7/7/2014 9:23:40 AM
4th Sunday after Pentecost
Posted under: Pentecost
The 4th Sunday after Pentecost
July 6, 2014
Matthew 11:25-30
In Nomine Jesu
Jesus’ ministry had appeared to be a grand failure. Not only were the lost sheep of the house of Israel straying from the fold, even the heathens from the Galilean cities were refusing to repent. Jesus was deeply grieved over the impending condemnation of those who had rejected Him. In holy communion, the Son turns to His Father, and in a move we never saw coming, the Son says to the Father, “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.”
Don’t think that Jesus is devaluing the intellect or that He discourages you from using your brain. After all, He gave you your reason and all your senses. He wants you to use them. The problem, however, is that you are often to smart for your own good. You think you know when you really don’t. You will even see fit to interpret the Father’s Word to comply with your own sinful desires and passions, and happily go on your way. You think you are wise and “get it,” when in reality you are acting foolishly and you don’t “get it.” The wisdom of man’s heart will always be foolishness and foolishness will always be the way and wisdom of the Father. Hiding and revealing, as He exults the lowly and humbles the prideful. For Jesus, the “wise and understanding” are those who simply deny the Word of the Father and by their own corrupted will end up orphans, refusing to repent. They dig their heels in, constantly claiming that they see when in reality they are blind to the Father’s life-giving Son. For Jesus, the “little children” are all of sinful humanity, yet those who know they are completely dependent upon their Father for every good and gracious gift. Their mouths opened, needing to be fed, eyes red from tears, needing to be rescued, feet stumbling, needing to be carried, these are the ones who by the Father’s grace know the weakness of their flesh all to well. They are ever crying unto their Father, “Lord have mercy, forgive me Father, for I am sinful and unclean.” The paradox is unmistakable: those who are weak are strong and those who are strong are weak.
Jesus praises His Father because He has hidden the Son’s glory and mercy from the wise, yet revealed Him, the Babe of Bethlehem, to the babes of this earth. This is how the Father works. Hiding and revealing, taking away and giving, calling to repentance and imparting faith. We don’t like this or accept it. We sinners, like our first parents, seek better words from God then we already have. We go about seeking wisdom and understanding outside of the Father and the Son, and so we fall into foolishness and confusion. We say to ourselves, “Well, if God is going to be that way, act outside of our expected means, well, I’ll find another god, or better yet, I will be my own god.” We are now on a mission not only for knowledge but for self-recognition and glorification. “Not only did I do that, I did right and better than anyone.” To such pride and hubris, the Father responds by hiding Himself from us, from those who seek Him on their own terms.
The babes of the earth know nothing of how the Father works. They simply know that He does. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they believe that He has come for them and that He has sought them out like a Shepherd seeks His lost and restless sheep. And no, they have no intrinsic quality that makes them better than other babes. They are children who simply listen. The Father speaks and they listen. He gives and they receive. He promises and they trust. They have not uncovered the mysteries of the Trinity, of the Incarnation, of the Crucifixion, of the Resurrection, of the Ascension, and of the heavenly Jerusalem. Rather they simply receive these treasures as the truth. Why? Because the One who speaks to them is the Truth. He is the Son who has revealed and given the heavenly gifts of the Father to these beggarly babes.
You may wonder at times, is the Father at work for your benefit and rescue. Is He actually doing anything? Yes He is, but only in His Son. Jesus says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son.” Jesus, the Son, came to earth in order to bring us the good news of God; and the good news is gathered up in this sweet sentence: “He is your Father, and you are His child, the one whom He loves and forgives.” In essence, Jesus says, “I am the way to the Father, I am the Son who is with the Father, so come unto Me, and I will give you My sonship with the Father, and you, my little child, will find Me to be the very rest to your weary body and soul.” And so the precious words of Jesus, familiar to our ears, echoing throughout all generations is spoken, “Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” These words are not meant as a limitation on who is included in “all,” but as a statement about them. “All” is not a number. “All” is a statement about our condition as fallen creatures. Really, why would anyone want to say, when Jesus calls, that this has nothing to do with them? Who would want to say they know nothing about the state of laboring and being heavy laden? Certainly the “wise and understanding” might keep the charade going, nothing wrong, life is easy, just chilling and having good time, no shirt, no shoes, no problems.
