Hidden Things Revealed to Babes

At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes (Matthew 11:25).

“These things” of which Jesus speaks, are His teachings, the truth of the Gospel. That as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.[1] These things are the things which Jesus heard from His Father.[2] Jesus’ teachings are not something new. They have always been God’s teachings. Jesus demonstrates this in the synagogue, when he took up the scroll of Isaiah to read: The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Then He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”[3] His proclamation was met with anger, and the people tried to throw Jesus off a cliff. It was unacceptable and ridiculous to them that Jesus, the carpenter’s son, the son of Mary, the brother of James, Joses, Simon, and Judas, could be the fulfillment of God’s promise to redeem mankind.[4]

From before the foundation of the world, God the Father decided to save man in Christ. Indeed, God the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.[5] He revealed His plan to save mankind from sin, death, and the devil, after Adam and Eve transgressed in the Garden. He told them that the serpent would strike the heel of the woman’s seed; but He, the promised Seed, would crush the serpents head; the Seed would be injured, but He would deal Satan a mortal wound. Then, God killed animals and clothed Adam and Eve with the skins, showing them that only the shedding of blood could cover the shame of their sin. Adam and Eve believed God’s promise of redemption and ultimate victory. They faithfully looked for the promised Seed who would defeat the devil and set everything right. They taught their children this promise as well; some continued in it, some rejected it. Those who were faithful looked forward, though they didn’t know it, to that which would be fulfilled in Jesus, His birth, death, and resurrection.

And God chose to preserve and transmit His Gospel in the lowly, foolish, and despised things of this world. He hid them from the wise, that is, those who are wise according to their own imaginings; He revealed it to babes, those who are helpless, have no knowledge of their own, and are generally viewed by the world as weak and unimportant – not kings and princes, but shepherds, criminals, and fishermen. He chose Abraham, a pagan nomad, to become the father of Israel, the people out of whom the promised Seed would come. He chose as His prophet, not a king, but Moses, a slave and a murderer. When the time came for the promise to be fulfilled, Jesus, the promised seed of the woman, and of Abraham, wasn’t born in a king’s palace, as the Magi expected.[6] He was born in a humble house, and laid in a manger. Though His earthly parents were of the line of David the king, that royal glory had faded. They were a lowly maiden and a humble carpenter, not royalty. We call His time on earth His state of humiliation, but it is better described by Paul, as he calls us to emulate Christ’s self-sacrificial nature: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not, consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

He comes to us today in humble ways, to bring us the promise. He has bound His promise of forgiveness and eternal life to the preaching of His word, which creates faith in men, who are dead in trespasses, and who are by nature children of wrath. He has bound His promise to the waters of baptism, through which we are buried with Christ; He has bound His promise to bread and wine by which means we eat His body and drink His blood, as He tells us to do, for the remission of sins. Along with Jesus, and His mother Mary, we give thanks to God for the salvation He has given to men in Christ; we marvel with Mary that He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, that He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly.[7]

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[1] John 3:14-15

[2] John 15:15

[3] Luke 4:18-21

[4] Matthew 13:55

[5] Ephesians 1:4

[6] Matthew 2:1-12

[7] Luke 1:51-52

Faithful Abraham

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Hebrews 11:8-13).

The author of the letter to the Hebrews is trying to convince his readers not to abandon the faith. The Jews who left Judaism to follow Christ were being persecuted. Rather than turn back, the author urges them to go on to perfection.[1] He makes the case that what they have as Christians is better than what they would have if they returned to Judaism. The sacrifice Christ made outside the camp was better than the now empty sacrifice being offered in the temple. The only things that waited for them there were the imperfect sacrifices, which were types and shadows of the one perfect atoning sacrifice for sin – that of Christ on the cross. The Mosaic covenant was made obsolete by Christ. Jesus is better than what He replaced. I’m sure that, in the face of persecution and death, having faith in Jesus didn’t feel better. That’s why the recipients of this letter were considering abandoning it, and returning to Judaism, going back “inside the camp”, so to speak. But the author makes the case that “Christ is better than the angels, for they worship Him. He is better than Moses, for He created him. He is better than the Aaronic priesthood for His sacrifice was once for all time. He is better than the law, for He mediates a better covenant. In short, there is more to be gained in Christ than to be lost in Judaism.”[2]

The author of the letter to the Hebrews uses many Old Testament figures as examples for his readers of what it means to be in the faith. He writes, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”[3] But he doesn’t mean hope, as we might normally think of the word. He is not talking simply about a strong desire for a thing to happen, as we may hope the Chicago Cubs will (or, perhaps, will not, depending on your geographic location) win another World Series next year. Here the word hope means something more like a feeling of trust, or an expectation that isn’t in doubt. Though the Cub’s prospects for a World Series next year may be bright, they are anything but assured. One of the examples the author gives is Abraham. Abraham lived the life of a wandering nomad. He did not live to see his descendants become as numerous as sand on the seashore, in the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. But, in spite of this, and all the hardships that made Abraham’s life difficult, he had faith in God’s Word of promise. When Sarah died, he bought a piece of property on which to bury her in the land of Canaan, because he believed God’s word that it would one day belong to his seed. Through faith, it was his already, though Abraham acknowledged, at the present, he was a sojourner: I am a foreigner and a visitor among you.[4]

We, and the people to whom the author of this letter wrote, have seen the fulfillment of God’s promise. Christ, the promised Seed of Abraham, was born in the flesh; He died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures. And, though we who are living today are not eyewitnesses of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have the reliable testimony of those who saw the risen Jesus with their own eyes, in the pages of Holy Scripture. Jesus told the Pharisees, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad.”[5] Abraham saw Jesus’ day through the eyes of faith, just as we do. And, just as Abraham was glad, we also can be glad. It may not feel like it to us at the moment, but we have all of what God the Father promises us in Christ Jesus. His gifts of forgiveness and eternal life belong to us right now. They are our present possession, through faith in Jesus. As we live out our lives, serving others according to our vocation, waiting for Christ to return on the Last Day to make all things new, we acknowledge the same reality that Abraham acknowledged when he bought that piece of land in Canaan: We are, until Christ returns, foreigners here. Therefore let us go forth to Jesus, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.[6]

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[1] Hebrews 6:1

[2] The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Reference Edition. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010. Text taken from the introduction of the Epistle to the Hebrews.

[3] Hebrews 11:1

[4] Genesis 23:4

[5] John 8:56

[6] Hebrews 13:13-14