Today in our look through Matthew, we’re going to backtrack and go back to Matthew 11 and bring out another text. For those who are interested, we will be looking at verse 25-27 of this chapter of the gospel. The text is as follows:
25At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. 27“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
To begin with, I don’t think Jesus is at all against wisdom and learning. What he seems to be against is those who think they know it all already and thus have no desire to listen to this wandering rabbinic teacher. We have to remember that this took place after the condemnation of unrepentant cities in the face of the evidence of the apostles which would have included miraculous evidence.
However, there is a striking juxtaposition here that takes place that I have noted in an earlier blog. We see Jesus as being a humble figure often, but we have to realize that the statements that he made would have been seen as arrogant had they come from anyone else. Because they come from Jesus, I fear we don’t often notice them. It is an odd position isn’t it? We who follow Jesus so much don’t notice what he says because he says it.
We need to look at the context of Judaism and see how this would have looked before the cross and the resurrection. We have this teacher who’s doing great signs and what has he said? He’s talked about the Father which is one thing as it’s likely he used the term “abba” which a Jew would not use for God, but look at what he says in verse 27.
First, no one knows the Son except the Father. Already we are seeing a unique relationship that exists between the Father and the Son. It is after this though that Jesus says that no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.
Now picture you as a Jew hearing this and you want to know how to know God. Jesus tells you. You know the Father through him. This would certainly be a most unbelievable claim. How is it that you, a man, claim to be the only one through whom we may know the Father?
What we have is further clues towards a Trinitarian picture. The Son is the one who makes knowledge of the Father known because of his unique relationship to the Father. Naturally, this will need to be fleshed out some more and we will certainly do so. It is time we as Christians stopped glancing over these passages as we read the Bible, and really began looking at what they said.
And let’s notice the oddity again. Jesus has made this claim and in verse 29, we have him telling us that he is humble. One of the constantly amazing things about Jesus is that he seems to put these two statements together and it’s hard to see a contradiction. It has been said rightly that if Jesus did not exist, we would have a hard time creating a Jesus. There is no other figure in literature like him.
Tomorrow, we shall continue going through the gospel and see what else we find.
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