Matthew 19:13-17: in context

People are bringing little children to Jesus so that he might lay his hands on them and pray, and the disciples, thinking this beneath his time, rebuke them and try to turn them away. But Jesus overrules them: let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. He lays his hands on the children and blesses them. Then a very different figure approaches, a man who asks, good teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life, and Jesus begins to draw him toward the commandments.

The two scenes set side by side are worth holding together. The disciples judged the children unimportant, an interruption of serious business, and shooed them away; Jesus not only welcomed them but held them up as the very picture of who the kingdom belongs to. To receive the kingdom of heaven, he teaches elsewhere, one must receive it like a child. A child has nothing to offer, no achievements, no standing, no bargaining power; a child simply comes, trusts, and receives, dependent and empty-handed. That is exactly the posture the kingdom requires, and it is why the children, who could do nothing to earn Jesus' attention, were closer to the truth of the kingdom than the grown-ups who thought they had to accomplish something. The rich man who comes next makes the contrast sharp: he asks what good thing he must do, still thinking entrance is something to be earned by his achievement, and he will go away sorrowful, unable to come with the empty hands of a child. The kingdom does not belong to the impressive, the accomplished, the self-sufficient; it belongs to those who come like children, with nothing in their hands but need, and simply receive what they cannot earn.

Do I come to God like a child, empty-handed and dependent, simply receiving what I cannot earn, or like the man who thought he must do some good thing to deserve eternal life, still trying to earn what the kingdom gives only to those who come with the open hands of a child?