“God Reveals Himself to Little Children”

Matthew 11:25-30

7/6/08


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    Do you remember how when we were little children we always wanted to be older?  For example, if we were six months away from our fifth birthday we’d never say, “I’m four,” but “I’m four and a half.”  As we got older and into our teens, we’d no longer say things like, “I’m thirteen and a half,” but we still wished we were older.  First, we wanted to be sixteen, when we could drive, then we wanted to be eighteen, when we’d be considered to be adults, then it was twenty-one, when we could legally drink.  NoMatthew 11:25-30
“God Reveals Himself to Little Children”
    Do you remember how when we were little children we always wanted to be older?  For example, if we were six months away from our fifth birthday we’d never say, “I’m four,” but “I’m four and a half.”  As we got older and into our teens, we’d no longer say things like, “I’m thirteen and a half,” but we still wished we were older.  First, we wanted to be sixteen, when we could drive, then we wanted to be eighteen, when we’d be considered to be adults, then it was twenty-one, when we could legally drink.  Now that most of us are beyond thirty, not only do we not wish to be older, but we wish we could be younger.  Not only do we not want to advertise our age to others, but we even try to hide it.  And we most definitely do not say things like, “I’m seventy-two and a half.”
    It would be nice having a young body again, a body that didn’t have so many aches and pains, a body that was physically fit and could both play and work more rigorously without getting so weak and tired.  And while we wouldn’t want to be as young as a child, to be in our twenties again wouldn’t be bad.  And yet, when it comes to our relationship with God, we want to be older, more mature, more adult-like than child-like.  Jesus, on the other hand, wants us to become more like children.  According to Him, the more you’re like an adult before God, the less He reveals Himself to you, the less you know Him, the more He’s hidden from you.  The more you’re like a child before Him, however, the more He reveals Himself to you, the more you know Him, the less He hides Himself from you.  It’s paradoxical, but in order to grow up before the Lord, you must grow down before the Lord.  In order to mature in the faith, you must recognize your immaturity in the faith.  In order to become more wise and understanding before God, you must first confess that you’re a fool.  While most people insist that you must become more adult-like before the Lord, the Lord insists that you become more child-like before Him.  And unlike our inability to return to a younger state physically, in Jesus it is possible to return to a child-like state in the faith, to become like little children before God, even though most of us are in our very late teens.  And so, this it what the Lord would do for us today, returning us to a child-like state before God, in order that we might know Him as our heavenly Father and receive from Him the gifts He gives to those who come to Him as little children.
    The return to a child-like state begins with the Lord showing us that our adult wisdom and understanding keeps us from knowing Him.  Older children often think they know a great deal about many things.  As their parents, you know by experience that much of their so-called knowledge is false.  You wish you could just tell your children the truth, but they insist on finding it out for themselves.  Very young children, however, believe anything you tell them.  They trust their parents implicitly.  Whatever their parents tell them is the truth.  And this is where the Lord wants to bring us.  Sinners as we are from birth, we come into this world ignorant of God.  Most of what we think we know about Him is false.  We may know some things about Him from nature - that He exists, that He’s all-powerful, things like that, but we don’t know what’s most important - that we’re sinners, that God must punish sin, that He has dealt with our sin in His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross, and that He is now gracious and merciful towards us, forgiving us our sins for Christ’s sake.  Since we don’t know these things by nature, God must reveal them to us in His Word.  By way of His Word, God shows us that our ignorance of Him keeps us from knowing Him as our gracious heavenly Father and from receiving the gifts of life and salvation He gives us in Jesus.  By way of His Word He shows us that this ignorance of Him and failure to receive His gifts leads to eternal death.  But by His Word God also removes our ignorance from us by pointing us to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who came in the flesh to reveal God to us.  Through faith in the Word about Jesus we can now say that we know God as our heavenly Father, who loves us, declares us righteous, and grants us eternal life and salvation on account of Christ, crucified for our sins.
