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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. It was St. Augustine, somewhere between the late 300s and early 400s A.D., who said this: “You, O God, have created us for yourself. Hence our heart is restless until it finds rest in you.” You, O God, have created us for yourself. Hence, our heart is restless until it finds rest in you. And we say yea and amen as believers in Christ.
And yet, the wise and understanding of this world say, “That’s nice,” in a very patronizing manner. Or the wise and understanding of this world say, “I’m glad that that’s important to you,” in a very condescending attitude. A marked difference indeed. Diametrically imposed.
Now Jesus had been teaching and performing miraculous signs in three main areas: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. All in the region of Galilee. And even though he proclaimed the sweetest gospel to the people in those three towns, and in fact, the text even says he did most of his miraculous signs in those three towns, in spite of the sweet gospel and the miraculous signs, most people did not repent. Most people did not repent. Not some, most. Raising the question that has to be asked: Is God at work among those folks? Why could that not happen? Why? Or, can Jesus not break through the hardness of their hearts and bring them to faith?
Maybe you’ve wondered that about some of your family members who seem to completely consider themselves wise and understanding according to the world. Maybe you’ve wondered that about whole peoples in this country and elsewhere that seem to have closed their entire heart off with hardness. I have struggled with this at times, thinking, “Why not, God? Why not?” And you know what Jesus says? Jesus says, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”
But there’s always that part of us, isn’t there? That part of us, in its attempt to protect ourselves from commending ourselves into God’s hand, because it’s a risky business. That part of us that anxiousness wells up within us and we don’t want to commend ourselves into his hand as an infant. And we are fearful to be a little child of God. We wish to consider ourselves wise and understanding, trying to stand on both sides of this river. And it gets in the way. It gets in the way of receiving his comfort and his rest. It gets in the way of being received by him as a little child. And it gets in the way from really learning from him.
Paul talks about this in this morning’s epistle reading. This flesh and this spirit, this continual battle that wages its war within your bosom and mine. Where at one time we are so bold and confident and on the other time we are scared to death, angry. Why God would dangle us seemingly almost maniacally from a thread?
Saint Peter said this: “There are some things in the scriptures that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you’re not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your stability.” And this is Peter who remembered, “I will never fall away from you, Lord,” and heard the rooster crow after he had denied him three times. He knew what it was like to be crushed and humbled.
And then there’s St. Paul, who considered himself the Jew of all Jews, and yet was thrown down from his ride on that road to Damascus and was crushed by God and blinded. He said this: “…let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool.” Then he will become wise. “For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise and that they are but futile.”
But Jesus promised to reveal these things to little children. Jesus promised to reveal these things to infants. Learn from him. In spite of our doubts and our struggle, God is in charge. Not a political process, not a progressive movement or otherwise, God is in charge. Not a king, not a president, nobody else except God. And nothing will thwart God’s great and glorious plans.
So if Jesus promised to reveal these things to little children, who are these little children? Who are these little infants to whom he reveals his comfort and his rest, and only to them? Or maybe it should be said that they’re the only ones who receive it. And who are these little children and infants whom he receives with gentleness and kindness? And who are these little children who learn from him and not from this world?
I’ll first tell you what they’re not. The infants of this world and the children of this world are not simpletons. They are not those who just exhibit simplicity. No, no. They are actually wise. Not according to this world, of course, but according to God, they are wise.
So infants, what are they? They are the ones who have been led by the Holy Spirit to believe and confess and trust in that they are ignorant, that they are impotent, and that they are completely incapable of saving themselves, or receiving his comfort or learning from him without him saving us. And without him enabling us to receive his comfort. And without him teaching us as infants and little children.
Just as a little infant or child is completely helpless and depends completely in his reliance upon a parent or parents for food, for warmth, for safety, and even for life itself. The infant doesn’t say, “Are you sure that’s a wise thing about how you’re feeding me?” You feed the infant. And an infant does not cry out, “Are you sure that you should dress me in this way for this kind of weather?” An infant trusts in and relies upon the parent.
And that is what you and I do with our Lord Jesus. Trust in and rely upon him. And in fact, probably the most profound bit of wisdom that we as little infants or children learn is how needy we really are for our God. Because you know, grace, that great gift from God, is completely incomprehensible to the wise and understanding of this world. They’ll explain it away, they’ll pigeonhole it, they’ll talk about it in some other way, but they will not do what little infants and children do. They believe it, they trust in it, they suckle upon it. They nurse deeply from it. They live it and die in it.
So when our dear Lord Jesus invites you, as he did this morning in the text, to “come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” the wise and understanding listen to that and say, “That’s nice,” in a patronizing manner and fashion. Or, as you heard, when your dear Lord Jesus invites you and says to you, “Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light,” the wise and understanding say, “I’m glad that that’s important to you,” in a patronizing attitude or a condescending manner.
But that’s not how little children receive such promises. That’s not how infants embrace it. Infants and little children say, “What can be lighter than a burden which unburdens you?” Or little infants and children say, “What can be easier than a yoke which actually bears the person who bears the yoke?”
Look. Therefore, you, O God, have created us for yourself, haven’t you? And therefore you, O God, have revealed to us that our heart and our souls will not find rest until they find rest in you. And though we, kicking and screaming many times, are brought to him, we can only say yea and amen. This is most certainly true. This is most certainly comforting. And this is learning from him.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
