Matthew 11:25-30. "Only Little Children Can Carry His Light Burden." A sermon by Martin Luther, from February 24, 1517.

This Sunday sermon, based on Matthew 11:25-30, was originally written by Dr. Martin Luther and preached on February 24, 1517. It has been edited and was shared  at Grace of God Lutheran on July 9, 2023. Scripture selections come from the New International Version. 

Our services are at 9:30am on Sundays mornings, at our campus in Dix Hills on Long Island. Visit our website for more information, at www.graceofgod.church.

Transcript

Only Little Children Can Carry His Light Burden.

Matthew 11:25-30

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours in Christ. Amen.

There are, broadly speaking, two kinds of stories we hear from Jesus’ life in our weekly Gospel selection. On the one hand, there are those which describe his miracles. And on the other hand, we have Gospel readings such as today’s, where we hear from Jesus’ own sermons. Both are valuable, but there is special value to hearing his teachings. The miracles may convince me that Jesus loves other people. But I need his clear, plain teaching to be certain that he loves me. The clear, plain teaching of today’s selection has its comforting power through two words: “The wise,” and “children.”

The people whom Jesus calls “wise and understanding” are those from whom the gospel is hidden. “Wise” here doesn’t mean true wisdom regarding life and godliness. For elsewhere in Scripture, we find that it is a great blessing to be called wise. That kind of true wisdom comes from knowing what I need to know about God and about myself in relation to God. Jesus isn’t talking about that true wisdom here, but rather of worldly wisdom, which puffs people up. By nature, we all seek to be wise in the world’s eyes. 

Worldly wisdom thinks that anything which brings pleasure, honor, and profit is “good.” It calls anything which brings affliction, dishonor, and loss, “bad.” For by nature we can only seek what we like and think is good. We consider these things the best. Anything we don’t like, by nature we consider it the worst, no matter how truly good it may be. This comes from the fact that our natures will not let God's Word and the truth have the right of way, but are always seeking after something new, something showy, something exciting.

We see this everywhere, among all people, as they pick and choose to do works which seem good to them, and neglect those which God has actually set before them. Parents neglect raising their children in the church. Children neglect the honor and reverence they owe their parents. Citizens neglect the prayer and thanksgiving for their government commanded by God. And all of these people convince themselves that whatever works they do instead are better. 

The Bible condemns such nonsense. For God does not have us pick and choose the neighbors whom we will love, nor how we will love them. Instead he sets before us a neighbor, and he instructs us as to how we shall love. Self-chosen works count for nothing in the eyes of God. 

Jesus is speaking of such people here; those who, according to their own “wisdom,” set aside the commands of God for the works that seem right to them. The Gospel is indeed hidden from them, and it does not enter their hearts. So Jesus says, “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. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.”

We come to the other category. In contrast to the “wise,” there are “little children.” Jesus doesn’t mean actual children. A great doctor, or a brilliant writer, could be a “little child,” just as a blue-collar Joe could be a falsely “wise” person. When Jesus speaks of “little children,” he means people who count their own works as nothing; who attribute nothing to their own wisdom; who regard God alone as wise and prudent, and therefore keep quiet and submit themselves entirely to him. The others are too wise; they don’t want to learn anything from God, and they sneer at his doctrine and works. Therefore Paul writes to the Corinthians, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

These “wise ones,” it is fair to say, may speak the truth in part. They may preach, in their fashion, the law of God. The Pharisees did so. The preachers of other religions may likewise offer some worldly wisdom. The Eastern religions recommend not being too attached to material things. Islam upholds charity as a virtue. But such “wise ones” will never reveal to you Christ, and his Gospel, just as the Lord says here: “You have hidden it from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” This gospel, hidden from the wise, is the good, joyful message which teaches me how to know God. Through knowing God, we receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

What Jesus here says, that revealing the Gospel to little children is “what God was pleased to do,” entirely nullifies our efforts, our works, our decisions, our free will. Nothing of that sort has any validity whatsoever. God reveals himself to us in the Gospel not due to merit, not as a reward for our effort, not because we chose to find him, but only by his will and good pleasure. God does not look upon people as the world looks upon them. He does not esteem the strong or famous. He does not disdain the timid and sinful. 

All hypocrites, and all Pharisees, hate this word of Christ. In fact, it makes them furious that the foolish and the simple, the tax collectors and the open sinners, are going into the kingdom of God before them. It makes them raving mad, that if they wish to enter, they must do so without all their fine, beautiful, glittering, self-chosen works. But what can we do for such a person; a person who prides himself in his strength, his wisdom, his own sufficiency? There is nothing to be done about it. For this is God's good pleasure; the Gospel, and not man’s works, shall be the means by which God reveals himself, and by which we enter the kingdom. 

We go on reading. “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.”

Here, now, you see the security which we have when we enter Jesus’ kingdom through the Gospel. For Jesus says that he has all things in his hand, and has power over all things. Such authority was given to him by his Father. For this reason, Christ promises in John ten: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” So everyone who has heard the gospel can rejoice that he is in Jesus’ hands, and need not be troubled by his sins. He has heard the gospel and now knows that Christ, under whom he lives, will carry him on each day. 

