In this continuation of Jesus in Boulder, I want to look at the claim that Jesus did, on occasion, turn people away, as Fr. Breslin writes in a recent Lenten meditation. Then I want to discuss whether, if Jesus turned people away,  did he turn away their children in addition? First we must determine, is it the case that Jesus, in general, does turn people away? Fr. Breslin wrote,

“Actually Jesus did turn people away.  In Mark 5 Jesus healed the demoniac, and after the healing the man wanted to become a disciple.  Jesus said, No, go back to your own people and tell them all that the Lord in His mercy has done for you.  And when the rich young man wanted to follow Jesus, He told him, Go first and sell what you have and give it to the poor and then come follow me.  And in John 6, Jesus taught a very hard message so that most of those following Him turned away and would no longer walk in His company.  He did not soften His message so as to win them back.”

I do not think any of these passages points to Jesus turning people away, though some of them might turn away because of an unwillingness to accept the whole of the Gospel. Jesus wants all people to come to him, but they must be willing to accept the truth.

In Mark 5, it is clear that the demoniac was a gentile who was healed by Jesus and now wants to “be with him” (5:18). Jesus does not refuse a disciple here, but rather sends this newly healed gentile back to his “friends” in order that he might “tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you” (5:19). Refused a disciple? I think not. I think he produced a missionary: “he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed” (5:20). This is a disciple who was sent, in Mark’s telling, to begin the gentile mission.

The rich young man turned away from Jesus’ teaching because he did not want to sell his many possessions (Matthew 19:22: “he went away grieving”), just as the disciples of Jesus turned away because “this teaching is difficult” (John 6:60). John makes it clear that “many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him” (6:66). In both cases, people turn away from Jesus; he does not send them away. I am not certain that any of these examples fit the situation. The only examples that fit are that of 1 Corinthians 5, as I wrote about earlier, and the related passage of Matthew 18:15-17, which speak of church discipline culminating in excommunication. In these examples, those within the community who refuse to follow the teachings of the Church can be excluded from the Church. This might be called “turning people away,” but there is a proper canonical process for this. This process, as far as I know, does not extend to their children, nor can you find any teaching of Jesus which rejects the children of those who have been “turned away”.

 So, I grant that in certain situations, people are excluded from the Church, excommunicated, which I do not believe has happened to the parents of these two children. Let us say it does happen. Even in that case, why should this punishment of exclusion be visited upon their children, when they have done nothing wrong and Jesus calls upon us to accept the priority of the family of God? Indeed, he calls upon us not to “despise one of these little ones” (Matthew 18:10) and says that “whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me” (Matthew 18:5). Note that these verses appear in the same chapter in Matthew in which Jesus speaks of church discipline (Matthew 18:15-17). What have these children done? They have become pawns of the culture wars and it breaks my heart that this now takes priority over the kingdom of God.

John W. Martens

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.