An Army of Infants

In the sermon text this morning, the chief priests and scribes are disgruntled because of the clamor of the children singing praise, but Jesus responds by quoting the eighth psalm, insisting that God likes it that way. Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, he has ordained praise. The interesting thing is that Jesus appears to be using the Septuagint’s translation of the Psalm because the Hebrew says that he has ordained strength in the mouths of babes and nursing infants. But the Greek word was also used in other contexts in the ancient world to refer to something terrible, something to dread, something to fear, a tyrant, an army, a host of warriors. And this helps make sense of the septuagint’s translation. The joy of the Lord is our strength, praise and worship is our warfare. In Psalm 149, the psalmist exhorts the people of God to have the praises of God in their throats and two edged swords in their hands. Isaiah’s prophecy of the coming servant of the Lord declares that his mouth will be as sharp as a sword. And of course the word of God, the writer of Hebrews says, is a powerful two-edged sword. And it is no accident that Jesus is pictured four times in the book of Revelation as having a sword coming out of his mouth. When we gather for worship we gather for war, we gather for battle, we gather to unsheathe our swords, to sing, to pray, to worship, to silence the enemy and the avenger. But of course the Psalm has taken this imagery even a step further, God only wants an army of children and infants. Unless you are converted and become little children, you may not be part of his army. Unless you become as one of these little ones, you will have no sword in your mouth. Why is it God only wants an army of children? What does that mean? It means that we are called here week after week as newborn babes hungry for the milk of the word, it means you come here as people who have been reborn, children again, nursing infants again. It means you have given everything to your faithful Father, and you know that you are completely helpless, completely dependent, utterly in his hands. And when we come like that, when we come hungry, when we come helpless, when we come looking for grace, God says, perfect, that’s my army, those are my dread warriors. And our enemies don’t even have a chance.