    So, the journey to childhood before God begins with admitting that by nature you’re ignorant of God, and that you don’t know Him as you should because you’ve closed your ears to His Word.  Your adult wisdom and understanding have gotten in the way of listening to and believing that Word.  But the journey to childhood continues as the Lord brings us to repentance and opens our ears to His Word, causing us to trust in it and confess it to be true.  To be a little child before God is to lay aside your fallen reason, which fights against the truth of God’s Word, and to simply trust that Word and confess it to be true, even when it seems to go against what you consider to be reasonable and rational.  It isn’t rational by human standards to believe, for example, that God created the heavens and the earth by simply speaking it into existence with His Word.  It isn’t rational to believe the miracles that are recorded in the Bible.  It isn’t rational to believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins or that He rose again bodily from the dead.  It isn’t rational to believe that He gives you new birth in Baptism, that you can’t trust in Him by your own reason or strength, or that you eat and drink His true body and blood in the bread and wine of His holy Supper.  It isn’t rational to believe that God loves you even when He’s disciplining you and that He sometimes brings suffering into your life for your good.  All of these things are taught in God’s Word, and yet they are unacceptable to learned adults.  But when we come to the Scriptures this way, filtering them through what we consider to be reasonable and rational, we end up picking and choosing for ourselves what we will or will not believe of God’s Word, and this hinders us from really knowing God and receiving the gifts that He would give us through His Word.
    So, we must become like little children again.  Little children are nothing but given to.  They’re nothing but on the receiving end of their parents’ gifts.  God’s children are nothing but on the receiving end of His gifts to them in Jesus.  Adults are always trying to work for things.  This is why the Gospel makes no sense if we think and reason like an adult, because salvation is a free gift to us in Jesus.  We can do nothing for this gift.  Even the ability to receive it is a gift to us from God.  Jesus says that no one knows the Son except the Father, and that no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.  We can only say we know the Father, because the Son has chosen to reveal Him to us.  We can only say we are children of God, because He has made us His children through Baptism into Christ.  This knowledge of God has been given to us through Jesus.  To know Jesus is to know the Father.  The only way to know the Father is through His Son, crucified, risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven for our salvation.  Many adults try to get to know God another way.  They try to get to know God apart from Jesus.  When they do that, however, they end up worshipping a false god, an idol, one they’ve constructed themselves, one which fits their own wisdom and understanding.  One who is like a little child before God, however, says things like, “I don’t understand everything Matthew 11:25-30
“God Reveals Himself to Little Children”
    Do you remember how when we were little children we always wanted to be older?  For example, if we were six months away from our fifth birthday we’d never say, “I’m four,” but “I’m four and a half.”  As we got older and into our teens, we’d no longer say things like, “I’m thirteen and a half,” but we still wished we were older.  First, we wanted to be sixteen, when we could drive, then we wanted to be eighteen, when we’d be considered to be adults, then it was twenty-one, when we could legally drink.  Now that most of us are beyond thirty, not only do we not wish to be older, but we wish we could be younger.  Not only do we not want to advertise our age to others, but we even try to hide it.  And we most definitely do not say things like, “I’m seventy-two and a half.”
    It would be nice having a young body again, a body that didn’t have so many aches and pains, a body that was physically fit and could both play and work more rigorously without getting so weak and tired.  And while we wouldn’t want to be as young as a child, to be in our twenties again wouldn’t be bad.  And yet, when it comes to our relationship with God, we want to be older, more mature, more adult-like than child-like.  Jesus, on the other hand, wants us to become more like children.  According to Him, the more you’re like an adult before God, the less He reveals Himself to you, the less you know Him, the more He’s hidden from you.  The more you’re like a child before Him, however, the more He reveals Himself to you, the more you know Him, the less He hides Himself from you.  It’s paradoxical, but in order to grow up before the Lord, you must grow down before the Lord.  In order to mature in the faith, you must recognize your immaturity in the faith.  In order to become more wise and understanding before God, you must first confess that you’re a fool.  While most people insist that you must become more adult-like before the Lord, the Lord insists that you become more child-like before Him.  And unlike our inability to return to a younger state physically, in Jesus it is possible to return to a child-like state in the faith, to become like little children before God, even though most of us are in our very late teens.  And so, this it what the Lord would do for us today, returning us to a child-like state before God, in order that we might know Him as our heavenly Father and receive from Him the gifts He gives to those who come to Him as little children.
