My scripture teacher used to call Matthew 11 “a Johannine lightening bolt in a Matthean sky.” The direct address of Jesus to God as “my Father” which is typical in St. John shows up here in St. Matthew’s gospel. It strengthens the opinion that these are an accurate memory of the words of Jesus. You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. The quality of the “childlike” that Jesus seems to praise is their openness to something new. The “wise and the learned” already have the answers. The childlike have the kind of imagination that can discover God in the unfolding of a sunflower, in the colors of the sunset, in the smile of one’s mother.
JULY132022
By Church Staff
