Jesus Hidden in Plain Sight: Matthew 11:20-30

I want to start by asking you to think about something personal. When have you felt that God let you down? When did you pray for something—maybe with all your heart—and it just didn't happen?

Take a second and hold that memory, that feeling, in your mind. That sense of disappointment... that question of 'God, where were you?'... is one of the most human experiences we have. And you're not alone in it. In fact, we see this same kind of tension—this gap between expectation and reality—play out in a surprising moment in the Gospels.

Let's look at Matthew, chapter 11, starting in verse 20. Jesus has been traveling through towns, teaching and performing incredible miracles—undeniable acts of God's power. But the response is not what we'd expect.

Matthew 11:20-25

²⁰ Then He began to reprimand the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. ²¹ “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that occurred in you had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ²² Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. ²³ And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades! For if the miracles that occurred in you had occurred in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. ²⁴ Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment, than for you.”

Now, one of the most common things I hear from people exploring faith is, 'I would believe in God for sure if the things that happened in the Bible still happened today.'

On the surface, that sounds reasonable. But I think if we look a little closer, we find a deeper human desire at work. The desire for a God who acts on our terms. A God who fits our definition of 'powerful' and 'obvious.'

This is the heart of what I call the With-Religion life. It’s the subtle belief that if we do the right things, say the right prayers, or have just enough faith, we get a predictable, controllable God who operates according to our formula.

But the life Jesus invites us into is the With-God life. It’s not about a formula to control God; it’s about a relationship with a God who, while knowable, is not tame.

I don’t know about you, but I am terrible at looking for things. My keys, my wallet... they can be sitting right on the counter in plain sight, but I won’t see them. I'm so convinced they must be somewhere else, so focused on where I expect them to be, that I'm blind to where they actually are.

The religious leaders in Jesus’s day had this exact problem. They were searching desperately for their Messiah. They had prophecies, rules, and a very specific picture of a king who would come with power and might to overthrow their enemies. They were looking so carefully for that Messiah that when a humble carpenter's son from Nazareth arrived and presented Himself, they missed Him. While it’s easy to get caught up in the “curse” language Jesus is using this is exactly what Jesus is saying in this passage. God has arrived and is making the world right and they are missing it. The very thing in which these people’s entire lives are centered around, waiting for God to free Israel and make the world right is happening right in front of them in glorious power, but they are blind to it. That is the curse, missing God acting right in front of them. Staying in the old life when God has opened up the new life all Israel has been awaiting.

Jesus was the keys on the counter. Right there, in plain sight.

They overlooked Him because His life and His message were too simple, too ordinary. He came to connect with us, not as a distant king, but as one of us. He lived a normal life so He could fully know our experience—our joy, our pain, our struggle. But that wasn't the picture of God they wanted, and if we are honest with ourselves, it's not the picture of God we want.

We want a God who uses overwhelming force, who crushes those we disagree with, and who fixes our problems instantly. We want a divine superhero. And let's be honest, this desire is never stronger than when we are confronted with the profound brokenness of our world. When we hear the news of senseless violence, when a child suffers, when injustice seems to win the day—our hearts cry out for that divine superhero. We want a God who will descend and end it all right now. And when He doesn't, that disappointment you felt earlier can curdle into doubt. But what we must realize is that these tragedies are not a sign of God's absence, but a horrific symptom of the evil He has promised to one day crush completely. The story isn't over yet.

So when God shows up as a humble servant... as a quiet whisper... in the face of a common, ordinary neighbor... we can't understand it. It seems too shameful, too simple, too normal, and at times of tragedy especially not enough to overcome the evilness in our world.

The challenge for us today is this: What if God hasn't failed to show up? What if He isn't distant? What if He has come so close, and made Himself so relatable, that we, like the leaders of old, are simply looking in the wrong place?

So, if the religious experts missed Him, who did see Him? The irony, which the book of Matthew shows us again and again, is that the people who recognized Jesus were the ones nobody expected.

Why them? It wasn’t that they lacked the same religious expectations as the leaders; they had them. But here was the crucial difference: when their expectations clashed with the undeniable power and life they saw in Jesus, they were willing to let their expectations go. They were the ones who could see the keys on the counter, because they stopped letting their idea of how things should be blind them to the reality of how God was. And this is the very dynamic Jesus celebrates in the next words He speaks.

Matthew 11:25-27

²⁵ At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to infants. ²⁶ Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in Your sight. ²⁷ All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son determines to reveal Him.

So what does Jesus mean when He praises God for having hidden these things? This isn’t about God making Himself a well-kept secret or turning salvation into a complex riddle for an exclusive few. The 'hiding' Jesus speaks of is the 'lost keys' kind of hiding. The keys aren't actually hidden—they’re sitting on the counter. We are the ones who can’t see them, blinded by our own expectations of where they should be.

In the same way, Jesus wasn’t concealed. He was right there, teaching in their synagogues and healing in their streets. He was hidden in plain sight. The issue wasn't His location; it was their perception. The truth was simply overlooked by the 'wise' who were too busy searching for the God they expected, to see the God who was right in front of them.

He isn't talking about age here; He's talking about a posture of the heart. The 'children' in this story are all those who have a low status in the world's eyes—the ones who know they don't have it all figured out.

The crucial point isn't that God's invitation was only for the outcasts and rebels. The invitation was for everyone. The difference was that the 'children' were the only ones with hearts open enough and hands empty enough to accept it. They weren't trying to protect a reputation or a rigid set of expectations, so they were free to see the God standing right in front of them because they were willing to leave their expectations and answer the call of the master in the following verse.

