Mark 10:16

‘And he enfolded them in his arms and firmly blessed them, laying his hands on them.'

Having spoken sternly to His disciples He then turned to the children and opened His arms to them. Each was received and each was ‘firmly blessed' (the prefix confirms it was no perfunctory action). And as He did so He laid His hands on them identifying them with Himself. We may surmise that Jesus would not have been happy just to touch them as though He were some religious symbol which could automatically confer blessing. He wanted His actions to be real and personal and loving.

Some have tried to connect this episode with baptism, and it is true that the word for ‘forbid' here is also elsewhere used by or about those seeking baptism (Acts 8:36; Acts 10:47; Acts 11:17 compare Matthew 3:14) but the connection is tenuous and only Mark 10:47 is remotely a parallel usage. Thus its use is coincidental. It is also true that this story may have become one basis for infant baptism, but it should be noted that what Jesus says here assumes some comprehension on the children's part. While it may thus be said to have encouraged child baptism, there are no grounds at all for saying that it justifies infant baptism of those who cannot intelligently respond. That is a totally different issue.

So having demonstrated in Mark 10:2 that the new Kingly Rule of God was present so that men could be expected to go back to the way things were before the fall, He has now demonstrated the kind of people who will be able to enter under that Kingly Rule of God, and to whom it really belongs. And we will now see an example of one such young person who was unable to enter, because he had gone beyond having the heart of a little child.