Matt 11:20–27 — The Sovereign Gift of Faith

In the preceding passage, Jesus compares “this generation” to children sitting in the marketplaces. The phrase has more of a spiritual than a chronological meaning. Jesus is describing people who are unresponsive to the gospel and reject Christ. They are like discontented and indifferent children. When the flute played the joyful music of a wedding, they did not dance; when a dirge sounded the mournful music of a funeral, they did not mourn.

They were indifferent both to John the Baptist’s message and to Jesus’ message. John’s ministry is compared to the dirge because he preached a stern warning of judgment and told the people to prepare for the day of the Lord, yet they did not respond. Jesus also called people to repentance, but he proclaimed the good news and ate and drank with sinners. He played the flute of celebration, showing that the kingdom of God is like a wedding banquet where all who come to Christ may receive the kingdom’s good wine and be saved and forgiven. Nevertheless, the people largely rejected his message as well.

This was not an absolute rejection by every person. We have many examples of people who came to Jesus and believed in him: the woman with the flow of blood, the Roman centurion, the leper, and the disciples. They received forgiveness and enjoyed fellowship with Christ. By and large, however, most of Israel did not accept the gospel.

Jesus therefore denounces the cities where he had performed most of his mighty works: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, towns situated close to one another around the Sea of Galilee. Jesus performed most of his miracles and conducted much of his teaching there during the Galilean phase of his ministry, before he turned toward Jerusalem and the cross. Although some individuals received him as the Messiah, the cities as a whole did not repent in response to his miracles.

This passage therefore teaches us about Christ’s authority not only as the preacher of the gospel and bearer of the kingdom, but also as the one who gives faith to the elect. We will consider the primary obstacle to faith, the sovereign gift of faith, and the incarnate object of faith.

The Primary Obstacle to Faith

These Galilean towns had the incarnate Son of God walking among them. His miracles displayed the presence of the kingdom and fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament. The Messiah himself stood before them, yet most did not repent. Like the children in the marketplace, they did not respond to the joyful music of the kingdom. They hardened their hearts and rejected Jesus.

What was the primary obstacle to faith? They were too proud to repent. They were self-sufficient and thought they had their lives in order. They mocked Jesus for eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners because they did not consider themselves to belong in that category. In their own estimation, they were pious people who followed the Pharisees and teachers of the law and obeyed God.

They did not believe they needed a Savior who came to rescue sinners by going to the cross and dying for their sins. They preferred a Messiah who would give them what they believed they deserved: the restoration of the glorious theocracy of David and Solomon. They wanted a military victor and political hero who would expel the Romans and exalt them because they regarded themselves as righteous.

Their problem was not a lack of evidence. The evidence stood before their eyes. Jesus performed miracles that demonstrated the reality of the kingdom as a kingdom of grace, salvation, and healing. His nature miracles—such as calming the storm—also displayed his authority over creation and revealed his divine power. The greatest obstacle to faith in Christ was not inadequate evidence but pride.

Jesus exposes that pride in verse 23: “And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades.” Capernaum expected exaltation in the messianic kingdom—glory, power, influence, and perhaps military might. Its people believed that their righteousness made them deserving of these things, and so they were indifferent to the Messiah who actually came.

Jesus strikingly contrasts Israel’s rejection of Christ with the sin of Sodom. Sodom was a profoundly wicked city whose outcry ascended to heaven, yet Sodom sinned against the light of nature. Israel rejected the light of special revelation concentrated in Christ, the incarnate Son of God. The Messiah was present among them performing miracles and showing that the kingdom had arrived, yet they rejected him.

This is more than the unbelief of people who know nothing of God or Christ. It is the unbelief the New Testament calls “disobeying the gospel”: refusing to believe when the full light of Christ’s gospel shines before you. Those who receive special revelation and reject it deserve greater punishment.

Thus Jesus says, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!” If his mighty works had been performed in the Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. If those miracles had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to that day because its people would have repented and been spared. Consequently, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for Capernaum.

Pride Prevents Repentance

The first application is that the greatest obstacle to faith in Christ is pride. It is not principally that you are scientifically minded and require evidence. Nor is it the hypocrisy found in the church or the terrible crimes committed by clergy who have abused their authority, grievous though those sins are. The greatest obstacle is the conviction that you are good and righteous enough on your own—that you do not need Christ to forgive you and rescue you from sin. Pride says, “I do not need you, Jesus. I do not need to humble myself.”