But babes of the earth, they know their burdens, they have no rest for their sin and guilt is ever before them. They see it day and night. They reminded of by the devil day and night. When these babes have come to the end of whatever strength they can muster, when you have become a burden to yourself, to others, when you don’t want to take another step, even a baby one, when you are afraid of what is behind the next corner, are weighed to the dust of the earth by some guilt and feel betrayed by the whole world—then no words, no ideals, no dreams one builds for the future will help. You need only one thing: a person who can be completely trusted; someone who understands everything even though you don’t; someone who listens to your every word, bears with everything, who believes, who hopes, who forgives all things—someone to whom you can say, “You are sweet rest and gentle peace, my longings yes, my heart’s ease—someone who quietly takes away your burden and all the strain and anxiety, and thus redeems your body and soul from the bondage of this world. Where can one find such a someone? The miracle of all miracles, the grace upon grace, is that someone has found you. That someone is calling you, come unto me, inviting you, offering you, giving you Himself. This someone is a person. And this person is God in the flesh, the Son of the Father, the Christ of God. This someone is Jesus, who alone is fully human and in being truly human is also God, and Redeemer, and peace and rest to you. Everything depends upon the “I”—not as an idea, not as word, not as an empty promise, not as a bodiless spirit, but I, Jesus the human being, who knows each one of you, who has suffered and struggled through everything you have suffered, the human person Jesus, the One who redeems your life from the pit, and One who adorns you with eternal rest and life.
Jesus would have you take His yoke upon you. He would have you receive and learn of His gentleness and His humbleness. What does it mean to learn of Jesus? Simply this: to die to your sin and to yourself, to give up completely on your own will, your understanding, and not to try to get your own way, but being joyful that His will has been done in you. Yes to carry your cross in patience, but knowing that one day, your load and burden will be lifted from your shoulders for eternity, and it shall be exchanged for a crown of everlasting righteousness. When you learn of your sin, confess it and don’t deny it, die to it and don’t live in it, for by this confessing and dying you rise to new life in Christ, “you find rest for your souls” in Christ who is the very eternal sabbath rest and rescue of sinful mortals.
Having rest in Christ, is the end, the end of your life, the beginning of an endless life in Him. This is peace at the last. Although it is imperfect now, you shall experience the longed-for perfect rest of the Son’s blood bought eternity. Yet you need not wait for eternity, eternity comes to you. Eternity comes into time as time is brought into eternity. All this brought about in the person and work of Jesus. Thus, as you look ahead to that blessedness, look no further than the table that is set before you, where Jesus says, “Come unto me and eat my flesh, come unto me and drink my blood, for in my flesh and in my blood, alone is life and abiding rest. Luther admonishes us as he ties this gospel text to the Lord’s Supper, “It is surely a sin and a shame that He so cordially and faithfully summons and encourages us to receive our highest and greatest good, and yet we act so distantly toward it. We permit so long a time to pass without partaking of the Sacrament that we grow cold and hardened, so that we have no longing or love for it. We must never think of the Sacrament as something harmful from which we had better flee, but as a pure, wholesome, comforting remedy that grants salvation and comfort. It will cure you and give you life both in soul and body. For where the soul has recovered, the body is also relieved” [LC V:67-68]. To come unto Christ is nothing other than to believe that your sins are forgiven for Jesus sake; to receive that rest for your soul and body, in the preached Word that you hear and in the flesh of Christ that you eat and the blood of Christ that you drink. There, and only there, my little children, do you have with all certainty rest for your weary bodies and souls and departure into eternal peace. To eat of Christ and to drink of Christ, that is the good and gracious will of the Father through His Son Jesus Christ.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son [+] and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.