The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost | 05.07.2026 | Matthew 11:25–30 | Richard O. Johnson |

 

At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, 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.” (Matthew 11.25-30 (NRSV)

“No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” These words from Matthew’s gospel are troubling and mysterious. After all, there are other places in Scripture where knowing Christ is a longed-for desire. The Greeks in John 12: “We would see Jesus.” Paul, in Philippians 3: “I want to know Christ.”

That desire, certainly, is a kind of knowledge that is more than intellectual. We don’t want merely to know about Christ, we want to know Christ. We want to know Christ as we know a friend or a spouse—to know him intimately, to be in a relationship with him that is constant, loving, enriching.

And perhaps even more, we want to be known by Christ.

Seeing and knowing us
Near the top of The New York Times best seller list for some months now has been Allen Levi’s debut novel, Theo of Golden. It is a lovely story—moving, mysterious, often amusing. Theo is a man of unknown origin who takes up residence in a small Southern city. He visits a café called “The Chalice” (just one of several Christian symbols in the book). There he notices on the wall dozens of drawings done by a local artist depicting the faces of various residents of the town. Theo makes it his mission to purchase each of these portraits and present them as a gift to the person depicted.

The list of recipients is quite a crew—people from all walks of life who have in common only the fact that the artist has drawn their image. They respond differently to Theo’s approach. But most of them, as he meets them on a park bench and gently asks questions about their lives, begin to reveal themselves to him in unexpected ways—and in doing so, they gradually begin to see things about their own lives, beautiful things, things they had not previously understood.

Ironically, they don’t learn much about Theo himself. He seems rather evasive; if they ask questions, he answers them vaguely or deflects them back upon the questioner. He remains a mystery through much of the book. He seems to know each person in some intimate way, though they can’t quite get a handle on him.

It is surely no accident that the name “Theo” is the Greek word for God. Theo of Golden is a parable about encountering God, knowing God, and being known by God. It is a story of what it means to be truly seen by God, and of learning to see oneself through God’s eyes.

Infants
We human beings seem to have trouble learning to know even each other! David Brooks, the thoughtful commentator and public intellectual, has written several books, but the most recent is entitled, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen. He wrote it in response to his sense that modern Americans are isolated, lonely, divided from one another. And if we have trouble knowing one another deeply, we struggle even more with knowing God. We, with St. Paul, want to know Christ; but how do we do it?

Our text today isn’t a how-to set of directions, but it does give a couple of guideposts. The first is Jesus’ assertion that the Father has “hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” This is not the only place in Scripture that speaks about the need to become like a child in order to know God. Why do you suppose that is? A child is open-hearted, dependent, trusting—characteristics that so often fade as we age and become “wise” to the world.

But trust is the first step in knowing God. To trust him is to open ourselves to him—to allow him to see us as we are, knowing that he loves us in spite of all in us that is unlovely. The 18^th century theologian Gerhard Tersteegen wrote to an acquaintance who was struggling with what it means to pray. Tersteegen suggested that his correspondent didn’t quite understand what prayer really means. “Prayer,” he wrote, “is to look to the omnipresent God and to allow oneself to be seen by him.”

God, of course, sees all and knows all, but we human beings think we can hide from him. That was Adam and Eve in the garden, wasn’t it? They tried to hide because they were ashamed. But if we want to know God, we have to stop hiding. We have come honestly before him, trusting in his steadfast love and mercy.

The easy yoke
The other aspect to knowing God is to obey. Jesus says, “Come to me … take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” A yoke is a device for yoking two animals together, in order to make them a more powerful team. What Jesus means when he says, “Take my yoke upon you,” is that we are called to yoked with him, to share his yoke, to do his task. But not alone, you see—we do it in concert with Christ himself. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” By joining ourselves to him, by working alongside him, we learn his way, the way of gentleness and humility.

And that means we come to know him. Even with human beings, one of the best ways to learn to know someone is to work with them side by side on some project. It is not just in talking, but in acting together, that relationships deepen and blossom. It is the same with Christ. His gracious invitation is to work with him, to walk with him, to stand with him. Do that, he says, and you will know me. Do that, and you will find peace.

Trust and obey
It all comes down, you see, to two words: trust and obey. There’s an old gospel hymn by that title, and the words are a good summary: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.” When we trust and obey, we come to know Christ, and we find his promised rest.

Pastor Richard O. Johnson
Webster, NY
roj@nccn.net