Sixth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 14]
ZECHARIAH 9:9-12; PSALM 145:8-14; ROMANS 7:15-25A; MATTHEW 11:16-19, 25-30
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me
Jesus most certainly sounds frustrated today! I think some of us can relate—sometimes it is hard for some of us to figure out what is expected from others. It sounds almost like Jesus can’t figure out what everyone is expecting of him.
‘Do you want me to be a holy man?’ ‘Well,’ Jesus says, “John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’.” ‘Would you rather, then, that I was out befriending the lost and the lonely?’ ‘Well,’ Jesus says, the “Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” We can imagine Jesus saying, ‘well, I guess I can’t win; I can’t be a prophet in wilderness, or the messiah in the city.”
This isn’t what Jesus says though, which is our first inkling that this isn’t about, or just about, Jesus feeling frustrated about unclear expectations. Instead, what Jesus says in response to these accusations, is that “wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
I will come back to this notion of wisdom in a moment; but there’s some other details that are worth mentioning—and tell us that there is far more at stake here than misunderstood expectations. On the one hand, there is a kind of faithfulness in the crowd saying that John has a demon, a faithfulness in following Moses. Moses says, ‘beware of false prophets—because false prophets will lead you away from God.’ And the stakes are high—far higher than in our own time, in the tinderbox of social unrest of Jesus’s time, and the time when the Gospels were written. Following the wrong leader could lead you down all sorts of false roads. And even if the stakes were higher then—we too should beware of false prophets, prophets of greed, prophets of self-interest, prophets of hate.
It’s the other hand, though, that is most sobering: the accusation not that Jesus is making the wrong friends, but the accusation that Jesus himself is “a glutton and a drunkard.” Because this is an echo here from Deuteronomy. Because there, in Deuteronomy, we find a harsh commandment about rebellious sons: a rebellious son is to be taken to the elders of the town, where parents would say: “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” And what happens to this rebellious son, labelled a glutton and a drunkard, is that he is to be stoned to death by the men of the town as a way to “purge the evil from your midst.”
It seems that the accusation made against Jesus, that he is a drunkard and a glutton, and that he hangs out with such folk—is far more than an annoyance. It carries the threat of public execution. And so even over the openness of Jesus to the lost and the lonesome, stands the shadow of the cross.
Jesus sees this, though, as the way of wisdom, a wisdom that will be vindicated. This is not, though, the the wisdom and intelligence of of the world, the wisdom and intelligence of power and violence, the wisdom and intelligence that is “employed to sustain our illusions of superiority,” as Stanley Hauerwas puts it. Jesus will not go on to praise the wisdom and intelligence of the strong and the wealthy. Jesus goes on the praise, rather, what is revealed to children.
As someone who is highly invested in gaining better insight and understanding of the ways of God and the ways of the world, this can feel a bit of a challenge! But what’s at stake here is not insight and understanding, even the most arcane and obscure corners of human knowledge; please, let us continue to investigate cures for cancer, humane economies, and peaceable solutions to violent conflicts— the sorts of knowledge that takes the utmost effort of human reasoning. These would certainly, I hope, be included in what Jesus would call wisdom vindicated by wisdom’s deeds.
What Jesus is saying, rather, is that God will reveal what God will to anyone God chooses. What Jesus says, when he prays to the Father, is: “you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants,” and that this is a matter of God’s “gracious will.” And that “no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
That God will reveal the ways of God, to whom God chooses to reveal the ways of God, so don’t count out the children—or the lost and the lonesome for that matter—because this isn’t a matter of the power of reasoning, or the reasoning of power, or the revelation of the ways of violence, strength, or wealth. And children make the best example of the ways of God’s revelation, because children are the most vulnerable of all—and the way of vulnerability to worldly power and violence, and of stubborn self-reliance, is the way of the cross.
In a way, the revelation of the ways of God is not all that mysterious though. Because when Jesus says “no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him,” it is the Son saying this. There isn’t any great need for contemplative ecstasy; there isn’t any great need for the depths of prayer, even, though I would commend both to you. What you need, simply, are ears to hear the words of Jesus in the Gospel—words you have already heard.
The revelation of the Father is in the words of the Son; the revelation of God is in the words of Jesus. And in the words of Jesus, words you have already heard, you are already being enfolded into the death of Jesus, and into the life of God. And what is it that Jesus, Son of God, the revelation of the Father, has to say: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
In this, and in the many things we hear in the Gospel, is the revelation of the grace of God, that is on the one hand a profound mystery of God, and on the other hand revealed to you in plain language: “my yoke is easy,” says Jesus of life in God, “and my burden is light.”
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.
As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.