What did Jesus say about children?

Children appear throughout my recorded teaching, and what I said about them points in a consistent direction. When my disciples argued about who was greatest, I set a child among them. As Mark records it, “If any man wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all” The child was the illustration: to receive such a one in my name is to receive me, and to receive me is to receive the one who sent me. Matthew and Luke both record me saying that entry into the Kingdom requires becoming like a child. The precise wording differs between them. Mark's version puts it this way: “whoever will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child, he will in no way enter into it” What marks a child is not innocence in some sentimental sense, but the readiness to receive, without pride of rank or achievement — the posture of the humble. When people brought children to me and my disciples tried to turn them away, I was moved to indignation. I called the children forward. The Kingdom belongs to such as these. And I spoke with great severity about those who harm the vulnerable. “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a huge millstone should be hung around his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea” The pattern is clear: greatness serves. The Kingdom belongs to those who receive it as a gift, not a conquest. And those who harm the small and trusting will answer for it.