Faith Like A Child

At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,for although you have hidden these thingsfrom the wise and the learnedyou have revealed them to little ones.Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father,and no one knows the Father except the Sonand anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

A little slow with this. Life gets busy.  A couple of thoughts from this weeks readings. Jesus starts by talking about how we get to know God. It is sometimes called the scandal of faith. The reason is that we want more evidence. We want to know God the way we know the physical world. Yet God does not go there. Not completely. He gives us just enough evidence to convince those that want to be convinced but not enough to convince those that don't. 

It can actually make intelligence work against you. You get so good at knowing things through reason that you can't make the adjustment and accept that the things of God need to approached with faith. Reason still has a role yet there are times when the smartest guy in the room is going to need to let himself be taught by a child. That can be hard for some to swallow. It has been for me many times.



Why does God work that way? You just know what the atheist is going to say. That religion has to work that way because it is not really true. It is easy to understand their position. There is enough evidence to believe but these arguments could be a whole lot more convincing if God just made things a bit clearer. 

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,for I am meek and humble of heart;and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light

Now we move on to a big claim Jesus makes that any child will understand and every logician is going to be completely unconvinced by. Jesus simply promised to help us with our burdens. How is He going to do that? He is going to put His yoke on you. What? How does adding a yoke to a heavily burdened ox lead to rest? Well Jesus takes your burden and gives you one of His own. It does not seem like it should work but it does. 

The analytical people ask all sorts of questions. How does this work? Is this just good psychological advise? Letting Jesus handle your problems equates to just choosing to stop worrying. Stop trying to control everything in your life and your stress level will drop and you will have rest for your soul. Yet there is a difference between just dropping something and leaving it in God's hands. Is it just in the way you think about it? No. Can you prove that? Not really. Just trust in God and then you will get it.

The number of people who have had their lives transformed for the better by accepting Jesus' invitation here is mind boggling. The stories are endless. Yet modern man dismisses them so easily. Sure Jesus set you free from addictions. Sure Jesus healed you after your loved one died. Sure Jesus gave you true peace that you could not find in what should have been a satisfying career. So what? Haven't you heard of confirmation bias? Don't you know there are people from other religions who tel similar stories?

That is not the point. A child will understand. Are you weary and heavily burdened? Do you want rest for your soul? A love relationship with Jesus will give you that. Endless analysis will not. Become a child and just come to Jesus. You won't lose you mind but you add faith to your reason and get a glimpse of God.