Summary
Receive the Kingdom
From the cradle onward, we are trained to measure ourselves by what we accomplish. Rolling over, feeding ourselves, learning to read, earning trophies, scholarships, raises, homes, savings—each milestone is treated as proof of worth. Productivity is one of the highest values our world recognizes, and we carry that instinct with us into matters of faith. Mark 10 confronts that instinct head-on and turns it upside down.
The rich man who runs up to Jesus in Mark 10:17 embodies this mindset. "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" The Greek verb behind "do" carries the sense of executing or performing in order to obtain. He has conquered every previous stage of life and now wants the next achievement explained so he can add it to his record. One can imagine the bystanders leaning in, hoping to hear the formula. Jesus, looking at him and loving him, refuses to give one. Instead He says, sell what you have, give it away, and follow me. The man walks away grieving, because he cannot let go of the proof of his own doing Mark 10:21-22.
The contrast comes in the children. In the second-temple world, children were considered to have little to offer; the disciples assumed the parents were wasting Jesus' time and rebuked them. Jesus was indignant. "Let the children come to me; do not stop them. For to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it" Mark 10:14-16. The decisive word is receive. Greek has a word for receiving in the sense of seizing or laying claim—but that is not the word Jesus uses here. The verb is passive. The children bring nothing. They are simply carried into His arms, blessed, and washed in His mercy.
That is why the disciples cry out, "Then who can be saved?" Mark 10:26. If we cannot achieve our way in, if we cannot bring our productivity to the table, what is left? Jesus answers plainly: "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God" Mark 10:27. Even the faith by which we receive the kingdom is itself a gift: "By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" Ephesians 2:8-9.
This is why infants are such fitting recipients of Holy Baptism. They lay claim to nothing, and so they perfectly picture what every Christian actually is before God. In Baptism we are acted upon: "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" Romans 6:4. The verbs are passive. God is the actor, the doer, the deliverer; we are the ones washed, joined to Christ's body, and given the forgiveness of sins.
Luther captures this in the Small Catechism's explanation of the Second Petition: God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity. The kingdom is not something we storm; it is something brought to us. Faith, once given, then gives rise to deeds—rather than our deeds giving rise to faith. We grow, we mature, we live godly lives, but always as those who are receiving, never as those who are earning.
Your ticket into the kingdom is not a receipt of accomplishments. Your ticket is the cross of Christ; your entrance is the water of Baptism; your promise is Christ alone. The kingdom of God is His to give, and ours to receive.
Video citations
- "Receive the Kingdom" 3-20-22 — We are going to remain in Mark chapter 10. So if you have your Bibles open, that's wonderful. It's page 40 in the New Testament of the Pue edition of the Bible. As people, we value a lot of…