Matthew 11:25-30 is set in the context where it is recorded how Jesus has been rejected despite the impressive character of John The Baptist’s witness. Both the religious leaders and certain communities had rejected Jesus and that despite the miracles wrought by Jesus in those cities.
In the midst of this rejection Jesus offers up Thanksgiving.
I.) Jesus’ Gives Thanksgiving For The Father’s Giving & Hiding Of Revelation
This is a fulfillment of passages like Psalm 19:7
Hidden (ness) of Revelation — The Thanksgiving offered up for the Hidden(ness) of the revelation should be understood as a Thanksgiving that God’s revelatory word was in control of God. Christ is giving thanks here that it is the Father’s job to make Himself known and that that knowing can not be gained by the proud and arrogant.
When Jesus thanks the Father that the the truths of the Gospel are hidden from the “wise” and “prudent” we should understand that those people were “wise” and “prudent” in their own eyes. They were, as we might say today, the “Elites” or the “wizards of smart,” which is not to say that they weren’t wise in some measure but only that they were “to smart by half,” as the proverb goes.
One point to take here is that the Thanksgiving of Jesus is not a blanket warning against wisdom or intelligence but only wisdom and prudence that has a certain arrogant and snobbish quality about it, for even in the matter of wisdom God resists the proud by gives grace to the humble.
Revealed(ness) of Revelation — Jesus’ Thanksgiving for God’s revelation has a flavor of astonishment about it. Early Church Father Chrysostom put it this way,
“What wise men knew not was known to babes”
Once again the implicit recommendation in all this is not a warning against being wise or prudent but rather being wise in our own eyes. The “Babes” referred to in this passage were likely those that had not been rigorously schooled in Oral Law as the “wise and prudent” had.
If we were to put this in 21st century terms it would have been the ministers and Doctors of the Church whom Jesus was hidden from and the laymen to whom he is revealed … and such remains often the way things are.
In any case the passage in question clearly sets forth that understanding of God’s Word is not so much a matter of intellectual pursuit as it is a matter of God making himself known. Jesus Thanksgiving here reminds us again why we are Reformed.
It is God who opens the eyes of the blind and shuts the eyes of the seeing. Here is a statement regarding God’s sovereignty. What causes one man to embrace Christ and another man to reject Christ? Ultimately only God’s good pleasure.
It is only those whom God has set apart to see who will see. Here is a statement regarding election. Why does one man embrace Christ and another man reject Christ? Ultimately only because one has been set apart to salvation while the other has been passed by.
Those who are set apart to see will see. Here is a statement regarding irresistible grace. Why will one come of his own free will while the other won’t? Ultimately only because God loosens the dead will to become free to pursue him while the other one’s will is left where it desires to be.
All of this reminds us that we have no reason to boast. Our salvation is completely Christ dependent. What good do we have that we have not gained from another? None.
But let us press on here and ask the Text “what ‘things’ is it that have been hidden from the wise and revealed to babes.”
The context here tells us the “things” that are being spoken off are the words and miraculous works of Jesus (cmp. Mt. 11:20-24). What has been missed is that the Kingdom of God is present in the person and ministry of Jesus. This is what has been missed by the “wise and prudent” and embraced by babes.
II.)Jesus’ Thanksgiving For Being Known, Knower, & Revealer Of The Father
This next statement reveals the co-extensive nature of the work of Salvation between Father and the Son.
First we should understand that the mutual knowledge of the Father and the Son is for the benefit of the elect. It is because there is this intra-trinitarian knowing of the Father and Son that we can now know the Father. Note that the way we know the Father is by knowing the Son.
We are not far from the similar truth communicated in John 1:18, 14:9 here.
Second, understand that because of the nature of the Trinity it is the case that when we know the Son and the Son knows us we not only know the Father but we are known by the Father. There is the sense of a great communion of the Trinity that we are taken up into by our salvation. We become not only knowers of God but also those who are known by God.
The Father is that which is revealed, The Son is the Revelation and the Spirit is the one who does the revealing.
