The daily Luther
17th September
Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
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The daily Luther
17th September
Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
Mark 10 (xiv)
You say that the children have not yet attained reason; therefore they are incapable of faith. But is that a Christian way of talking, if we judge God's works according to the way that we think? Is it not possible that you may have already fallen away from Faith precisely on account of this very reason; whilst the children, who have no reason, have actually come to Faith? What good is reason for Faith and for God's Word? Isn't reason the thing that resists both as strongly as it can, so that no one who holds to reason is capable of coming to Faith, or to an acceptance of God's Word? (...) What sort of reason did these children have, the ones whom Christ embraced? Why did He ask them to come to Him? Why did He bless them? How is it that they have such faith that it makes them children of the Kingdom of God? The answer is that they are without reason and childlike and therefore more suited to Faith than old people and rational people, for whom reason will always be an obstacle, because it refuses to push its big head through the narrow door.
The complete Luther - "A Meditation for Each Day of the Year" is available as a biligual (English and German) BREVIARY published by Wartburg Verlag Weimar. It can be purchased in English, world-wide from most internet book shops.
