July 9, 2023 Sermon

Sermon title:  "Take My Yoke upon You"

Scripture:  Matthew 11:16-19 and 25-30.

(Other lectionary suggestions include Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, and 58-67, Psalm 45:10-17, and Romans 7:15-25a.)

Matthew 11:16-19 and 25-30

16"But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, 17‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.' 18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon'; 19the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."

Jesus Thanks His Father

25At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27All 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. 28"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

          The first part of today's reading shows, I believe, Jesus' frustration with some of his listeners. He was comparing their fickleness to children who aren't satisfied with ANYTHING. That verse about playing the flute, but you didn't want to dance means this:  what do you want to do, kids?:  Do you want to play FUNERALS? (That's the wailing part, the mourning part) But you said, No, we don't want to do that. Okay, then let's play WEDDINGS and rejoice, but they said, No, we don't want to do that, either. What Jesus is getting at is that John the Baptist was thought to have a demon, because he lived the monastic life or the self-denial life. But here I am, says Jesus, eating and drinking, and you say I'm a glutton and a drunkard. What Jesus is saying is, Hey, People! You can't have it both ways! You rejected John because of his lifestyle (you say!), and now you reject me because of the way I live my life. You really can't have it both ways! You're like a bunch of kids who are NEVER satisfied!

          I'm glad that passage is in the Bible because it shows that Jesus had frustrations, too, just like all the rest of us. He may have been the Son of God, but as I've said many times before, the Church has always regarded him as fully man as well as fully God. And if he was fully man, he had to have some frustrations with some of his contemporaries. That part of today's reading shows some of those frustrations, in my humble opinion.

          Near the end of today's Scripture lesson, we get a favorite passage to many, including me.  "Come to me, all you that are weary.....and I will give you rest." What does he mean? In another context, he says to pick up your cross daily and follow me. But here he says, "my yoke is easy and my burden is light." What is going on?

          Remember that Jesus was born into a Judaism that was very legalistic. There were rules for this and rules for that. Jesus' conflicts with the Pharisees show us some of the tension between what the Pharisees believed and what Jesus believed. Jesus was saying, essentially, that you don't need to keep all those rules to please God! Look what I am offering, he is saying. I'll give you rest from all that stuff that the "religious police" are trying to put on you. They are putting a burden on you, but I won't. And learn from me because I am gentle and humble in heart. What Jesus is saying is that if you look at religion from my point of view, you will find rest for your souls. Doesn't that sound appealing? You don't have to do this, this, and this to "get right" with God. Jesus is THIS close to quoting the prophet Micah, who lived some 500-600 years before Jesus:  "What does the Lord require of you but that you do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?"

          The Scottish scholar William Barclay tells a story about Jesus's carpentry days. As we all know, Jesus's earthly father Joseph was a carpenter, and it is thought that Jesus worked as a carpenter before he went into the ministry. The story goes like this, and it may be true or it may not be:  when Jesus worked as a carpenter, he made all sorts of wooden things, including yokes that oxen wore! Supposedly people came to him from all over the country to get the best yokes for their animals, and Jesus the carpenter made the best! "In those days, as now," says Barclay, "shops had their signs above the door; and it has been suggested that the sign above the door of the carpenter's shop in Nazareth may well have been:  'My yokes fit well.' It may well be that Jesus is here using a picture from the carpenter's shop in Nazareth where he had worked...." before he went into the ministry.

          Again, this is a story that might be true or it might not. But Jesus's point is that what he is offering "is not a burden to cause you pain; your task is made to measure to fit you." In other words, Jesus was saying that "Whatever God sends us is made to fit our needs and our abilities exactly."

          And we are told that the burden is light. How can that be? I remember when I first became aware of Father Flanagan's home for boys in Nebraska, I saw a little drawing on the envelope, and one kid is carrying another. The caption reads - and I'll bet you remember this! - "He ain't heavy, Father. He's my brother." The point is, the burden of love is no burden at all. William Barclay quotes an old Rabbi, who understood the point:  "My burden is become my song", said the Rabbi. No, the burden isn't easy to carry, but, says Barclay, "it is laid on us in love; it is meant to be carried in love; and love makes even the heaviest burden light. When we remember the love of God, when we know that our burden is to love God and to love one another, then the burden becomes a song." And Barclay concludes by saying, "The burden which is given in love and carried in love is always light."

          I haven't addressed yet what Jesus says today about his Heavenly Father hiding things from the wise and intelligent while revealing them to infants. First of all, Jesus isn't ANTI-intellectual. He realizes that the Most Important Commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength. So, he is NOT putting down serious thought or education. What he IS against, however, is any elitism in the faith, any "I'm cooler than you are" in the faith. Jesus regarded the Pharisees as elitists and also the "religious police". In Matthew 23:4, he says, speaking of the scribes and Pharisees, "They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others."

          For Jesus, religion should be a joyful experience, not a drudgery of keeping a bunch of rules. I don't know why it is, but sometimes we religious people just can't seem to allow those we see as "beneath" us to enjoy life! What do you think of when you think of the Puritans in this country? Does anyone ever think of them with smiles on their faces? No! And how did they dress? BLACK clothes is what I see in MY mind! What I think happened to the Pharisees of Jesus's time and also to the Christian Puritans in colonial times in this country is a conviction that since life is serious, WE have to be serious. Since life is serious, we can never laugh! Now where does it say THAT in the Bible? By all accounts, John the Baptist was a pretty serious guy, and maybe even severe. But not Jesus! He seemed to enjoy life, enjoyed parties, and even turned water into wine on one occasion! But both he and John were criticized for how they embraced life, if we believe today's Scripture lesson. And Jesus wasn't having any of it. God loves all his people, Jesus was saying, and the enjoyable parties and celebrations he attended were symbolic of the Heavenly Banquet that we would all attend someday.

          And you don't have to be a Torah scholar to understand God's love! Kids get it, and Jesus even recognized that childlike faith when he said that unless you become like a little child, you'll never enter the kingdom of God.

          Jesus really didn't like the sin of pride, and when you think you're better than someone else, you have fallen into that category. That's why he had had it with the scribes and Pharisees. They were so proud of how well they kept the rules that they lost all feelings of compassion for others. The ancient Greeks had a saying:  Pride goeth before a fall. Jesus had a saying, too. He said unless your understanding of faith exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you're in trouble! I realize that's not an exact quote, but I think you get the idea.

          I mentioned the prophet Micah earlier. I'll quote him again. He said, "A humble and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

          What Jesus was saying to all who would listen was, "Take MY yoke upon you, and learn from me." He might have added, as he says in the Gospel of John, "I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly." Life is more than being sure we keep a bunch of rules. Life is for LIVING. Amen.

Pastor Skip