Ascribed/Acquired Honors

Many cultures operate on a principle that sociologists call ascribed and acquired honors. For example, Queen Elizabeth’s family or Kennedys have a name for themselves as royalties or prime families. These are ascribed honors. On the other hand, hardworking people can gain ascribed honor. Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Angela Merkle fit within this category.

Sadly, children do not easily get acquired or ascribed honor (unless they are royalty). They are easily shunned or set aside.

So was the Hebrew culture. They believed a son was responsible for keeping the law only when he entered the bar mitzvah (“the son of the covenant”) festival, and a daughter was responsible for keeping the law only when she entered the bat mitzvah (“the daughter of the covenant”) festival. Fathers chose the year when their sons or daughters went through this ritual of being irresponsible to keep the law and be responsible for it. In the time of Jesus, this festival happened around puberty, after the time of their baby-ness (brefe) and childhood (pedia). Until then, they were under their parents’ covenantal protection.

One day, some parents brought their babies (brefe) to Jesus so that he could lay his hands on them as a sign of blessing them (Luke 18:15a). The disciples saw this and decided to dishonor them (18:15b). (The verb is a combination of the preposition epi “upon” and timé “honor”). When Jesus saw that his disciples were humiliating those children, he said,

“Bring the children (pedia) to me. Do not prevent them because God’s rule is for them.” (Luke 18:16a)

This would have shocked his disciples. As traditional Hebrews, they would have thought that babies (brefe) and children (pedia) weren’t part of the covenant except for being under their parents’ covenantal protection. The Lord Jesus contradicted their understanding by saying that even those babies and children were under God’s rule by themselves.

If that weren’t shocking enough, the Lord said,

“Amen, I tell you, whoever doesn’t receive God’s rule as a child does, that person will not enter it” (18:17).

Children are amazing—they’ll accept anything given to them that looks pretty. Lori’s brother used to tease his younger sister, Ginger, by giving two 25-cent coins for a 1-dollar bill, although it was only half the value. He would say, “I’ll give you two coins for one paper money,” and she would accept it. Children are not gullible, but they trust adults to do justice. (Sadly, molesters take advantage of this, offer candies, and kidnap kids for evil purposes.)

The Lord Jesus was saying that his disciples needed to accept God’s rule generously by trusting him, just as the children do. The children weren’t far off to receive God’s rule and blessings. The disciples needed to learn lessons from the children. That was why he blessed the babies (brefe) and children (pedia).

Sometimes, we can become so arrogant, like the disciples, that we think only those with well-versed theology can be God’s people. The opposite is true: whoever trusts God’s grace and accepts is welcome in his rule!