As soon as a child learns to speak, the questions start. What? Who? How? Why? Children are exploring, discovering, learning all about the world, and that’s why they have so many questions. Experts tell us that an average child asks as many as forty thousand questions between the ages of two and four. It can be exhausting for their parents, who have to try to come up with answers. Gradually, as the child grows up, the questions slow down. But it’s sad if we ever stop asking questions altogether, if that means that we are no longer curious about the world that God has made.
Jesus tells his disciples that God reveals the truth, not to the learned and the clever, but to children. Perhaps he means that God’s truth is revealed to those who, like children, have questions and are ready to learn. Those who were considered learned and clever in Jesus’ time – the chief priests, the scribes and Pharisees – generally didn’t become his disciples. They thought that they knew the answers already, and had nothing to learn from him. Jesus’ disciples, on the other hand, were mostly the poor and the outsiders – working men like Peter, tax collectors like Matthew, people burdened with sin or sickness. Jesus didn’t reject those people – he called them and welcomed them. To those who were ready to listen and learn, Jesus revealed the Good News that he had brought from God his Father. It was a message of love and forgiveness, and with Jesus, they found rest for their souls.
We are living in a strange time, when everything seems to be changing around us. We all have questions about what the world will be like after coronavirus, and no one seems to have the answers. Jesus calls us to come to him, and, like children, to trust him and learn from him. Then we will find rest for our souls.