On Death’s Doorstep

The Rev. Joseph Winston

October 4, 2009

Sermon

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
The topic of Jesus welcoming the children into the kingdom of God has long
been a favorite image of artists for many years. I recently searched on Google
using the keywords “Jesus and children” just to see what I could find on the Inter-
net. These keywords from today’s Gospel Lesson found almost fourteen million
images.
You might consider some of this artwork revealed in the search on Google as
classical art. Over one hundred years ago, Gustave Doré created a famous woodcut
of Jesus blessing the children, which is found in many Bibles from the time of
our grandparents. In this traditional illustration, every one of these children in
Doré’s image seems to be healthy and every mother around Jesus appears to be in
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3.

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good spirits. Close to the center of the scene, a calm and serene Jesus sits. At His
immediate right and by His feet, there are three healthy children. Christ’s right
hand is on the back of one of the rotund children. The other two toddlers patiently
wait for their turn with Jesus. Further, away from Jesus and in the right part of
the print, one can see seven other children. It appears that four of these toddlers
are anxious to meet Christ. Others seem less concerned about what is happening
around them. Playing on the ground are two boys. They are so busy with their
game that they do not even see Jesus. The shyness of the remaining child keeps
her away from Jesus. In the front of Jesus and to His left are many well-dressed
women with their children. Jesus is reaching out with His left hand and attempting
to touch one boy’s head. Some of the mothers are passing their babies to Jesus
while other children are holding their mother’s hands and are toddling toward
Him. Behind Jesus are three bearded men. By their stern appearances, one could
safely say that they are not at all happy with what Jesus is doing.
There are many more contemporary pictures that address the topic of Jesus
blessing the children. I still can remember a painting of Jesus in many of the
rooms where I went to school. In my mind’s eye, I see many young children
surrounding a bearded Jesus. As I remember the print, most of these girls and
boys were Scandinavians, Germans or Anglo Saxons while a few of the other
children were Blacks, Chinese, and Native Americans. Just like in the previous
illustration from Doré, all of the children were happy and healthy.
This sort of artwork that shows children in the picture of health continues
even to this day and it can be found at many different Christian publishing houses.

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Today, you can buy many different books full of fit children who cannot wait to
be with Jesus. It is easy to locate attendance lists decorated with Jesus and the
children. Clearly these pictures tell you that Jesus is happy to see all the thriving
children.
Unfortunately, none of these artists, famous or not, has accurately captured for
us the true essence of today’s Gospel Lesson. Not one of the almost five hundred
paintings that I reviewed provides us with the correct interpretation of Jesus and
His actions toward the children and His disciples. Every one of these illustrations
has fundamentally failed us.
There are two basic problems with this sort of picture that presents cheerful
children with their mothers that do not have a care in the world. The life of the
child has always been very difficult. During the time of Christ, about one in three
children died as infants.2 This is the first issue that we must face. The artwork
we normally see that illustrates Jesus and the children is not accurately reflecting
reality. No children are sick. No children are hurt. No children are hungry.
Compare our current view of the world with what we actually find in the
Gospel. When we listen to the opening portion of the Gospel according to St. Mark,
we hear the narrator addressing the pain found in life. Almost out of breath with
excitement, he quickly tells us that Jesus does indeed come to make the broken
whole. About in the middle of the first chapter, Jesus begins helping those people
in need. Christ’s first miracle occurs on the Sabbath when Jesus calls out a daemon
2
Anonymous, Roman Life Expectancy, http://www.utexas.edu/depts/
classics/documents/Life.html.

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(Mark 1:23-27). This action by the Son of God gives the man back his life. Now
he can reenter society. Immediately after this healing in the synagogue, Jesus goes
to Peter’s house (Mark 1:29-31). There He cures Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever.
Soon everyone in the town hears what is happening. It is not that the ill feel better.
It is that the sick are well. The citizens of Capernaum bring to Jesus all the people
that need treatment (Mark 1:33). Jesus spends the entire night healing many of
these people (Mark 1:34). After an early morning prayer, Jesus then leaves the
city of Capernaum and travels toward the region of Galilee (Mark 1:35). Here the
account of healing repeats itself once again. Jesus transforms sickness into health.
He removes daemons from people (Mark 1:39). He cures a leper (Mark 1:40-44).
This action by Jesus lets the man to go back home to his friends and family. He
now can support those who depend on him. The Good News of the broken made
whole spreads to the surrounding cites and towns (Mark 1:45). The first section of
Mark ends with the narrator telling us that Jesus can go nowhere without a crowd
of people following Him (Mark 1:45).
To remind you of the importance of Jesus healing the sick, this same theme
continues for the next eight chapters. People bring the sick, the injured, and the
hungry to Jesus. He heals them. He restores them. He feeds them.
That is what is wrong with the traditional images associated with today’s
Gospel Lesson. We do not see ill children. We cannot find disfigured infants. No
toddler is hungry.
This brings us to the second problem with the artwork. All the mothers in these
illustrations appear not to have a care in all they world. They all seem to be very

