Matthew 11:25-30 NASB95
At that time, Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. [26] Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. [27] All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. [28] “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. [30] For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
There are so many amazing truths in these verses, but I want us to first really understand what must be understood first if we are going to really get all the wonderful things the Holy Spirit wants to convey to us here. Verse twenty-six through verse twenty-nine revealed to us life-changing insight into what the grace of God accomplishes for us, but if you don’t understand what Jesus is trying to say in verse twenty-five, then you will not fully understand how to get grace to operate in your life. So, ask God to give you ears to hear the simplest of truths that can open you up to the immense and actually immeasurable Vista of the grace of God. There is nothing wrong with being wise or being intelligent, but if you’ve cultivated wisdom and intelligence so that you can count on them to live a successful Christian life, then you will be an abysmal failure, and you will eventually learn to wear veils and fake your Christianity so that nobody knows that behind the veil you’re living a defeated life.
Jesus said, “I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and intelligent and did reveal them to infants.” Jesus lauds the fact that the Father is the Lord of heaven and earth, so you would think that Jesus within say, “In light of the Father’s immensity and authority over all things, He loves to reveal truths to the brilliant and the adequate.” Instead, it says that the Father unveils truth to infants. There is nothing more helpless and dependent than a human infant. Human infants can’t do anything for themselves. They are totally dependent on someone acting on their behalf. Jesus said in Matthew 18, “Truly I say to you, unless you are turned and become like little children, you shall not explore the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
What is God saying in all of this? He is telling us that we must become spiritually not just like a child but like an infant who is absolutely totally dependent on the behavior of someone beyond himself. This is how we get grace to work! Actually, we don’t do anything to get grace to work. That’s the whole point. Grace works; and in childlike faith, we simply trust. The littlest of child will believe anything they are told and the open secret to living in the wonders of God’s grace is to simply “trust” in surrendered helplessness.
Everything else Jesus says in the next few verses will only be your experience if you quit trying and, in “childlike faith,” trust in the grace of God. If you want to go farther, you have to become smaller.