What if the translations we hear are wrong? What if we choose different words? Would that change our understanding of the passage?
Today’s reading is one such reading.
When this is read, we hear about infants being brought to Jesus and how we should allow the children to come to him.
What we think of, are young kids.
But the word for infant, βρέφος, could mean “unborn fetus.”
And the word for children, παιδία, could mean “slave.”
If we make these switches, the passage reads very differently.
We first must ask, who are these unborn that they are bringing to Jesus?
Well, if Christians are born through baptism, then this could be a reference to those who haven’t yet come to faith in Jesus. This is, it could be pagans or Gentiles.
And, when Jesus tells his disciples that they should become as children or slaves, what he’s actually saying is that they need to trust their master, Jesus. They need to be obedient to him as a slave is to his or her master.
In this context, the ending makes much more sense.
Peter tells Jesus that they have become like slaves. They’ve left everything behind to be obedient to Christ, just as a slave is taken from his home to serve his new lord.
For us though, this whole passage is shocking.
It’s about allowing outsiders to come to close to Christ while we become slaves.
It’s hard to swallow.
But, as Christ says, in our struggle, we may just find eternal life.
The Reading
And they also brought babies to him, so that he might touch them; but seeing this the disciples admonished them. But Jesus called them forward, saying, “Allow the little children to come to me, and do not prevent them; for of such is the Kingdom of God. Amen, I tell you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child shall most certainly not enter into it.” . . . And those hearing this said, “Can any of them then be saved?” And he said, “Those things impossible for men are possible for God.” And Peter said to him, “Look: We have abandoned all that was ours and followed you.” And he said to them, “Amen, I tell you that there is no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God, Who does not surely receive many times as much in the present time and, in the Age to come, the life of that Age.” (Luke 18:15-17, 26-30)