Luke 18: 15 - 43

So here we see Jesus dealing with three entirely different situations. 

Is there a link?  They happen to be together.

Maybe they were just chronologically close.  Maybe they were in the same place.

Maybe there's some other reason; let's look closer.

First there is the story beloved by all parents - Jesus blessing the children.  "Let the children come to me."  The main point here is simple - the only thing a child can offer is simple faith; but that is enough for Jesus. 

We have the Rich Young Ruler (as he's called in many Bibles).  One dramatisation of this story suggested that this very person was Mark, the writer of the Gospel.  Perhaps.  We have no real evidence to say so, however, so maybe that's just wishful thinking. 

Whoever he was, we need to understand something about him - to people around, he was the epitome of moral uprightness.

Now, to us in this post-Christian world, this can seem a little shocking - after all, the "arrogant rich" have become a trope among Christians (albeit a trope with which we see a disturbing amount of similarity - often we wonder if WE are the rich people that get called "arrogant" in the Bible!).  But to the people listening to Jesus, this man was someone who looked good.  Riches were a mark of God's blessing to Pharisees (hence their reputation, seen in chapter 16, as "money-obsessed"), so it LOOKED to them like this man had it made.

So when Jesus asks "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who have it all to enter God's Kingdom?" we can get some idea of the thought bomb he's dropping.  This was an amazing concept.  This is like questioning Mother Theresa's spirituality!  It's like saying that "Billy Graham is heading to Hell."  It's like declaring the Archbishop of Canterbury a heretic (actually, more shocking than that, since Sydney Anglicans do that regularly!). 

You can see that in the shocked response.  "Who has any chance at all?"

And here we have Jesus bringing it home.  His point is not a sly dig at the rich, at least not by themselves.  He's saying "The best you can do is not enough."  He's demonstrating that the source of salvation is not one's goodness (as seen by the world) but one's willingness to trust God.  It comes back to simple faith.

Finally we have the blind man.  The blind man just calls out "Jesus!  Son of David!  Have mercy on me!".

Now, the Disciples are a little annoyed.  Jesus is talking to them about some pretty heavy stuff.  He's laying down the heavy prophecies about being handed over to the Romans and executed; you'd think that that was important enough to ignore some hairy old beggar!

But that's not how Jesus works.  Once again, He's a sucker for simple faith.  The man has faith that Jesus can fix things; simple faith, and faith that won't be denied.  So ultimately Jesus DOESN'T deny it.  He heals the man instantly.

I am a complicated person, and I desperately want things to be complicated between me and God.  It gives me an excuse, an out.  But this passage indicates that complexity is getting things wrong.  Jesus doesn't want complexity; He wants simple, child like faith.  That's the way we can please Him.  No matter whether you're a child, a beggar or a rich ruler, we all come to Him on exactly the same terms - His terms.