We experience the same power of pride in our personal relationships. Consider how difficult it is simply to admit, “I was wrong.” Such an admission wounds our pride. This is why Matthew’s use of the word repent in verses 20–21 is significant. Here it does not refer primarily to the fruits of repentance—the lifelong process of dying increasingly to sin and living to righteousness, which we may call mortification. Rather, it focuses on the repentance intrinsic to faith.

Faith means trusting in Christ, but we go to him for grace only when we acknowledge that we are sinners who need him. Repentance in this sense is the first movement of faith: admitting that we are wrong and humbling ourselves before God. Scripture teaches that, apart from Christ, we are lost in sin, inclined to hate God and our neighbor, fallen in Adam, thoroughly corrupt, and deserving of eternal condemnation. No one readily admits this.

Our pride resists saying, “God, you are right. I am wrong. I am a sinner, and I need Christ.” Yet that is the repentance Jesus describes: humbling ourselves and confessing that we are needy and desperate sinners. We are among the tax collectors and sinners who need Christ’s banquet hall and his grace.

The Sovereign Gift of Faith

After denouncing these unrepentant cities, Jesus gives us a rare glimpse into his prayer life: “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.” By praying these words, Jesus reveals the sovereign gift of faith.

God did not reveal gospel wisdom to Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, whose inhabitants believed themselves righteous and self-sufficient. Nor did he reveal the hidden wisdom of the gospel to religious authorities such as the Pharisees, experts in the law, and high priests who governed the temple. He revealed it to those who were humble, simple, and trusting.

The “little children” are not merely literal children. The phrase describes believers who humble themselves and become like children, for Jesus teaches elsewhere that unless we humble ourselves and become like children, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. They are the little ones of Christ’s kingdom, like those mentioned in Matthew 10:42, and the least in the kingdom who are greater than John the Baptist (Matt 11:11).

These humble and trusting people know their need. They do not claim extraordinary sophistication or intellectual ability but simply trust Christ and receive the gospel promise. God delights to overturn the wisdom of the mighty and magnify his grace by revealing the gospel’s mysteries to these little ones.

Why Do Some Believe?

This raises a difficult question: Why do some people believe while others do not? Whenever the gospel comes, it creates a division. Some humble themselves, believe, and enter the kingdom. Others harden their hearts, reject the gospel, and stand unmoved while the flute of the kingdom plays.

Jesus’ prayer teaches that God is the source of faith. Those who reject the gospel remain culpable because its light has shone among them and they have refused it. Their hearts are hardened and morally at fault. Yet unless God opens our eyes, we will not perceive our lost condition or Christ’s power to save us.

The word revealed occurs twice in this passage. Jesus thanks the Father for hiding these things from the wise and understanding and revealing them to little children. Then verse 27 says that no one knows the Father except the Son “and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Revelation can refer to God’s objective disclosure of himself in nature or in Scripture. It can also refer to the illumination of our minds, enabling us to see and believe that objective revelation. Jesus uses it here in this latter sense of opening our eyes to faith.

Faith is therefore a sovereign gift that God gives to his elect. “Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” By his free and sovereign will, God has mercy and grants faith, opening people’s eyes to the gospel.

Faith Excludes Boasting

The second application is that believers cannot boast or congratulate themselves. We cannot claim that we believe because we are smarter, better, or more pious than those who do not. Faith itself is a gift of sheer grace. We believe only because God has granted us faith.

Most gifts may be rejected, but God’s sovereign gift of faith is different: he gives the gift and also makes us willing to receive it. We did not choose Christianity because we were more intelligent or devout than others. God had mercy on us and revealed the gospel to us through a supernatural act of divine illumination.

Paul makes the same point in 1 Corinthians 1:26–31. The Corinthian church aspired to elite status and worldly sophistication, but Paul reminds them that not many of them were wise according to the flesh, powerful, or noble. God chose what is foolish, weak, low, and despised in the world to shame the wise and strong and to bring to nothing the things that are. He did this “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” Therefore, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The Proper Use of Election

This application helps us understand the proper use of the doctrine of election. Election is a lofty and mysterious doctrine. We cannot comprehend why God chooses one person and not another, and the doctrine can easily be misused.

Some hyper-Calvinists limit the offer of the gospel to those whom they believe are elect. They fear that an indiscriminate offer might extend the gospel offer to someone God has not chosen. Yet we cannot know who is elect. People do not bear visible marks identifying them as elect or reprobate. If we had known Paul before his conversion, while he violently persecuted the church and hated Christianity, we might have assumed that he could never become a Christian. We must never limit the gospel’s free offer to those whom we imagine God has chosen.

Another misuse is to tell those seeking salvation merely to ask God to elect them. Suppose someone has become conscious of sin, fears judgment, and longs for forgiveness. Because God gives faith, we might tell that person to plead with God to choose them and grant salvation. Yet this puts the doctrine of election before the gospel promise.