    The return to a child-like state begins with the Lord showing us that our adult wisdom and understanding keeps us from knowing Him.  Older children often think they know a great deal about many things.  As their parents, you know by experience that much of their so-called knowledge is false.  You wish you could just tell your children the truth, but they insist on finding it out for themselves.  Very young children, however, believe anything you tell them.  They trust their parents implicitly.  Whatever their parents tell them is the truth.  And this is where the Lord wants to bring us.  Sinners as we are from birth, we come into this world ignorant of God.  Most of what we think we know about Him is false.  We may know some things about Him from nature - that He exists, that He’s all-powerful, things like that, but we don’t know what’s most important - that we’re sinners, that God must punish sin, that He has dealt with our sin in His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross, and that He is now gracious and merciful towards us, forgiving us our sins for Christ’s sake.  Since we don’t know these things by nature, God must reveal them to us in His Word.  By way of His Word, God shows us that our ignorance of Him keeps us from knowing Him as our gracious heavenly Father and from receiving the gifts of life and salvation He gives us in Jesus.  By way of His Word He shows us that this ignorance of Him and failure to receive His gifts leads to eternal death.  But by His Word God also removes our ignorance from us by pointing us to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who came in the flesh to reveal God to us.  Through faith in the Word about Jesus we can now say that we know God as our heavenly Father, who loves us, declares us righteous, and grants us eternal life and salvation on account of Christ, crucified for our sins.
    So, the journey to childhood before God begins with admitting that by nature you’re ignorant of God, and that you don’t know Him as you should because you’ve closed your ears to His Word.  Your adult wisdom and understanding have gotten in the way of listening to and believing that Word.  But the journey to childhood continues as the Lord brings us to repentance and opens our ears to His Word, causing us to trust in it and confess it to be true.  To be a little child before God is to lay aside your fallen reason, which fights against the truth of God’s Word, and to simply trust that Word and confess it to be true, even when it seems to go against what you consider to be reasonable and rational.  It isn’t rational by human standards to believe, for example, that God created the heavens and the earth by simply speaking it into existence with His Word.  It isn’t rational to believe the miracles that are recorded in the Bible.  It isn’t rational to believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins or that He rose again bodily from the dead.  It isn’t rational to believe that He gives you new birth in Baptism, that you can’t trust in Him by your own reason or strength, or that you eat and drink His true body and blood in the bread and wine of His holy Supper.  It isn’t rational to believe that God loves you even when He’s disciplining you and that He sometimes brings suffering into your life for your good.  All of these things are taught in God’s Word, and yet they are unacceptable to learned adults.  But when we come to the Scriptures this way, filtering them through what we consider to be reasonable and rational, we end up picking and choosing for ourselves what we will or will not believe of God’s Word, and this hinders us from really knowing God and receiving the gifts that He would give us through His Word.
    So, we must become like little children again.  Little children are nothing but given to.  They’re nothing but on the receiving end of their parents’ gifts.  God’s children are nothing but on the receiving end of His gifts to them in Jesus.  Adults are always trying to work for things.  This is why the Gospel makes no sense if we think and reason like an adult, because salvation is a free gift to us in Jesus.  We can do nothing for this gift.  Even the ability to receive it is a gift to us from God.  Jesus says that no one knows the Son except the Father, and that no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.  We can only say we know the Father, because the Son has chosen to reveal Him to us.  We can only say we are children of God, because He has made us His children through Baptism into Christ.  This knowledge of God has been given to us through Jesus.  To know Jesus is to know the Father.  The only way to know the Father is through His Son, crucified, risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven for our salvation.  Many adults try to get to know God another way.  They try to get to know God apart from Jesus.  When they do that, however, they end up worshipping a false god, an idol, one they’ve constructed themselves, one which fits their own wisdom and understanding.  One who is like a little child before God, however, says things like, “I don’t understand everything in your Word, Lord.  In fact, much of your Word does go against my reason and understanding and what I would call rational.  But I believe and confess your Word to be true and give it the benefit of the doubt, even though I don’t know how these things can be.  I believe these things, because Jesus has confirmed the truth of God’s Word with His bodily resurrection from the dead.”  To believe God’s Word is very rational and reasonable, given the amount of historical evidence and eye-witness testimony available to back up its claims.  And yet still there are those who insist on being adults before God, rejecting the Bible in part or in whole, because it goes against their fallen wisdom and understanding.  To them the Bible sounds too much like a big children’s story.
