A Gospel for All People
Or is it? Who can accept the gospel?
Let’s just consider the first part of this passage today as though it’s true.1
It says God is brought happiness (or desired pleasure) by giving his message not to those who are well-studied, intelligent, or wise, but to those who are babies, or not yet matured.
If we’re honest, this could be quite the conundrum to many of us. We spend hundreds of hours of our lives trying to exactify scripture, to drill down on its meaning. We seek and hold high those ministers with degrees from age-old and respected divinity schools. We assume that the Word of God is like wine, cheese, or steak - it’s best when it’s been able to have plenty of time to age or marinate.
But Jesus is challenging such a notion here.
It’s said that after delivering a powerful and complex lecture on his massive theological contributions once in Chicago, the great theologian, Karl Barth, was asked to boil it down to a simple statement. He replied, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
If the gospel is for all, then it must be receivable for all.
But then again, if we take these verses exactly, that’s not what it says, is it? It says that these things are actually hidden from a portion of humanity (the wise and intelligent). What are they to do?
The gospels are not without the notion that faith must be like that of a child. Mark and Luke tell the story of Jesus placing a child in front of the disciples and saying that the kingdom must be received like a child would.2
Received. Accepted. Held on to. Believed.
One thing is for sure: we can way overdue our picking apart of Jesus and his teachings. Theologizing has its place. But in the end, Jesus is Lord and God is love.
Matthew 11:25-30
At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you’ve hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have shown them to babies. Indeed, Father, this brings you happiness.
“My Father has handed all things over to me. No one knows the Son except the Father. And nobody knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wants to reveal him.
“Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.”
Prayer
God,
Keep me from the things that would keep me from you. Frankly, I like the classroom. I take pleasure in well-worded, aptly-placed theological statements and the sound reasoning that comes from thinking it all through. But I know how it can become a barrier. It can become the thing.
So help me, God: give me that child-like faith. I don’t mean that I want to be a dull dunce. Foolishness is no way to faith, either. But I guess what I’m asking for is a confidence in simplicity. Do not let my wisdom be built upon the complexities of human wisdom, but on the strength and beauty of a faith accessible to all.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
Yes, of course that’s always the task. But sometimes when reading something in the gospels, it can seem so outlandish or foreign to our experience, that we tend to trivialize or spiritualize it in such a way that it could not possibly be exactly what it says.
Matthew tells the story, too, but it seems to be focused on humility rather than faith.