Matthew 21 Little Children Praising Jesus

The Triumphal Entry happened on Sunday. Adults laid garments and palm brances out as they ran ahead of the procession, Jesus was in the center, and others followed, all shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David!" (21:10)(Probably Martha was last in line, picking up the branches and cleaning up the mess left by the others. But that's another story!)

On Monday, little children are in the Temple, shouting what they had heard from the adults the day before: "Hosanna to the Son of David!" (21:15) I imagine it was one of those simple melodies children use in taunting and in play (like "nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah - nyah!") Over and over they shouted, disturbing the peace of the low rumble of adult prayers and conversations. No doubt they were also dancing, perhaps in a circle, going faster and faster in a dirbish until they fell down in a giggling and laughing.

The religious leaders were still cleaning up the place from the mess Jesus had made when He turned over tables and shouted them into silence for changing money and selling doves in the Temple. (21:12-13) The anger was seething in them, and the stage was being set in their hearts for showdowns of questions and confrontations and warnings and death plots and trial and crucifixion. But right now it was these children, these rowdy little children, who were disrespecting the Temple. Whose kids were these? Children of the moneychangers or the Pharisees? Neighborhood urchins? Why didn't Jesus yell at THEM? They were shouting, almost mocking the Pharisees, and what were they saying? Jesus is the Son of David? Praise God for Jesus? Do these kids even know what they are saying?

Sometimes I wonder about children in worship. Do they know the meaning of everything they sing? There are plenty of stories of misunderstandings from childhood; is it wrong for children to sing, "Gladly, the cross-eyed bear," or, in God bless America, "guide her through the night with a light from a bulb?" Should we make them stop?

No, somehow Jesus knew that God meant it when He said that He had ordained praise from the lips of children and [even] infants. (21:16) Jesus was pleased, not irritated, with the cacophony of innocent shouts, and it was beautiful to His holy ears, even when not sung with understanding. God receives the praise of trees, of birds, of rivers and stars, though they do not have conscious knowledge of their praise. So He gladly receives the gurglings and burbles and laughter and shouts and cries of babies. They are praising Him, too! And someday they will know the depth of meaning behind those words they now mimick from adults. I'm sure that if He were brought in as a worship consultant to our church, He would say, "Let the little children come. Let them sing and shout and laugh and dance and praise Me with their innocence. Of such is the Kingdom of heaven."

"LORD, thank You for loving me when I was too young and ignorant to know You, when I was a youth wavering in my faith, when as a teen I tried on several personalities and theologies in order to find myself, and even today when I only begin to scratch the surface of Who You are and what You are all about. You have received all of my praise to this very day, and I will continue to offer it with wild abandonment, in Jesus' name, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen."
-ker