Matthew 11:28

²⁸ “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

We live in a world where everyone prides themselves on their “busyness”. However, the thing everyone seeks is rest. We all want a life where we are comfortable, whole, and free. And yet, we've been sold the great lie of our culture: that the path to rest is paved with more work, more hustle, more striving. But how can that possibly make sense? It's like trying to find stillness on a treadmill that only speeds up the faster you run. The work promises freedom, but it only leads to exhaustion.

The end of that road isn't rest; it's burnout. It's anxiety. It's the crushing weight of knowing you can never work long enough or hard enough to free yourself. True freedom and true rest are not things we can achieve—they are gifts we must receive. And they are found only when we stop searching long enough to see the keys lying right there in-front of us that lead to the door of rest — the person of Jesus.

Resting is not doing nothing; that is another common lie of culture. Resting is ceasing to work in your own strength in order to live in peace and comfort in God. The seventh day in the Genesis 1-2 creation story has no end. Day 7 where it says God rested from His work, is the only day that did not end with “and there was evening and there was morning.” Day seven was supposed to be the state in which all the universe existed, living and enjoying God’s good creation WITH-HIM.

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil the curses which followed broke this restful existence. The curse of struggle and pain are the visible representation of the day 7 life being corrupted. The Sabbath instituted in the Old Testament is a day that points to the fact that God is going to restore the restful existence of the Garden of Eden. If Jesus is the key to enter this ultimate Sabbath rest, what does it look like for us to enter it today in the middle of our busy, anxious lives?

Matthew 11:29-30

²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”

Jesus does not offer to remove our yoke, but to replace it with His. It’s important to note that this is not an animal yoke, which harnesses two animals together, but a human yoke, worn by a single person to distribute the weight of a load evenly across the shoulders. Jesus is our Master; we are to do His work. We are not equal partners with Him in this illustration. Rather, we are choosing to be His servants instead of serving our own interests and remaining slaves to the world’s way of life.

The paradox is that even though we are wearing a yoke, it brings rest rather than weariness. We are “working,” but the work of Master Jesus revives us. How can work revive us? Because it is custom-fit for us. We all search for our purpose, and Jesus has that purpose for us. When we work as His servants, we are living in our God-given purpose. This isn't a new idea; even in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had a purpose: to tend to the garden and all that dwelt within. That same principle of purposeful work applies to us.

So, what is the work we are to do as servants of Jesus? We are to learn from Him. This life committed to learning and living the With-God life is the very definition of discipleship. And what does this life look like? Jesus tells us He is “gentle and humble in heart,” which means we are to live a life of gentle humility. The work is always defined by the Master. Since we are learning from Him, this is how we should live because Jesus describes Himself as gentle and humble in heart.

What does living a life of gentle humility mean? If the yoke is defined by the Master, then we must look at the Master’s life. Jesus lived in gentle humility by never viewing Himself as better than anyone else. The With-Religion life, in contrast, constantly ranks people based on how strictly they follow religious rules.

The heart of the With-Religion life is comparison, which is why its yoke of performance always leads to exhaustion. For the world, comparison is about how busy you are, how much money you make, what job title you have, or how many friends you have. For Christians, it’s often about how many times a week you go to church, how much you pray and read your Bible, or how big your church is. We are not made better by following traditions or rules more perfectly than someone else. The only thing that defines followers of Jesus is that we are followers of Jesus—nothing more, nothing less.

If Jesus only welcomed people He deemed worthy, none of us would be here. Are you tired of being tired? Do you feel weary? Then you may still be living the With-Religion life. This way is dangerous because we can convince ourselves we are living for God when we are not. The difference is simple: the With-Religion life may look godly, but it is lived to please people. The With-God life is lived to please God alone. It is simple obedience to what God tells you to do, without comparing your work or judging the work of others.

I have learned that simple obedience a lot of the times does not look religious. It can look like not saying something which you know would hurt someone else. Simple obedience looks like listening in a conversation more than you talk. Simple obedience looks like doing your best to understand a perspective that you totally disagree with rather than just ignoring it and waiting to argue against a person's point. These acts of simple obedience are the things in life that aren't flashy or designed to get people to notice you. But they are the very way we fulfill our high calling as servants of Jesus: to be ministers of His reconciliation in a divided world.

When you compare yourself to others, you are trying to elevate yourself based on your actions. But your actions didn’t save you, so why would you let them define you now? The With-God life is freeing because you live to serve others, but you are not controlled by their opinions of you. The With-Religion life is focused on you; the With-God life is focused on God. Let's be clear: in the With-Religion life, the god is always you, no matter what name you put on it. And if you are your own god, then you must constantly prove you are better than everyone else, forcing you to live in constant comparison.

But when God is your God alone, and you are His servant, your humble status is already secure. You have nothing left to prove. This humility isn't a false victim mentality; it's the freedom of knowing we don't need a higher status to live for His higher purpose. We think what we want is a life with no yoke at all, but what our souls truly crave is the one yoke made perfectly for us. There is no yoke from the world that is made for you. Any yoke not from God is built to serve someone else’s agenda, and it will crush you under the weight of their wants and expectations, leaving you enslaved. God’s yoke, however, is custom-made for you. It empowers you to do the very work you were created for, by the Creator who loves you.