It is true that the devil will go on tempting us with vices, with sexual immorality, with covetousness, with slander and hatred, with violence, and with whatever other sins there are. Yet there is no need to be troubled, for we have a strong and mighty Shepherd, who will defend us well. 

Life in this world will indeed be bitter and hard for us. Prayer will be needed; you will need the prayers of your brothers and sisters, and your brothers and sisters will have need of yours. We must all pray to have strong courage and brave hearts, to withstand the devil. Yet one thing is certain; you will not be forsaken. Christ will surely save you. 

We go on to the final verses of the reading. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

Up to this point, we have heard how God deals with those who consider themselves “wise.” He blinds them, he hides the gospel from them. Likewise, we have heard how he deals with the “little children,” those who know that God alone is wise. To them, he gives true understanding; to them, he reveals himself in the gospel. 

At this point, someone may consider himself to be in grave danger. For if he sees that he has been such a “wise one,” choosing his own works while neglecting those to which he is called, he may fear, “Will the Father now hide the Gospel from me? Shall I remain ever blind and unknowing?” It is to comfort such troubled hearts that Christ goes on and says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Here one and all are called to the comfort which is found in the Gospel. 

Wise or childish, tax collector or Pharisee, all are sinners alike. Here we must not think of our own worthiness, for this is just what he has been warning us against! Instead, whoever is heavy laden - that is to say, whoever feels the law pressing on them - is invited to the true wisdom which is knowledge of Christ. This is why Christ does not name any particular sin here, any particular burden weighing down the conscience, but simply says, “all who are weary and burdened.” Anyone who feels his sinfulness and knows he cannot fulfill God’s demands, let him come to Christ confidently and boldly. He will surely be helped.

This is how Christ brings us his rest. First, he causes the gospel to be preached to us. Where the Gospel is not preached, there shall never be rest. When and where the Gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit presents himself and brings faith to life in our hearts. And as soon as the Holy Spirit presents himself and has given us faith, our sins are forgiven, and our hearts have rest. The true rest of which Christ and the other Scriptures speak is having relief for the burdened conscience through the forgiveness of sins, and having the promise that God is with us in all troubles; in hunger, or famine, or war, or whatever tribulations which may come. Surely he will not leave us. Through such promises, Christ makes our hearts joyful, steady, and ready to do all that God sets before us.

But what, then, is that? What does Christ mean by saying, “Take my yoke upon you?” Is it giving someone rest, to take one burden off their back and then immediately to lay on another? Yet this, again, is merely affirming what has already been said. The Gospel terrifies our flesh, because it says that our efforts are nil, our holiness and goodness are nothing, everything that is in us is condemned, we are children of wrath. Such a preaching is hard on the flesh! This is why Jesus calls the Gospel a “yoke” and a “burden.”

Yet, so that no one is terrified of Jesus and his Gospel, thinking him so great, high, and mighty that he would deal unkindly with poor sinners, he goes on to say, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.” He says, in other words: “Yes, your sinful nature may think me cruel and severe, but I am not so. I am gentle. I have come to preach the forgiveness of sins, indeed to bring about the forgiveness of your sins! My message is something which you may joyfully receive. I am not like the Pharisees, who wanted to be magnified. Rather, I am kind and humble-hearted, and ready to receive sinners.”

Christ makes a special point of saying here that he is gentle. Again, to put his speech in other words, Jesus says, “I know how to deal with sinners, for I myself have experienced temptation, and had a tested conscience.” Thus we read in Hebrews four that, “We have a high priest who is able to empathize with our weaknesses, for he was tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” So this High Priest, Christ, says, “Let no one be afraid of me; I will deal kindly and gently with him. Let him come boldly to me, for in me he will find rest for his soul.” 

Jesus says “soul” specifically here, reminding us that although there be outward tribulation and physical persecution, we can bear it easily and quietly. Even though outwardly everything may seem to be against us, ready to crush and devour us, there's no need to be troubled. For inwardly, in our conscience, we have peace. Such peace of conscience is the first and most immediate fruit of faith, as Paul says in Romans five: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus.” Christ brings this peace to our hearts now, and by it he comforts us in all trials. It is a peace which the heart already feels, as if a doctor were applying cooling ointment to a burn. And when our conscience is free in this peace between us and our God, then nothing can move us nor hurt us, no matter how evil it may be. 

In such peace, we find that Christ’s yoke is indeed light. For not only does he take away the demands of ceremonies and human ordinances, but also the whole Law. The curse, the sin, the death, and everything which threatens us on account of the Law, is taken away. All of it Christ takes from me and gives me instead his Spirit, through whom I cheerfully, willingly, and gladly do everything I should do. He calls his burden “easy” because he himself helps us carry it. 

The world looks upon the life we live under the Gospel as a heavy and intolerable yoke, but it is not. It is a yoke which little children easily carry. May God’s Spirit give us such childlike hearts each and every day. Amen.