As Jesus was journeying toward Jerusalem two kinds of people came to him. The first type was a group of women seeking to have Jesus bless their babies (Luke 18:15). They were forbidden by Jesus’ Apostles to take their children to him. It may be this was because Jesus had already decided it was time to leave that area and continue on his way to Jerusalem (Luke 18:31; cf. 18:15 and Matthew 19:13-15). Nevertheless, delaying Jesus’ departure was not a problem for the second type who wanted to see Jesus. He happened to fit into the upper class of Jewish society, a ruler. Although an exception was made for him, the Apostles dismissed the mothers with their babies.
The Greek word Luke uses for infants (G1025) indicates they were the sort that could be held or taken into ones arms (cf. Luke 2:12, 16). While some or perhaps most of them were a few years old, none of them would have reached what was considered by the Jews to be the age of reason (age 12 for a girl and 13 for a boy), at which times they would have had their bat mitzvah and bar mitzvah respectively. Jesus’ ministry had been for those who were able to reason and understand things about the Kingdom of God. What could these children know, or how could Jesus be of any value to anyone who couldn’t understand what he says? For the disciples, the Kingdom of God was better served, if Jesus wasn’t detained by such as these.
When Jesus found out (Luke 18:16), he rebuked his disciples, telling them that not only should they allow (G863) the children to come to him, but they shouldn’t even try to hinder (G2967) them in doing so, because, according to Jesus, babies are similar to those who have embraced the Kingdom of God. Moreover, only those of us who have such a spirit as the little ones, Jesus took into his arms, are able to enter the Kingdom of God (Luke 18:17).
The contrast Luke paints in recording the two events together might be described in this manner. The babies are able only to receive, because they have no means to provide for themselves. They naturally trust others for what they need, but the rich young ruler trusted no one, but rather depended upon his own wealth. Therefore, he was unable receive anything from Jesus, implying that those whose spirits are like babies receive all they need in the Kingdom of God.
Notice that the young man referred to Jesus as good (Luke 18:18). Given that Jesus often referred to righteous men as good (G18), why would Jesus take exception with the young man for calling Jesus good (G18 – Luke 18:19)? The Greek word for good (G18) is used by Jesus to describe a righteous man (cf. Matthew 5:25; 22:10; Luke 19:17), so this begs the question: why did Jesus bring the rich young ruler’s address into question. Wasn’t he merely saying Jesus was a righteous man (cf. Luke 23:50)?
I believe therein is the problem. Jesus brought into question the rich young ruler’s impression that he thought Jesus was merely a righteous man. Technically, only God is righteous, and his righteousness is imputed to men (Romans 3:10; 4:6). Therefore, only God is good / righteous. The rich young ruler needed to understand what Jesus had been saying (John 5:17-18; 8:58; 10:30), namely, that he was God, who was come in the flesh (Malachi 3:1).
If riches are truly the blessing of God for a righteous man, then a righteous man would still be blessed by God, even if he gave away all that God had given him. The logic behind this is, if God blesses the righteous, then the righteous could give away everything God gave him without cutting off God’s blessing. It is like the running waters of the river Jordan that is fed by a spring in Philippi. Letting the waters flow away, by no means cuts off the waters coming from the spring. By not giving away his wealth, as Jesus commanded, the young ruler either didn’t believe he was righteous and was blessed by God, or he didn’t believe God blessed the righteous. Either way, he was not at all like the babies, who simply trusted their needs would be supplied.
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