ルカによる福音書10:21-24 Luke 10:21-24,
「天地の主である父よ、あなたをほめたたえます。これらのことを知恵ある者や賢い者には隠して、幼子のような者にお示しになりました。」 （ルカ10:21）
このキリストの祈りの言葉の中の「これらのこと」というのが何を指すのかは、聖書の中にはっきりとは記されておりません。しかし、この祈りの言葉が20節の「あなたがたの名が天に書き記されていることを喜びなさい」という御言葉からの続きであることを考えますと、「これらのこと」とは、「天国の市民とされていることの幸い」であり、また「イエス・キリストを信じることによって、神の国に入ることができる」ということであると言えるでしょう。「イエス・キリストを信じることによって、神の国に入ることができる」という真理は、「知恵ある者や賢い者」には隠されているが、「幼子のような者」には示されています。そのことを、キリストは父なる神に感謝しておられるのであります。そして、21節の前半に「そのとき、イエスは聖霊によって喜びにあふれて言われた」とあることからわかりますように、この真理が「知恵ある者や賢い者」には隠されていて、「幼子のような者」には示されているということについて、 キリストは大きな喜びを持っておられたのであります。
「イエス・キリストを信じることによって、神の国に入ることができる」という真理が「知恵ある者や賢い者」には隠され「幼子のような者」には示されているという点については、父なる神と神の独り子イエス・キリストの思いはぴったりと一致していました。そのことは、ルカによる福音書の18章17節で、キリストが「はっきり言っておく。子供のように神の国を受け入れる人でなければ、決してそこに入ることはできない」と教えておられることからもわかります。本日の説教の最初にお話しいたしましたように、人は、歴史の荒波や人生の試練に出会ったときにこそ、自分という人間存在の頼りなさを率直に認識して、父に信頼する幼な子のように、神の国の福音を受け入れることができるのであります。ところが、あくまで自分は「知恵ある者や賢い者」であると主張しているような人は、決して神の国の福音を受け入れることはできないでありましょう。
（8月4日の説教より）
When a person changes from not believing in Christ to believing in Christ, there must be a common feeling. It is, for example, when a person thinks that he/she is standing firmly on his/her own feet, but realises that this is not the case and that he/she needs some kind of support. For example, it is said that among those who came to the Christian faith at the beginning of the so-called Meiji Era were many warriors who had served the Tokugawa Shogunate and the clans that followed it. They had previously intended to stand firm by serving the Tokugawa Shogun or the lord of the clan to which they belonged. However, when the old Shogunate system collapsed and they no longer had a sovereign to serve, they realised that they were, as a single person, extremely unreliable, both spiritually and materially.
Stories like this, in which individual souls become aware of their own unreliability in the stormy seas of history, are not uncommon. What is more common, however, is for people to become aware of the fragility and weakness of their own human existence in the midst of life’s trials, which everyone experiences. For example, when we ourselves are ill or someone close to us dies, when we fail in business or lose our job, when we stumble in a human relationship or have a spiritual crisis. Many people who have come to faith in Christ may have come to faith through such trials in their lives. Many people in Japan, however, say that it is weak people who rely on religion, and that they live by their own power and not on religion. In other words, many people in Japan do not accept that a person has recognised the truth, even when he/she has become aware of the inherent unreliability of human beings through the stormy seas of history and the trials of life. They tend to boast of their own wisdom and power and say, “I am strong while those who rely on religion are weak.” But in fact, it is those who boast in their own wisdom and power who are blinded to the truth of life.
Today’s Bible passage can be divided into two main parts. The first half, in verses 21 and 22, contains Christ’s prayer of thanksgiving to God the Father. The second half, in verses 23 and 24, contains Christ’s blessing to his disciples. What the first half and the second half have in common is the blessedness of those who believe in Jesus Christ. This blessedness is expressed in the form of thanksgiving to God the Father in the first half, and in the form of blessing words in the second half. The content of the blessedness of those who believe in Jesus Christ is connected to the words in verse 20, which precedes today’s passage. In verse 20 Christ tells us that the blessedness of those who believe in Jesus Christ is that “your names are written in heaven,” i.e., “your names are written in the register of citizens in heaven.”
Following this, in verse 21, Christ prays, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” What “these things” in the words of this prayer refer to is not clearly stated in the Bible. However, considering that the words of this prayer are a continuation of verse 20, “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven,” it can be said that “these things” refer to “the blessedness of being citizens of heaven” and “entering the kingdom of God by believing in Jesus Christ.” The truth that “you can enter the kingdom of God by believing in Jesus Chris” is hidden from “the wise and understanding” and revealed to “little children.” For this, Christ thanks God the Father. And as we can see from the first half of verse 21, “in that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit,” Christ had great joy that this truth was hidden from “the wise and understanding,” and revealed to “little children.”