    But the Bible is for children.  It’s for those who hear it, believe it, and confess it to be true with child-like faith, regardless of the fact that it seems to go against our wisdom and understanding.  We get into so much trouble the more we try to approach God’s Word like adults.  When we do that, we end up saying things like, “Noah’s ark is a nice fairy tale for children, but it can’t possibly have really happened.  It’s just a nice way of teaching children a lesson.”  We end up saying that Jesus was just speaking analogously when He said ‘This is my body’ and ‘This is my blood’ in the Lord’s Supper and that what He meant was ‘This represents my body’ and ‘This represents my blood.’  Or when it comes to Baptism, we end up saying that water can’t possibly do all that.  Baptism is just a sign, it’s just an act of obedience, it’s just a symbol illustrating what takes place when we accept Jesus into our hearts.  But one who says things like these is not simply being given to by the Lord.  They are not being child-like but adult-like before God.  And Jesus says that unless you repent and become like little children, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven.  To insist on being like an adult before God will keep you from knowing Him and will bar you from receiving His gifts.
    Being child-like before God does not mean that we rejoice in our ignorance and remain there.  Now that Jesus has revealed the Father to us and we know Him, we must continue to put ourselves in the position to learn from Him.  Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and 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.”  Adult thinking says, “Well, I know all that already.  It’s time to move on to meatier things.”  But because children are on the receiving end of the Lord’s gifts, they always sit at His feet as Martha’s sister Mary did, listening to His Word.  They recognize that they’ll never finish hearing His Word, that they’ll never know His Word well enough to say, “I know all that already; I don’t need to hear it anymore.”
    Here in the Word for today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew Jesus teaches us about two different yokes - the yoke of the Law and the yoke of the Gospel.  Perhaps you know this teaching already, and yet here it is again:  The Lord knows His children can’t bear the heavy yoke of the Law, along with its demands, accusations, and condemnation.  The Law is a yoke that no one but the Lord can bear.  Some have tried to bear it themselves.  Those who insist on being adults before the Lord insist that they can handle the Law, that they can earn their own salvation, that they can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.  But the Lord treats us like children, not like slaves.  He puts an easy and light yoke upon us, the yoke of the Gospel.  It doesn’t make demands of you.  It doesn’t accuse you.  It doesn’t condemn you.  It tells you that Jesus has done all the work for you.  He has fulfilled all the requirements of the Law for you and suffered the death you deserved on the cross in your place.  From Jesus you don’t get words of accusation and condemnation but words of peace and rest.  But the only way you’re going to hear these words is by putting yourself where they are being proclaimed and taught - here in church, through daily Scripture readings of your own, from the mouths of your fellow Christians and your pastor.  And so, we grow and mature in Christ the more we put ourselves at His feet and hear His Words.  And yet, the more we grow and mature in Him, the more we learn how to become more like little children before Him, humbling ourselves to be nothing but given to by Him, nothing but on the receiving end of His gifts to us. 
    It’s by returning to a child-like state before God as Jesus has His way with us through His Word that we are put in the position to receive God’s gifts and to grow in our knowledge of Him as we learn more about our Savior.  Since the Father reveals Himself to those who humble themselves to become like little children before Him, let us confess our sin of trying to act like adults, receive His forgiveness in Jesus, and then humble ourselves to become again like little children in His presence.  Let us return to our Baptism, where God made us His children in the first place, and listen to His Word, so that we might know Him and receive from Him what He has to give us in Jesus - the light and easy yoke of the Gospel which gives us rest for our souls.  Amen.
in your Word, Lord.  In fact, much of your Word does go against my reason and understanding and what I would call rational.  But I believe and confess your Word to be true and give it the benefit of the doubt, even though I don’t know how these things can be.  I believe these things, because Jesus has confirmed the truth of God’s Word with His bodily resurrection from the dead.”  To believe God’s Word is very rational and reasonable, given the amount of historical evidence and eye-witness testimony available to back up its claims.  And yet still there are those who insist on being adults before God, rejecting the Bible in part or in whole, because it goes against their fallen wisdom and understanding.  To them the Bible sounds too much like a big children’s story.
