“At that time Jesus declared, ‘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; 26 yes, Father, for such was your
gracious will.’”[1]
A
Cornucopia is a symbol for abundance. It is often demonstrated with a large horn-shaped
container (sometimes of a golden-brown baked variety), overflowing with a large
amount of produce to be shared with others. It is the word that came to mind
when thinking of how to share the gifts of God’s grace from my morning time
with him.
Lesson
One: Whatever I gain from my
time with God is a gift of God’s grace to little children. It is God’s good and
gracious will to let me know anything from the word whatsoever. When I wake up
in the morning with such brokenness that I can’t imagine learning anything at
all, and then the clouds part, and the light shines, and new lessons spring
forth as gifts of undeserved favor, it is not because I am wise and
understanding. It is only because God considered everything and graciously
willed that he would reveal this to me as his little child.
Lesson
Two: God cannot expect me to be wise and understanding in knowing what to
do with all the problems I am facing. In fact, the weariness of life comes from
wanting to be wise and understanding. For some, this might be a deliberately
prideful thing, that we want attention on ourselves for being the amazing
problem-solvers of life. For others, like myself, there is the residue of
childhood training where we learned to rely on our own wisdom and understanding
because we did not know God as the Revealer in the midst of things we were
going through at the time.
Lesson
Three: The reason that the wise and understanding do not receive revelation
of “these things”, and the little
children do receive the revelations of God, is because, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of
the Holy One is insight.”[2]
The wise and understanding do not fear the LORD, or acknowledge their need of
him, and so they never gain the wisdom and knowledge that are granted to the
little children who fear God.
Lesson
Four: The curse of the sark (flesh) is that we handle the things of God on
our terms. We handle them as though it is up to us to figure out what to do. We
handle them as though we are responsible for the wisdom and understanding, when
the reality is that we are responsible to rest like children, and receive what God
has revealed.
Lesson
Five: The reason that I have seen God’s work shine out most brightly when
people are in the fellowship of God’s word and prayer is because that is when
we are most like little children. Devotion to the word of God and prayer, both
privately and corporately, rises out of the child-hearted sense of need for
God. The wise and understanding are busy running programs, earning a living,
figuring things out, doing their best, organizing and planning, that they are
not able to see that apart from Christ we can do nothing.[3]
The child-hearted cannot even guess what they should do to live for Jesus in
the things they are going through that they are desperate to hear what God says
in his word, to pour out their hearts to God in prayer, and to experience
fellowship with the rest of the body of Christ that is doing the same thing.
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.”[4]
Lesson
Six: There is a connection between God revealing “these things” to “little children,” and Jesus calling to him “all who labor and are heavy laden.” The “wise and understanding” think they are handling things so well
that they do not need to come to Jesus. They are so stuck on themselves, and
confident in their own righteousness, that they do not see themselves as little
children.
On the other hand, the little children are “weary” of relying on themselves. They
cannot handle the amount of labor they need to put into trying to be good. They
are “heavy laden,” burdened, weighed
down, because they cannot carry the load of guilt, shame, and fear that has
been assigned to them through their sin and selfishness.
Jesus promises to give rest to the little children, not to
the wise and understanding. He promises to give rest to those who labor and are
heavy laden, not to those who are confident in their own righteousness.
Lesson Seven: Not only are the wise and
understanding characterized by trusting in themselves, but the other side of
this is, that people who trust in themselves hold others with contempt. Here is
how Jesus taught this lesson:
He also told this parable to some who trusted in
themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two
men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax
collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you
that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like
this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to
heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I
tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself
will be exalted.”[5]
When I first came to this Scripture, I felt the simple
realization that the wise and understanding are characterized by trusting in
themselves. It was the other side of this that blew me away, that people who
trust in themselves hold others with contempt. These are the “wise and understanding” who are stuck
on themselves because they imagine that they are self-made, and that God is
pleased with them because they are doing so well.
When I look at this Scripture, I realize that the one who was
“wise and understanding” thought that
he was better than anyone else. On one side, he trusted that he was righteous.
On the other side, because he thought he was so much better than everyone else
was, he looked with contempt at anyone who was not as good as he was.
The tax collector did not trust himself, or show contempt
for people who were different from him. He was broken by his sinfulness, and
yet coming up to the temple to pray meant that he had faith in God, and knew where
to come. What he cried out for was mercy, not justification.
So, the Pharisee expected justification, that God would declare
him to be just, and good, and right with God because he was exceptionally wise
and understanding. The tax collector expected mercy, nothing more, nothing
less. He was a sinner; he knew he was a sinner; he was ashamed of his sin, and
cried out for mercy. He did not claim to be better. He did not promise to change.
He did not tell God he would or could stop sinning. He simply cried out to God
for mercy.
Lesson Eight: Little Children do not trust in
themselves, but in Jesus Christ, who gives rest to their weary and heavy laden
souls, and so they do not hold people in contempt, but in compassion.
One of my long-ago lessons about mercy came through one of
my Beatitudinal journeys.[6] I realized that the first four beatitudes
described the experience of mercy, while the latter four beatitudes described
the expression of mercy. The first four beatitudes speak of the one who is poor
in spirit, who mourns his sinful condition, who meekly acknowledges his
inability to fix himself, and so hungers and thirst after the righteousness of Jesus
Christ that can only be experienced by faith. When God responds to this little
child with the satisfaction to his hunger and thirst for righteousness, that little
child has experienced what it means for God to be merciful to him, a sinner.
The second half of the Beatitudes speaks of this one who
has now become one of the “the merciful."[1]
The “wise and understanding” never
become merciful because they expect everyone else to earn their way, just as
they believe they have done. The poor in spirit become the merciful because they
know that anything they have received from God has been by his “gracious will,” as Jesus revealed.
Conclusion: in practical terms, my greatest
experience of all these things has happened when a group of child-hearted
people seek God in his word and prayer so that they hear what his word is
saying, and prayerfully put it into practice. This humble responsiveness to
God, as little children who receive daily insight into the things revealed in
God’s word, brings people together with a sense of the mercy of God in leading
a group of people to feel his work in real and tangible ways. People receive ministry
and blessing from God through the body of Christ, not because anyone is wise
and understanding, but because they are little children depending on God for
everything, and trusting him with anything he leads them to do.
I am quite sure God planned this cornucopia of lessons for
me because he had to overwhelm any temptation towards sarky wisdom and
understanding with such gifts of grace that would leave no doubt they came from
him, and were entirely undeserved. The poor in spirit are blessed with mercy,
and with the gracious gift of becoming the merciful. I am thankful for these
gifts.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
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