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content with their given place in life. In other words, they are mirror images of
their children: in good shape, happy with what is happening, and well fed.
The mothers’ behavior illustrated in the artwork is completely out of context.
Remember, more likely than not, the young ones brought to Jesus are very ill.
If you had a sick child, whom you loved with all of your heart that could not
be cured, you would be desperate to find some way to make that precious baby
whole again. If you had exhausted every one of your options, then you would have
no one left to turn to. If no one else could cure your little loved one, Jesus then
would be your last resort. This means the children are literally on death’s door.
These are the emotions that artists need to capture for us. They must render
the deep heartache a mother feels when a dear child is about to die. An artist that
completely understands the text for the day would show us the pain that pene-
trates mothers when they cannot relieve the suffering of their little one. A real
master makes us experience the never-ending torment felt by all mothers when
the inevitable is about to occur.
That is why the mothers wanted Jesus to touch them. They simply wanted
Jesus to bless their children. They hoped against every experience in their lives
for a cure.
It is easy to see why the disciples wanted to keep the children away from
Jesus. The stench of death, that unholy mixture of vomit, diarrhea, and gangrene,
meant the end was near. They could smell it with every breath they took. The
disciples knew from first hand experience what happened next: death. That is why
the disciples wanted to keep the children away from Jesus. They could not stand

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the pain of reliving another child’s death.
It is reported that Lady Bird Johnson once said:

Art is the window to man’s soul. Without it, he would never be able
to see beyond his immediate world; nor could the world see the man
within.

If Lady Bird’s quote is correct and I think that it is, then it is quite apparent
what this art says about us. Our innumerable paintings of happy and healthy chil-
dren found in our Bibles and in our classrooms clearly tell us that we do not need
Jesus. We are doing fine all by ourselves and there is nothing that Christ needs to
do but to bless our way of life. Our artwork that shows mothers without a care in
the world means we are clearly in control of our own destiny. God can add nothing
to our happiness.
If you do not need Christ’s help, then there is no reason for you to be here.
You are free to go your own way.
But, if you are sick with any illness, if you need help that no one else can
provide, if someone you love more than life itself needs assistance that the world
cannot give, then I have Good News for you. Jesus is here for you and for all those
people who need Him.
That is right. For all of us who know that we have no mastery over the uni-
verse’s actions or even our own bad behavior, Jesus is here. He forgives you. For
all of us that feel how broken we really are on the inside, Jesus is here. He heals
you.

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 The horrible smell of the sick, the dead, and the dying that we cannot stand
in our nostrils does not bother Jesus. He has been here before. For three days, He
lay in the grave. His body rotted just like every other human. Then on the third
day, the Father raised Him from the dead. That is not all of the Good News for
you. He is part and parcel of each believer. That means you are never alone. Jesus
joins you in baptism and stays with you. You eat Him in His Meal. Jesus is deep
in your flesh. That means He is with you when you die. He stays with you in the
grave until in the fullness of time God gives you life again.
Just like for all those hurt and hungry children in today’s Gospel Lesson, Jesus
hopes to reach out and touch you. He desires to give you the ointment of salvation.
Jesus wants to lay His hands on you and give you a blessing.
Christ is here with you today and if you will let Him, He will give you these
gifts.
Not every artist has been so insensitive when it comes to interpreting the Bible.
Not everyone has projected their feelings of self-grandeur into their artwork. A
few artists truly understand the human condition and our desperate need for a
savior.
Donatello’s sculptures have long been praised for its faithful interpretation of
the Holy Scriptures. He produced, after a protracted illness, what many consider
to be his finest work, the statue of Mary Magdalene. Unlike most of his other
works in marble, Mary Magdalene is carved in wood. Her appearance even after
five hundred and fifty years is frankly revolting. She is nothing like the individuals
that we see in the artwork that surrounds Jesus and the little children. Her blond

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hair is filthy and matted. She is so thin that you can clearly see the bones in her
face. Almost all of her teeth are missing. Her collarbone is more pronounced than
her chest. Because of all the manual labor that she has done in her life, her arms
and hands look more like a man’s than a woman’s. She has her hands uplifted as if
she were praying. Her back is scared from the beatings, her legs are wasting away
from the lack of food, and her feet are cracked from the lack of shoes.
Jesus came for sick people like Mary Magdalene. Because Jesus loved Mary
Magdalene with all of her visible and invisible faults you can rest assured that He
cares for you too.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”3

References

Anonymous, Roman Life Expectancy, http://www.utexas.edu/depts/

3
Philippians 4:7.