    But the Bible is for children.  It’s for those who hear it, believe it, and confess it to be true with child-like faith, regardless of the fact that it seems to go against our wisdom and understanding.  We get into so much trouble the more we try to approach God’s Word like adults.  When we do that, we end up saying things like, “Noah’s ark is a nice fairy tale for children, but it can’t possibly have really happened.  It’s just a nice way of teaching children a lesson.”  We end up saying that Jesus was just speaking analogously when He said ‘This is my body’ and ‘This is my blood’ in the Lord’s Supper and that what He meant was ‘This represents my body’ and ‘This represents my blood.’  Or when it comes to Baptism, we end up saying that water can’t possibly do all that.  Baptism is just a sign, it’s just an act of obedience, it’s just a symbol illustrating what takes place when we accept Jesus into our hearts.  But one who says things like these is not simply being given to by the Lord.  They are not being child-like but adult-like before God.  And Jesus says that unless you repent and become like little children, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven.  To insist on being like an adult before God will keep you from knowing Him and will bar you from receiving His gifts.
    Being child-like before God does not mean that we rejoice in our ignorance and remain there.  Now that Jesus has revealed the Father to us and we know Him, we must continue to put ourselves in the position to learn from Him.  Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and 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.”  Adult thinking says, “Well, I know all that already.  It’s time to move on to meatier things.”  But because children are on the receiving end of the Lord’s gifts, they always sit at His feet as Martha’s sister Mary did, listening to His Word.  They recognize that they’ll never finish hearing His Word, that they’ll never know His Word well enough to say, “I know all that already; I don’t need to hear it anymore.”
    Here in the Word for today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew Jesus teaches us about two different yokes - the yoke of the Law and the yoke of the Gospel.  Perhaps you know this teaching already, and yet here it is again:  The Lord knows His children can’t bear the heavy yoke of the Law, along with its demands, accusations, and condemnation.  The Law is a yoke that no one but the Lord can bear.  Some have tried to bear it themselves.  Those who insist on being adults before the Lord insist that they can handle the Law, that they can earn their own salvation, that they can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.  But the Lord treats us like children, not like slaves.  He puts an easy and light yoke upon us, the yoke of the Gospel.  It doesn’t make demands of you.  It doesn’t accuse you.  It doesn’t condemn you.  It tells you that Jesus has done all the work for you.  He has fulfilled all the requirements of the Law for you and suffered the death you deserved on the cross in your place.  From Jesus you don’t get words of accusation and condemnation but words of peace and rest.  But the only way you’re going to hear these words is by putting yourself where they are being proclaimed and taught - here in church, through daily Scripture readings of your own, from the mouths of your fellow Christians and your pastor.  And so, we grow and mature in Christ the more we put ourselves at His feet and hear His Words.  And yet, the more we grow and mature in Him, the more we learn how to become more like little children before Him, humbling ourselves to be nothing but given to by Him, nothing but on the receiving end of His gifts to us. 
    It’s by returning to a child-like state before God as Jesus has His way with us through His Word that we are put in the position to receive God’s gifts and to grow in our knowledge of Him as we learn more about our Savior.  Since the Father reveals Himself to those who humble themselves to become like little children before Him, let us confess our sin of trying to act like adults, receive His forgiveness in Jesus, and then humble ourselves to become again like little children in His presence.  Let us return to our Baptism, where God made us His children in the first place, and listen to His Word, so that we might know Him and receive from Him what He has to give us in Jesus - the light and easy yoke of the Gospel which gives us rest for our souls.  Amen.
w that most of us are beyond thirty, not only do we not wish to be older, but we wish we could be younger.  Not only do we not want to advertise our age to others, but we even try to hide it.  And we most definitely do not say things like, “I’m seventy-two and a half.”
    It would be nice having a young body again, a body that didn’t have so many aches and pains, a body that was physically fit and could both play and work more rigorously without getting so weak and tired.  And while we wouldn’t want to be as young as a child, to be in our twenties again wouldn’t be bad.  And yet, when it comes to our relationship with God, we want to be older, more mature, more adult-like than child-like.  Jesus, on the other hand, wants us to become more like children.  According to Him, the more you’re like an adult before God, the less He reveals Himself to you, the less you know Him, the more He’s hidden from you.  The more you’re like a child before Him, however, the more He reveals Himself to you, the more you know Him, the less He hides Himself from you.  It’s paradoxical, but in order to grow up before the Lord, you must grow down before the Lord.  In order to mature in the faith, you must recognize your immaturity in the faith.  In order to become more wise and understanding before God, you must first confess that you’re a fool.  While most people insist that you must become more adult-like before the Lord, the Lord insists that you become more child-like before Him.  And unlike our inability to return to a younger state physically, in Jesus it is possible to return to a child-like state in the faith, to become like little children before God, even though most of us are in our very late teens.  And so, this it what the Lord would do for us today, returning us to a child-like state before God, in order that we might know Him as our heavenly Father and receive from Him the gifts He gives to those who come to Him as little children.
