Jesus offers us rest – through transformation. Rest from the swirling chaos, confusion, and dissatisfaction with a simple idea: change it.
changing chaos into good work
Proper 9A | Matthew 11:16-30
“But to what will I compare this generation?”
Matthew 11:16
Oh, with an opening line like that, you know its going to be good!
Problem 1
“It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.””
Jesus isn’t being venomous in his description of the crowds. He’s getting them to examine how they treat each other; what they expect from one another.
It could just as easily have been
I skinned my knee and you didn’t offer me a band-aid.
I made this dinner and you didn’t even eat it before it got cold.
We tried so hard and you didn’t even notice.
We all recognize this kind of thinking, don’t we? It is called passive aggressive.
You didn’t even wish me happy birthday.
This kind of thinking is easy to get trapped in. But it’s also incredibly judgmental. It requires that others become mind readers, but not us. They have to know (without thinking) what’s going on with me, and I’ll feel comfortable judging them. But I don’t have to know what’s going on with them. Their health is irrelevant to me.
Problem 2
Jesus brings up how they chastised John the Baptist for not eating or drinking. Then they chastised Jesus for eating and drinking too much and with the wrong crowd!
This is what David Lose calls “the Goldilocks syndrome—never being satisfied.” The soup is always too hot or too cold. But the point of the matter is that people are judging these two prophetic witnesses for not being perfect. In other words: identical to them.
In short order, Jesus has named two really common traits we see in ministry, passive aggressiveness and perpetual dissatisfaction, which have a common factor: judging others.
Problem 3
The lectionary skips over a section I think we need to hear. Because it raises a third problem related to judging others.
Jesus condemns these three cities, not to judge them, but because they don’t respond to God’s call to them. They didn’t repent. They didn’t acknowledge their mistakes and seek forgiveness. No feeling bad about the evils they protect and the destruction they tolerate.
Present in all three problems is a lack of self-reflection—they don’t even know what they’re doing wrong because they aren’t taking the time to see themselves through the eyes of God.
The Prayer
After these harsh words, Jesus turns and praises God. It’s a strange prayer, isn’t it? I’m glad you gave understanding to kids and not adults is kind of a weird thing to say in this context.
But these were also adults who are “like children sitting in the market-places”. And it seems that the wisdom Jesus is exploring is not truly a judgment on the people. It seems almost like an acknowledgment of their half-understanding. How they can observe the behavior of others, but not themselves.
Perhaps as even as people in need of repentance. But they can’t see it. If only they could see it.
They can’t see it because they think understanding comes from intelligence, superiority, greatness, power. The people can’t see it because they are looking in the wrong place for the wrong thing. Don’t look at the wisest academic, but the humblest child.
It’s like the chalice scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Of course, Jesus’s real chalice wouldn’t be the most ornate—it would be simple clay.
The problem isn’t that other people are judgey. The problem is our expectations. Of each other and our world. We look for God in the wrong places, wisdom from fools, and love, compassion, and generosity from those who would steal from us.
Because we can’t see how clearly we’ve bought into the wrong ideals.
The Rest
What perfect timing, then, for Jesus’s words of comfort: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
These burdens are heavy. Burdens of judgement and confusion. Of always thinking the worst about other people; assuming they are all up to no good!
When I saw that St. Louis couple waving guns at protestors in front of their house, I thought “Man, those are some heavy burdens you’re carrying. To be that scared. That angry. That willing to kill.”
When Jesus offers rest, he’s not offering a full bodily removal from all anxiety. This isn’t some spa vacation. Nor will he remove miscommunication, racism, bigotry, physical and spiritual pain…that’s not what he’s offering here.
He’s offering rest from that labor. That heavy burden of fear and hatred. To get off of that hamster wheel of slavish solo anxiety. Jesus is offering a different sort of rest than the kind we’re looking for in the wrong place.
Remember the root of discipleship is sacrifice.
Back at the end of chapter 10, when Jesus said he came to divide—to bring clarity between good and evil, the way of God and the way of chaos. Take up your cross. “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
Jesus is speaking to a way of life that is different than what we’ve been trained to do. And we’ve been trained to look for it in the wrong places, valuing the wrong things.
To follow Jesus means giving up some of that stuff we hold onto. Stuff that doesn’t actually lead to life. Like certainty. Or prestige. Money. Influence. Power. Respect. Fame. Being cared about. Missed. We don’t want to give that one up do we? But that’s our attachment to the things the world values. And our attachment to judging others.
Sharing the yoke
Jesus turns this all on its head, inviting us to share his yoke—like oxen pulling a cart. It doesn’t feel like rest, does it? It doesn’t feel like what we expect rest to feel like. We expect rest to be on a couch or a bed or a hammock. Not the field. Working.
But when we’re so used to going it alone, carrying these burdens of fear and hatred and animosity, walking next to Jesus is…restful. Because there’s no room for your baggage, not with this yoke on our shoulders. We’ll have to put that down. Leave it there.
This yoke is lighter than our baggage and there are two of us. So there’s company.
This is what Jesus dreams for the disciples. And for the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. What he dreams for us. That we give up these insecurities and judgments—these ways we’ve been taught. So we can take up the work Jesus has for us.
To be people of love—learning the way of love, sharing in the way of love, embracing all that is the way of love.
This is his hope. This is what he’s offering. Relief from these burdens and work that is good.