Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 19:13

"Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should lay his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them." — Matthew 19:13 (ASV)

Then were there brought unto him little children—Luke (Luke 18:15) uses a word that implies infancy.

The fact that they were brought to Jesus (we may assume by their mothers) indicates that there was something in our Lord’s look and manner that attracted children and impressed their parents with the feeling that He loved them.

We may well believe this feeling was deepened by His acts and words when He took in His arms the child whom He set before His disciples as a pattern of the true greatness of humility, and taught them that the angels of those little ones behold the face of His Father (Matthew 18:10).

The disciples' motives for rebuking those who brought the children may, in a similar way, be connected to what they had just heard from their Master’s lips.

They might have thought, what interest could He have in these infants, when He had just appeared to claim a special dignity and honor for the “eunuch” life? What could the pressing claims of mothers and their children be to Him but a trouble and a vexation, interfering with the higher life of meditation and prayer?