    The return to a child-like state begins with the Lord showing us that our adult wisdom and understanding keeps us from knowing Him.  Older children often think they know a great deal about many things.  As their parents, you know by experience that much of their so-called knowledge is false.  You wish you could just tell your children the truth, but they insist on finding it out for themselves.  Very young children, however, believe anything you tell them.  They trust their parents implicitly.  Whatever their parents tell them is the truth.  And this is where the Lord wants to bring us.  Sinners as we are from birth, we come into this world ignorant of God.  Most of what we think we know about Him is false.  We may know some things about Him from nature - that He exists, that He’s all-powerful, things like that, but we don’t know what’s most important - that we’re sinners, that God must punish sin, that He has dealt with our sin in His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross, and that He is now gracious and merciful towards us, forgiving us our sins for Christ’s sake.  Since we don’t know these things by nature, God must reveal them to us in His Word.  By way of His Word, God shows us that our ignorance of Him keeps us from knowing Him as our gracious heavenly Father and from receiving the gifts of life and salvation He gives us in Jesus.  By way of His Word He shows us that this ignorance of Him and failure to receive His gifts leads to eternal death.  But by His Word God also removes our ignorance from us by pointing us to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who came in the flesh to reveal God to us.  Through faith in the Word about Jesus we can now say that we know God as our heavenly Father, who loves us, declares us righteous, and grants us eternal life and salvation on account of Christ, crucified for our sins.
    So, the journey to childhood before God begins with admitting that by nature you’re ignorant of God, and that you don’t know Him as you should because you’ve closed your ears to His Word.  Your adult wisdom and understanding have gotten in the way of listening to and believing that Word.  But the journey to childhood continues as the Lord brings us to repentance and opens our ears to His Word, causing us to trust in it and confess it to be true.  To be a little child before God is to lay aside your fallen reason, which fights against the truth of God’s Word, and to simply trust that Word and confess it to be true, even when it seems to go against what you consider to be reasonable and rational.  It isn’t rational by human standards to believe, for example, that God created the heavens and the earth by simply speaking it into existence with His Word.  It isn’t rational to believe the miracles that are recorded in the Bible.  It isn’t rational to believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins or that He rose again bodily from the dead.  It isn’t rational to believe that He gives you new birth in Baptism, that you can’t trust in Him by your own reason or strength, or that you eat and drink His true body and blood in the bread and wine of His holy Supper.  It isn’t rational to believe that God loves you even when He’s disciplining you and that He sometimes brings suffering into your life for your good.  All of these things are taught in God’s Word, and yet they are unacceptable to learned adults.  But when we come to the Scriptures this way, filtering them through what we consider to be reasonable and rational, we end up picking and choosing for ourselves what we will or will not believe of God’s Word, and this hinders us from really knowing God and receiving the gifts that He would give us through His Word.
    So, we must become like little children again.  Little children are nothing but given to.  They’re nothing but on the receiving end of their parents’ gifts.  God’s children are nothing but on the receiving end of His gifts to them in Jesus.  Adults are always trying to work for things.  This is why the Gospel makes no sense if we think and reason like an adult, because salvation is a free gift to us in Jesus.  We can do nothing for this gift.  Even the ability to receive it is a gift to us from God.  Jesus says that no one knows the Son except the Father, and that no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.  We can only say we know the Father, because the Son has chosen to reveal Him to us.  We can only say we are children of God, because He has made us His children through Baptism into Christ.  This knowledge of God has been given to us through Jesus.  To know Jesus is to know the Father.  The only way to know the Father is through His Son, crucified, risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven for our salvation.  Many adults try to get to know God another way.  They try to get to know God apart from Jesus.  When they do that, however, they end up worshipping a false god, an idol, one they’ve constructed themselves, one which fits their own wisdom and understanding.  One who is like a little child before God, however, says things like, “I don’t understand everything in your Word, Lord.  In fact, much of your Word does go against my reason and understanding and what I would call rational.  But I believe and confess your Word to be true and give it the benefit of the doubt, even though I don’t know how these things can be.  I believe these things, because Jesus has confirmed the truth of God’s Word with His bodily resurrection from the dead.”  To believe God’s Word is very rational and reasonable, given the amount of historical evidence and eye-witness testimony available to back up its claims.  And yet still there are those who insist on being adults before God, rejecting the Bible in part or in whole, because it goes against their fallen wisdom and understanding.  To them the Bible sounds too much like a big children’s story.
