Whereupon one of them answered timidly: “No,
sir, we are not the righteous. But you yourself
said that there was more rejoicing in heaven over
penitents than over righteous men.”
“There is rejoicing over penitents when they
are humble. But do you know over whom there
is greater rejoicing in heaven?”
By this time a crowd had formed round Him. Women
had come up leading little children by the hand and
carrying smaller ones in their arms in order to show
them the marvellous man. Some of the boys got
through between the people’s legs to the front
in order to see Him and kiss the hem of His garment.
The people tried to keep them back so that they should
not trouble the Master, but He stood under the fig-tree
and exclaimed in a loud voice. “Suffer
the little ones to come unto Me!” Then round-faced,
curly-headed, bright-eyed children ran forward, their
skirts flying, and crowded about Him, some merry, others
shy and embarrassed. He sat down on the grass,
drew the children to His side, and took the smallest
in His lap. They looked up in His kind face with
wide-opened eyes. He played with them, and they
smiled tenderly or laughed merrily. And they
played with His curls, and flung their arms round
His neck. They were so trustful and happy, these
little creatures hovering so brightly round the Prophet,
that the crowd stood in silent joy. But Jesus
was so filled with blessed gladness that He exclaimed
loudly: “This is the Kingdom of Heaven!”
The words swept over the crowd like the scent of the
hawthorn. But some were afraid when the Master
added: “See how innocent and glad they
are. I tell you that he who is not like a little
child he shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven!
And woe to him who deceives one of these children!
it were better he tied a millstone round his neck and
were drowned in the sea! But whosoever accepts
a child for My sake accepts Me!”
Then the disciples thought they understood over whom
there was joy in heaven, and they disputed no longer
over their own merits.
Galilee was rich in poor men and poor in rich men.
And it might have been thought that Jesus, the friend
of the poor, was the right man in the right place
there. And yet His teaching took no hold in that
land. A few rich men among a multitude of poor
have all the more power because they are few, and
they used all their influence with the people to dethrone
the Prophet from His height, and to undermine His career.
These illustrious men found their best tools in the
Rabbis, who circulated the sophism that the people
who followed the teaching of this man must quickly
come to ruin. For the poor, who willingly gave
up their last possessions, must become poorer, and
the rich, who pursued their advantages, must become
still richer, which implied that not the rich but
only the poor would accept the Prophet’s teaching,
