service. We’ll meet in the Fellowship hall around tables. We’re going to build LEGOs together. We’ll pray and play together. Not just adults watching kids, but all of us participating together.

Because if Jesus is right—and I suspect he is—then children don’t just belong in the church. They might actually help lead us deeper into the kingdom of God. They might help us recover wonder, curiosity, joy—the child within us all that never quite disappeared.

So this week, I want to leave you with a question to chew on:

How might God be inviting you to become like a child again?

Where might God be inviting you to rediscover wonder, play, curiosity, and stories…because according to Jesus the kingdom of God may be closer to those things than we ever realized.

At our core we are all children of God…and that is something we can never outgrow.

Amen and may it be so.