We should lead such a person to the promise of the gospel, not first into the mystery of election. In John 6, Jesus teaches both truths. He says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me,” affirming that all the elect will be saved. He then immediately gives the gospel promise: “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” That promise is what we freely extend to all who recognize their need.

The doctrine of election must not become a substitute for the offer of the gospel. The gospel is what sinners need, and it is what Christians must continually return to for assurance and strength. Election finds its proper use after we have believed: it teaches us to give God all the glory. Why did I believe? Not because I was better or more intelligent, but solely because of God’s grace.

Election therefore serves a doxological purpose. It moves us to praise and thanksgiving, just as Jesus thanks his Father for revealing the gospel to little children. In worship we praise God and give him all glory for his mercy, salvation, and grace.

The Incarnate Object of Faith

After thanking the Father for granting faith, Jesus says in verse 27, “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.” Scholars have called this verse “a thunderbolt from the Johannine sky.” Although it appears in Matthew, it sounds remarkably like the Gospel of John.

“All things have been handed over to me by my Father” echoes John’s language: “All that the Father gives me will come to me.” These words point to the intra-Trinitarian covenant commonly called the covenant of redemption. The Father gave the elect to the Son, and the Son undertook to become their surety, fulfill the law on their behalf, and go to the cross for them. All things pertaining to salvation, including the elect themselves, have been handed over to the Son by the Father.

Jesus then says that no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son. A merely human Jesus could not make such a claim. The word knows refers to more than intellectual knowledge or facts about another person. It denotes love, communion, and intimacy, as when Genesis says that Adam knew his wife. Jesus speaks of the profound fellowship of the Father and the Son extending into eternity before creation.

The Father and the Son, with the Holy Spirit, eternally possess this divine union and communion. Only God knows God in this fullest sense. By declaring that he knows the Father and the Father knows him, Jesus identifies himself as the eternal and divine Son of God.

This eternal love and communion between Father and Son qualifies the Son to reveal the Father and to serve as Messiah. “Son of God” and “Messiah” are two central titles of Jesus, but they refer to different truths. Peter brings them together when he confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Son of God describes who Jesus is according to his eternal nature. He would have been the Son even if there had been no creation or redemption. Christ or Messiah describes his saving office and work: the Father sent him to save his people from their sins by living a perfect life and bearing the law’s curse through his death. He is qualified to be the Messiah, Savior, and bearer of God’s kingdom because he is eternally the Son of God.

Knowing God Through Christ

The third application is that faith is knowledge of God. Because knowledge of God comes only in response to his self-revelation, and because that revelation is found only in Christ, faith in the incarnate Son is the foundation of knowing God. To know God is to know Christ, the Messiah who reveals the Father because he is the eternal Son become man.

Many pious Christians in the Middle Ages longed to know God in a deeply spiritual way. They pursued spiritual exercises such as meditation, fasting, asceticism, and long hours of prayer. Before Martin Luther understood the gospel, he believed that he had to complete a weekly quota of prayer. If he had not finished by Friday, he spent Saturday making it up, praying hour after hour. Such practices, strict control of food and drink, and vows of poverty were attempts to know God through human effort.

Yet how can we know God through our works or by trying harder? We often seek to know him in ways other than the one way he has chosen to make himself known. The Galilean cities claimed to be pious, godly, spiritual, and obedient to the law, but they did not know God because they rejected the one in whom he revealed himself.

We likewise invent approaches that fit our assumptions and give us a sense of accomplishment. We seek God through spiritual exercises, intense emotions, mystical experiences, or the deep recesses of our consciousness. Mysticism is attractive because it can engender spiritual pride: the mystic imagines that long hours of prayer and heightened experiences elevate him above ordinary Christians who struggle on a supposedly lower spiritual plane.

Jesus, however, says that no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. We can know God only through Christ and in the way God has appointed. We come to the incarnate Christ who walked this earth and performed miracles, and we know him through his Word and the sacraments, which are the Word made visible.

God has revealed himself in a humble and ordinary way that may not appeal to our flesh. God incarnate walked among the cities of Galilee performing mighty works, yet their proud and spiritually minded inhabitants overlooked him, took offense at him, and remained indifferent. They did not want to know God as he revealed himself in his incarnate Son, the miracle worker and bearer of the kingdom.

By grace, however, God has given us eyes of faith to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the way to the Father. We therefore come to him not as those who are wise in their own eyes but as little children, wholly dependent upon grace. All praise and glory belong to God for the sovereign gift of faith by which we cling to Christ.