Mark 10:2-16

During Pope Francis' recent visit to Washington DC, amid tight security, a five-year-old girl named Sophie Cruz was able to get past the security gates that lined the streets, separating the crowds from the Bishop of Rome. Security officers saw her and went to shoo her back to her parents behind the barricade. But Francis asked that the child be brought to him in his open-air vehicle for a blessing.

Barricades and kissing bishops. Almost as opposite as divorce and little children.

This Sunday's Gospel reading addresses seemingly polar opposites: the question of divorce and little ones being presented to Jesus. But perhaps the Gospel writer places them next to one another in the text in order to juxtapose them against one another in order to prove a point about grace.

The Pharisees come to Jesus with another of their legal traps: is divorce legal? Jesus, in typical Jesus fashion, answers their question with a question: what does the law say? Later, Jesus' disciples press him for answers as well, and Jesus says that God created marriage to be a lifelong covenant. Then in the very next paragraph, Jesus chastises his disciples for keeping children away from him, and says that people need to be like children in order to enter the Kingdom of God.

It's as if Jesus is trying to use the children as an object lesson. Kids are not interested in the minutia of the law or details of legal rulings. They just want love. But sometimes even the most innocent climb over the boundaries or barricades set forth by laws or traditions. Sometimes it's willful defiance of a boundary set there for safety, but sometimes it's overstepping a barricade of rule or tradition that hurts more than it helps.

And in the end, what's more important -- figuring out who has broken the rules or seeing Jesus? Will we be the security detail or will we be the child?