Lay Down Your Burdens

Have you ever unpacked a suitcase when you got home from a trip, only to realize you had not worn some of the items you packed? Sometimes we take more than we need; and so, all that we have done is carry around extra weight. Unfortunately, we all carry around weight that we do not need, like the weight of a troubled past, conflicts that we cannot seem to let go of, sadness or grief that does not go away, fears of the future, or even the argument from yesterday. We all carry things that are unnecessary, things that only weigh us down, slow us down, and keep us from being and doing what God intends for us.(1) Sometimes these burdens can even hinder us from coming to Christ. In our passage today, Jesus urges us to lay down our heavy burdens to find rest and renewal in Him.

The Ones Who Understand the Father (vv. 25-26)

25 At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. 26 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.”

In verse 25, Jesus was surrounded by His disciples and some others from the towns through which He had passed. He declared in their hearing that God has “hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.” “These things” refers to the revelation of Jesus being the Christ. The “wise and prudent” were the Rabbis, whose teachings and traditions carried into the second and third centuries. In the Haggada Shel Pesach, which is a Passover guide from the third century, we hear echoes from the rabbinic schools of Hillell and Shammai; schools that existed in Jesus’ time. They would “applaud themselves at the eating of the Passover every year, and say, ‘We are all wise, we are all prudent, [and] we all understand the Law’.”(2) This statement is preserved in the Haggada.

The “babes” were the commonfolk who, in Jesus’ estimation, were not yet hardened in the pride of their own understanding. They were still open to receiving Him as Messiah and Savior. It is noteworthy that Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai, from the second century, continued to pass on Jewish tradition from the time of Jesus. He once stated, “It is not the pleasure of God that wisdom should be so revealed to the world; but when it is near the days of the Messiah, even ‘little children,’ or the ‘babes that are in the world,’ shall find out the hidden things of wisdom’.”(3)

There is no doubt that Jesus was familiar with these rabbinic traditions when He made His declaration. Bear in mind that He was speaking out of experience. “The experience He had was that the Rabbis and the wise men rejected Him; and the [common] people accepted Him. The intellectuals had no use for Him; but the humble welcomed Him. We must be careful to see clearly what Jesus meant here. He is very far from condemning intellectual power [or ability]; what He is condemning is intellectual pride.”(4) “Those who repented, the ‘babes,’ were those humble people who were open to God and able to see Him at work in Jesus. ‘The wise’ were people like the Scribes and Pharisees who felt secure in their own knowledge and so failed to see God revealed in [Christ].”(5)

Commentator William Barclay says, “The heart, not the head, is the home of the gospel. It is not cleverness which shuts out [the Savior]; it is pride. It is not stupidity which admits [one’s sins]; it is humility. Jesus is not connecting ignorance and faith; He is connecting lowliness and faith. A man may be as wise as Solomon. But if he had not the simplicity, trust, [and] innocence of the childlike heart, he has shut himself out [of the kingdom].”(6) The apostle Paul said, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty . . . that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Corinthians 1:27, 29).

Jesus Reveals the Father unto People (v. 27)

27 “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

Barclay says that here we see “the greatest claim that Jesus ever made, the claim which is at the center of the Christian faith. It is the claim that He alone can reveal God to men.”(7) In what is called “The High Priestly Prayer” in John chapter 17, Jesus lifted His disciples up in prayer to the heavenly Father with these words: “I have manifested Your name . . . I have given to them the words which You have given [to] Me; and they have received them and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me” (vv. 6, 8). According to Christ Himself, we obtain a relationship with the heavenly Father by receiving His words, and by believing that Jesus was sent from God.