I. The word which our English version renders "I thank Thee" is in reality of more extended meaning. It means something of this kind, "I confess, I acknowledge, Thy great wisdom." There was something in the dispensation of God's providence, of which our Saviour speaks, which at once commended itself to His holy mind as wise and good; not merely something in which He saw the demonstration of God's power, which proved God's omnipotence, but rather that which equally proved His mercy, His goodness, His wisdom.
II. What does our Lord mean by wiseand prudent?These are words capable of a good sense. It is obvious that the text cannot mean that God has hidden the Gospel from all those who are endued with powerful minds, or who are learned in such things as pertain to this world. If it be said that the wisdom and prudence of this world can never reveal God to us, and can never be a substitute for that revelation which God has been pleased to make to us in Jesus Christ, this is indeed most true, and contains the meaning of the words of the text; for the just appreciation of the value of the Gospel of Jesus Christ requires something for which no talent, no learning, or wisdom or prudence, can be any substitute, any more than seeing can be hearing, or hearing can be smelling. And if the wise and the prudent very often miss the message of the Gospel, this is probably the point at which they go wrong; they imagine that they have in their own wisdom and prudence the guide to all they want to know; but it is not by his wisdom or his prudence that man holds communion with God; it is not by reasoning that he learns his true relation to God; for what is that true relation? It is that relation in which a man stands by sin,the relation of a lost sheep, wandering and straying, to a shepherd willing to lead it back again. Here, then, we see how it is that the Gospel, which the wise and prudent despise, may be accepted by babes that is, by the poorest, the weakest, the simplest, the most ignorant.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,2nd series, p. 98.
This text teaches two lessons
I. How the Lord judges results of His ministry which to our eyes appear strange. We are surprised to find that the very men who seem best fitted to understand the Lord remain in opposition to Him. How could the people understand the Lord? That was the business of the cultured, of the scribes and Pharisees. Further, who were better qualified to advance the work of the Lord than the scribes, the leaders of the people? The Lord is less surprised than we are at this issue of His work. He sees in it a Divine arrangement of His heavenly Father; He knows how faith arises in men; He knows that no man cometh unto the Father save through the Son, and that no man cometh to the Son save through the Father. Because He knows this, He sees in the fact that the truth of His salvation has been revealed to babes a sacred and Divine appointment, and He welcomes this appointment with thankfulness and praise. We feel that the words of the text are no mere resignation to a Divine appointment which He fails to understand. Through the meek resignation we catch a note of inward joy. St. Luke tells us that Jesus rejoiced in spirit when He spoke these words. It is hard for the wise man to attach himself closely to Christ. The scribes were prepared for a Messiah, but not for such a Messiah as this. It was not easy for them to accept a manifestation which was opposed to all their previous conceptions. The Lord had an easier task in dealing with the babes. He could be best understood by those who brought no preconceptions with them. His image was the first to be stamped upon their souls. Enlightened by His teaching, the witness of the babes was other and far nobler than that of cultured men and scholars.
II. The comprehension of this fact incites our Lord to a special kind of activity: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you." This is what the Lord says to the wise and prudent as well as to the babes. He does not address them as wise and prudent, but as weary ones, and the refreshment He offers depends on one condition only, we must take His yoke upon us. Who would refuse to take it, since He says, "I am meek and lowly in heart," and "My yoke is easy, and My burden is light"?
R. Rothe, Predigten,p. 161.
Reference: Matthew 11:25. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 31.Matthew 11:25; Matthew 11:26. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vii., No. 394.Matthew 11:25-30. J. J. S. Perowne, Expositor,1st series, vol. vii., pp. 215, 249, 348; Parker, Inner Life of Christ,vol. ii., p. 183; G. Macdonald, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxii., p. 136; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 87; J. J. S. Perowne, Expository Outlines of Sermons on the New Testament,p. 23.