Part 35 of the Sermon Series: On the Road with Jesus | A Study in the Gospel of Mark Mark 10:13-31 Community Group Questions Vs. 13-16 1. In this first scene, we see people bringing their children to Jesus that he might touch them and bless them. And the disciples trying to rebuke them. Maybe the disciples are trying to “protect Jesus’s time” so as to not distract him from the “real” work of ministry. How do you see this as an error on the part of the disciples? 2. Children were, in that cultural moment, not viewed as highly as we do in our time. But, Jesus teaches us that there is something about the nature of children that is instructive to all of us in how we approach the Lord. What is it about children that we can learn in order to enter the Kingdom? 3. Jeremiah quotes a commentator as describing the disciples as “obstructionists who stand in the way of the generous intentions of Jesus.” How are we like the disciples in how we view the work of ministry as something other than interacting with people? 4. How have you experienced this in your own life? Have you ever been the one to stand in the way of the generous intentions of Jesus? 5. Jeremiah also emphasized that our labor “doesn’t work. So, we beg for God to work.” How does this change the way we think about prayer? Vs. 17-31 6. In this second scene, we are introduced to a young man. How is he different from the children in the first scene? 7. The passage tells us that Jesus looked at the man and loved him. He did not affirm his sense of self-righteousness but in love, pointed to his heart idol and calls him to exchange what he has for trust in the Lord. (Read Mark 8:35-36) How have you seen idols of the heart as obstacles to trusting in the Lord in your own life?