Matthew 11:25-27
Lectionary Reading Proper 9 Year A
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to infants. 26 Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in Your sight. 27 All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son determines to reveal Him.
Hidden and Revealed. Does God the Father, intentionally hide Himself and His truth and who Jesus really is, and all that we need to understand, from those who are wise? That doesn’t seem to make sense. So much of scripture strongly urges us to seek wisdom and to be wise. So those two thoughts don’t fit together. I don’t believe that God intentionally hides himself from smart people who seek him and only reveals himself to infants. To me, Jesus is clearly saying something else here.
Sometimes we look at what works in our world and ascribe it to how God works, simply because it is successful. For example, governments, military operations, corporations, education systems all operate on a hierarchy structure. That is what works in this world. If we use that model to say that that is how God works, and search for him believing we will find him only working in that way, we will never find him. It may be a successful model for a corporation but that doesn’t mean that God operates within our systems. Therefore He will always remain hidden from those who seek Him only in what is successful in this world.
On the contrary, infants have no preconceived idea of how and where they will find God. They have no preconceptions at all. Everything for them is what is right in front of them. Their mother and father are their whole world. God is revealed to us when we let go of the preconceived notions of who God is and where He can be found. Though God is beyond our understanding, He is found when we keep our faith simple.
The verses right before this passage are connected. Jesus is calling out cities where he performed miracles and yet they did not repent. Their faith was too focused on their own ideas of who God is and how He reveals himself. God himself came to their town and revealed himself and they couldn’t see it because they were too in their own head. God did the miraculous right in front of them and because of their intellect and their own construct through which they believed God would reveal himself, they couldn’t see Him!
But children have no construct in place. They are still wide-eyed and in wonder at this world. They are capable of looking at what’s right in front of them and being in awe. The wise and the learned are not in awe of God’s creation. They are more in awe of themselves and what they know.
“and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son determines to reveal Him.”
So is this saying that nobody knows God except Jesus and then Jesus picks people to whom He will reveal God the Father to? It seems to me that Jesus is speaking to the teachers and scribes and pharisees, in the audience of his followers, they don’t know God. Jesus tells them plainly that the only one who knows the Father is me. And the only way to know the father is to know me. Jesus is saying here and in other passages,
“I am God in the flesh. What you see me do is what God does. What you hear me say is what God says.”
God chose to reveal Himself in this way. God does reveal Himself in the scriptures and through the prophets but the wise and learned still couldn’t see. I don’t know why but something was missing. Not from God but from the way they were looking at God. If I had to guess, they were looking to see God based on who they thought he was. If I had a 1,000,000 piece puzzle, that could fit together in an infinite number of ways and there was no picture on the box of what I was trying to build, it would be impossible to get it right. Jesus is the picture on the box. For example, on the road to Emmaus, He opened their eyes to all the places in the jewish scriptures that revealed Him all along. It is interesting that in that passage, it was kept hidden from them who he was as he was right there with them and yet he was revealed to them in the scriptures! (Luke 24:13-35)
Jesus tells the Pharisees that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom ahead of them.(Matthew 21:31) They weren’t more righteous in anyway, nor did their sinfulness have anything to do with it. They just had less to no religious hurdles to jump over. They had not preconceived notions of God. So when they saw Jesus and how he loved them and the miracles He did, it was a no brainer for them. When we can’t let go of our own beliefs and our own construct of who God is and see Jesus as God in the flesh, we will never see God. No amount of fasting, praying and tithing, no amount of church going, bible study, small grouping will make a difference if we are not willing to let go of our preconceived notions. And we all have them.