God the Father and Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, were in perfect accord in that the truth that “you can enter the kingdom of God by believing in Jesus Chris” was hidden from the “wise and understanding” and revealed to “little children.” This is evident in Luke 18:17, where Christ says: “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” As I said at the beginning of today’s sermon, it is only when a person encounters the stormy seas of history and the trials of life that he/she can honestly recognise the fragility and weakness of his/her human existence and, like a child trusting in the Father, can accept the gospel of the kingdom of God. However, those who claim that they are “wise and understanding” will never be able to accept the gospel of the kingdom of God.
In verse 22, the relationship between God the Father in heaven and Jesus Christ is expressed by way of the general close relationship between father and son. In particular, in the second half of verse 22 Christ says: “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” The phrase “no one knows who the Son is except the Father” probably means that it is the father who knows his children best. What does the following phrase: “(No one knows) who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” mean? To use an easy-to-understand analogy, when a child brings a friend to his house to meet his father, he does not just bring anyone to meet him, but he brings someone he thinks is a good friend to meet his father. Then he will ask his friend to meet his father and introduce a friend to his father. In other words, “anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” are the kind of persons whom the son has invited to his house in order to introduce them to his father. It refers to the kind of persons Christ would invite into the Father’s house. And it is not “the wise and understanding” whom Christ invites into the house of God the Father in heaven, but those who are like “little children.”
In 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, it is written by the Apostle Paul as follows.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
These verses describe well what it is like when a person comes to faith in Christ. Some of you may have experienced a certain sense of defeat when coming to the Christian faith. In other words, those who have had feelings such as “I had such a hard time, I couldn’t help but seek Christ’s salvation” or “I experienced setbacks in my life that forced me to believe in Christ.” Perhaps that may be true as a personal experience. However, we want to make sure that we understand the meaning of that personal experience correctly. If you feel that “I had such a hard time, I couldn’t help but seek Christ’s salvation” or “I experienced setbacks in my life that forced me to believe in Christ,” this does not mean that you turned to religion because you were weak, as many people in Japan seem to think. Rather, it means that God has made you like a little child through various life experiences and invited you into the kingdom of God. It is so that “no human being might boast in the presence of God,” as 1 Corinthians 1:29, which we have just read, states.
So God dares us to go through the trials and setbacks of life to make us feel like little children and to transform us into those who are worthy to be invited into the kingdom of God. Belief in Christ does not mean that we have resorted to religion because we are weak, but that we have been made like little children and invited into the kingdom of God. Therefore, those who have been made to feel like little children by trials and setbacks can have the humble confidence that God has done so. In other words, we are invited into the kingdom of God and made citizens of heaven, simply for the sake of the manifestation of God’s glory.
This comes most vividly to light when we consider the life of the Apostle Paul. Before his encounter with Christ, the Apostle Paul was by no means a person like a little child. Rather, he was a man who boasted of his wisdom and power. He assumed that he was an exemplary man who was obedient to God and that Christians who believed in Christ were disobedient to God. This is recorded in Philippians 3:4-6 as follows.
If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
How was this self-confident Paul transformed into a person like a little child? It was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus to persecute the Christians in Damascus that he heard the voice of Christ in heaven saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” “Saul” was Paul’s Jewish name. When Paul heard Christ’s voice, he fell to the ground and became blind and deaf. Paul, who had prided himself on doing what was right, could no longer do anything in his own wisdom or power, but could only live by being saved by Jesus Christ, God’s only Son.
And when Paul was waiting in Damascus for the messenger of salvation sent by Christ, a man called Ananias, who had been sent by Christ, came to visit him. He said to Paul, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:17). When Paul heard these words, “immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight” (Acts 9:18). He was then baptised and saved. Paul was able to receive Christ’s salvation by being made to earnestly seek it like a little child.
We may not be as dramatic as Paul, but we may have experienced being like little children in our own lives. And we will probably have experiences of being like little children in the future as well. We are those who think we are living in humility, but before long we become proud of our wisdom and power. God breaks us down and makes us like little children. We have experienced such works of God in the past. And we will continue to experience them in the future. So, as we go through history and experience of our lives, we should always think about God’s desire to make us like little children.
And not only that, but we also want to remember that God can also make those around us who were once like Paul – those who boast of their wisdom and power – like little children. We live our lives in many ways in relation to those around us. We may do things together, and sometimes we may ask for advice. And we may feel that this person is a proud person who is proud of his/her status, wisdom and power. However, even such a person can undergo some changes. When there is some kind of change in the person around you, let’s consider whether God is trying to make that person like a little child. And if he/she is about to be transformed into a person like a little child, then we should not hesitate to share Christ with that person and bring him/her to Christ. When a person does not know what to do with oneself, that is when he/she is actually being made like a little child and is being invited into the kingdom of God.