The theme of reversal continues. Children were not honored in the ancient world, but Jesus welcomes them because they recognize their need—and in that sense are like the tax collector, who depended entirely upon God for forgiveness. Infants are brought to Jesus, but the disciples reprove those bringing their children. Jesus in turn rebukes his disciples, saying that children must be permitted to come to him, because the kingdom belongs to such. Indeed, children are the paradigm (like the tax collector) of what it means to enter the kingdom, and those who do not receive the kingdom like a child will not enter it.

  IV.  Galilee to Jerusalem: Discipleship (9:51–19:27) . . .

C.  The Last Leg of the Journey (17:11–19:27) . . .

3.  Entering the Kingdom (18:9–30) . . .

b.  Receiving the Kingdom Like a Child (18:15–17)

We attempt to live with the illusion that we are good people and are in control of our lives. We try to bend the law so that we see ourselves as keeping it. As J. Budziszewski says, “It offends our pride to be forgiven, terrifies it to surrender control.”220 And we feel like we are still in control if we can claim that we have done what is right and good. He rightly says, “Apart from an assurance that the debt can be forgiven . . . no human being dares to face the law straight on.”221 We try to convince ourselves that we have measured up to what the law demands, for it is psychologically overwhelming to admit we have failed. The good news of Jesus Christ declares that we can be honest about our failure to measure up to God’s standards. The gospel says that we can be clean and right in God’s sight on the basis of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and the redemption he accomplished for sinners. But in order to enter the kingdom we must surrender our pride. We must admit that we have been wrong. We must become as dependent as children. We do not and should not pretend we can make it in life apart from grace.