Listen

The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself’?” He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

Matthew 21:14–17

Think

Jesus entered Jerusalem with fanfare and praise from the crowds. He protected the poor who worshiped by clearing the Temple. He protected the blind and sick from exclusion by healing them. Nothing more was said about the adults who were praising Jesus, but children were there, and they continued to cry, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Hosanna was a cry for justice for the Israelites. The adult leadership felt threatened.

Jesus protected the children, though. He treated them as if their participation in his kingdom mattered.

When girls can be kidnapped from their boarding schools in Nigeria, or going to school can endanger girls’ lives in Afghanistan, when girls constitute over 70 percent of children worldwide who cannot go to school and women make up 2/3 of the adults who are illiterate, protecting girls’ participation in their communities—protecting their cries for justice—matters. Joining their cries for justice matters, too.

How will you cry to Jesus for justice this week? What is he burdening you to do?

Laura Rector

Pray

Jesus, you very much care for justice, and you want me to care for justice, too. I cry to you for justice on behalf of girls today. Guide my prayers and actions. Amen.

Go

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.