    But the Bible is for children.  It’s for those who hear it, believe it, and confess it to be true with child-like faith, regardless of the fact that it seems to go against our wisdom and understanding.  We get into so much trouble the more we try to approach God’s Word like adults.  When we do that, we end up saying things like, “Noah’s ark is a nice fairy tale for children, but it can’t possibly have really happened.  It’s just a nice way of teaching children a lesson.”  We end up saying that Jesus was just speaking analogously when He said ‘This is my body’ and ‘This is my blood’ in the Lord’s Supper and that what He meant was ‘This represents my body’ and ‘This represents my blood.’  Or when it comes to Baptism, we end up saying that water can’t possibly do all that.  Baptism is just a sign, it’s just an act of obedience, it’s just a symbol illustrating what takes place when we accept Jesus into our hearts.  But one who says things like these is not simply being given to by the Lord.  They are not being child-like but adult-like before God.  And Jesus says that unless you repent and become like little children, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven.  To insist on being like an adult before God will keep you from knowing Him and will bar you from receiving His gifts.
    Being child-like before God does not mean that we rejoice in our ignorance and remain there.  Now that Jesus has revealed the Father to us and we know Him, we must continue to put ourselves in the position to learn from Him.  Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and 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.”  Adult thinking says, “Well, I know all that already.  It’s time to move on to meatier things.”  But because children are on the receiving end of the Lord’s gifts, they always sit at His feet as Martha’s sister Mary did, listening to His Word.  They recognize that they’ll never finish hearing His Word, that they’ll never know His Word well enough to say, “I know all that already; I don’t need to hear it anymore.”
    Here in the Word for today from the Gospel according to St. Matthew Jesus teaches us about two different yokes - the yoke of the Law and the yoke of the Gospel.  Perhaps you know this teaching already, and yet here it is again:  The Lord knows His children can’t bear the heavy yoke of the Law, along with its demands, accusations, and condemnation.  The Law is a yoke that no one but the Lord can bear.  Some have tried to bear it themselves.  Those who insist on being adults before the Lord insist that they can handle the Law, that they can earn their own salvation, that they can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.  But the Lord treats us like children, not like slaves.  He puts an easy and light yoke upon us, the yoke of the Gospel.  It doesn’t make demands of you.  It doesn’t accuse you.  It doesn’t condemn you.  It tells you that Jesus has done all the work for you.  He has fulfilled all the requirements of the Law for you and suffered the death you deserved on the cross in your place.  From Jesus you don’t get words of accusation and condemnation but words of peace and rest.  But the only way you’re going to hear these words is by putting yourself where they are being proclaimed and taught - here in church, through daily Scripture readings of your own, from the mouths of your fellow Christians and your pastor.  And so, we grow and mature in Christ the more we put ourselves at His feet and hear His Words.  And yet, the more we grow and mature in Him, the more we learn how to become more like little children before Him, humbling ourselves to be nothing but given to by Him, nothing but on the receiving end of His gifts to us.  
    It’s by returning to a child-like state before God as Jesus has His way with us through His Word that we are put in the position to receive God’s gifts and to grow in our knowledge of Him as we learn more about our Savior.  Since the Father reveals Himself to those who humble themselves to become like little children before Him, let us confess our sin of trying to act like adults, receive His forgiveness in Jesus, and then humble ourselves to become again like little children in His presence.  Let us return to our Baptism, where God made us His children in the first place, and listen to His Word, so that we might know Him and receive from Him what He has to give us in Jesus - the light and easy yoke of the Gospel which gives us rest for our souls.  Amen.

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