Jesus Rejoices in the Spirit - Bible Reflections - Why to Stay Childlike Forever

By Tony Joe:

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10:21-24

Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, 

“I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. 

Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.  

All things have been handed over to me by my Father. 

No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him." 

Turning to the disciples in private he said, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 

For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."

Jesus Rejoices in the Spirit - Bible Reflections:

Why to Stay Childlike Forever:

Chapter 10 of the Gospel According to St. Luke describes the first attempt by freshly minted 'Christians' - a group of 72 handpicked by Jesus - at proclaiming the Gospel and in healing the sick.

The 72 disciples soon return victorious, stunned at their own newfound powers to do miracles, and in today's Gospel reading we find Jesus rejoicing in the Holy Spirit and praising His Heavenly Father for this success.

Specifically, Christ is praising the Father for two things - for hiding the Gospel from the wise and the learned, and for revealing it to the childlike.

When Jesus appeared on earth, earthly knowledge and power were pretty impressive, across the major nations and civilizations. This was especially so from 600 BC to Jesus' birth.

Great Greek philosophers, Socrates, Plato, & Aristotle had already done their enduring contributions, and left the world. Even Aristotle's famous student, Alexander the Great, had done his military conquests, and left.

Roman Empire was at its peak, with political greats like Pompey and Julius Caesar already emerged and dead, Cicero having passed away after his contributions, and when Jesus was born, Augustus Caesar of the Second Triumvirate of himself, Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemillus Lepidus, was ruling over the vast Roman Empire.

In India, the Buddha had come, established Buddhism 400 years before Christ, and had left the world.

Similarly, in China, its most influential teacher and philosopher, Confucius, has done his lasting contributions and left the world.

In Jesus' own land, despite Roman rule, spiritual knowledge and exposition were at its best. The Second Jerusalem Temple was already built, the Hebrew Bible was canonized, Herod was appointed as King of the community by the Roman Senate, and the great Torah sages Hillel and Shammai had emerged with their respective schools of thought.

It is in this backdrop that Jesus appears, born in a cattle shed to impoverished parents while they were on a journey for census, as there was no place for poor people like them in inns. And there is no mention in the Gospels about Jesus undergoing any great formal or secular education; rather he was raised as a carpenter by his foster-father Joseph.

Yet, he wanted to change the world, by ushering in the 'Kingdom of God'.

Where did this young carpenter and his crew, dominated by uneducated fishermen, stand in comparison to the world's greatest minds and ideas, when it came to transforming the world? 

Yet, note what this carpenter says about himself, quite seriously - "...many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it."

Anyone would have laughed him off, not bothering to say even the obvious - "Are you mad or what?"

But there was a difference. The carpenter was God's anointed one, the Son of God. And that made all the difference.

It didn't matter who His disciples were. He and His Father had the power to make anyone to anyone. It didn't matter that His disciples were silly or childlike.

And indeed they were childlike in comparison with the philosophical and spiritual heavyweights of the day.

But through them God would create the greatest spiritual movement ever in humanity's history - encompassing more than 2.2 billion living believers today, and around 31 billion believers who died adhering to the Christian faith. 

Christianity's sheer impact across the world, on national constitutions, public law, morality, family, and ethics, is even more impactful, and unparalleled by anything else in history.

Indeed, His words from today's Gospel passage has already come true - "All things have been handed over to me by my Father." But imagine a poor and uneducated 30 year old guy saying that decisively, back then!

Yes, the beauty is that Jesus could foresee it all. That is why He praised His Father saying, "...you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, and you have revealed them to the childlike." 

    

If we contemplate enough on this mystery, one thing will be evident - how else could God have done it? In a world where the wise and the learned already enjoy an uneven playground, will a just God tilt things more in their favour, and forsake His poor and His illiterate?

No, a just God would make sure that His anointed one would be born poor, with the illiterates as his companions, so that the anointed one would once again make the world a level playing field. And that is what Jesus did too.

Christ calls it His Father's "...gracious will". 

Adhering to that will, Jesus changed the rules of the game so much so that numerous ardent followers of His who were either born poor, or embraced poverty as a vow, were made immortal in not only the Christian Hall of Fame, but respected forever even in the secular world. One need to look at only St. Francis of Assisi or St. Mother Teresa to understand this phenomenon.

Even for each and every follower of Christ who is alive today, and yet to be born, the promise holds good - if you can forsake the quest for riches, and embrace the spiritual riches that Jesus provides, you are sure to be immortalized.

There is also a hidden warning for the contemporary world as well as for mainstream Christianity, in today's Gospel passage. Both worldly knowledge, especially in science, and spiritual knowledge like in theology and philosophy are reigning at all-time highs. While these are generally well and good, will too much of these good things once again force God through Jesus to hide the truths from the wise and the learned of today, and reveal it to the childlike?

That is why we should be wary of too much of such worldly good things, and never ever outgrow our childlike curiosities to know more about God through everyday practices of simple virtues like charity towards the needy in the world.