Luke included this incident of Jesus receiving children to illustrate the humility that is necessary for someone to receive salvation. The idea of humility is the connecting link with what precedes. Humility is necessary to receive God's grace.
Since 9:50 Luke departed from the general narrative that Matthew and Mark recorded and included much material that does not appear in those Gospels. Here at 18:15 he rejoined the story line of the other Synoptic writers. There is more duplication of incidents in the chapters that follow than we have seen recently.
18:15 The antecedent of "they"(NASB) is the "people"generally (NIV). People brought their infants (Gr. brephe) to Jesus so He would pray for God to bless them (cf. Matt. 19:13). Luke alone used brepheprobably to stress the dependent condition of these children. It was customary for the Jews to bring their small children to rabbis for blessings.410The disciples probably discouraged the parents from doing this because they thought Jesus had more important things to do.
18:16-17 Jesus, however, corrected the disciples and encouraged the parents to continue bringing their children to Him. Jesus had an interest in the children because they illustrated the humility necessary to enter the kingdom. Obviously infants are not humble in the same sense that adults show humility, but infants are humble in the sense of being totally dependent and unable to provide for themselves. They receive rather than provide, and in those qualities they are good examples of humility. Without this sense of being unable to provide for oneself and a willingness to receive from another no adult can enter the kingdom.
Jesus also had an interest in these children for their own sake. As we have seen, one of Luke's characteristic emphases in his Gospel was Jesus' interest in the needy, outcasts, and other types of dependent people (4:18; et al.).
