Pentecost Five , 07/09/2017

Sermon on Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 , by Carl A. Voges

The Passage

“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’” “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’” “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” “Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds…”

“…At that time Jesus declared, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All 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. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’” [English Standard Version]

“For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” [Romans 7.22-23]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

The Pentecost season is a lengthy one, but its six months give the Lord’s people great exposure to his Life, deepening their understanding of that Life’s impact as well as how it makes its way through the life of this world. When we gather for those sacred exposures on Sundays, we preachers are tempted to get to the headlines of the world’s news programs and/or the expressions of its social media, but ordination has taught us to get behind such headlines and expressions to the people around us who are confused and lost, restless, harassed and helpless. We’re aware that such realities are the result of the unholy trio (sin, Satan, death) dominating the world’s life and stirring up as much chaos as they can.

Thankfully, we are not left to the destructive and deadly swings of those realities. In our exposures to the Lord’s Life, we see how that Life confronts such realities and frees the people trapped by them. Such in-depth seeing got underway two Sundays ago when Jesus began instructing his twelve disciples. In those instructions he leveled with his followers that the work of faithfully carrying and stubbornly reflecting his Life in this world is hard and difficult.

It is that way because the world’s life is caught up with its own attitudes and its own activities. The world also supports itself with the creation and maintenance of hundreds of its gods. Such attitude and activity enables things to get done in the world, but it also creates issues when these individual attitudes and activities start to clash with one another and the prospects for solutions look unattainable. It is this reality that makes the carrying and the reflecting of the Lord’s Life into the world difficult and hard.

In today’s Gospel Jesus makes it clear, though, that his Life does push into the world’s life and rescues the people hammered by it. As you have noticed, the two sections from this passage are separated and it helps to fill in the gaps.

As mentioned, last Sunday concluded the instructions that Jesus was giving to his disciples. He then went on to teach and preach in their cities. During this time John the Baptizer was put into prison. He heard of Jesus’ activity and sent his disciples to Jesus, asking if he is the One to come or if he and his followers should look for another. Jesus responded that John’s disciples are to report what they hear and see. The blind are receiving their sight and the lame are walking; lepers are being cleansed and the deaf hear; dead are being raised up and the poor have good news preached to them. It is important to notice what Jesus said at the end of the report, Blessed is the person who is not offended by him!

As the disciples go back to speak with John, Jesus said to the crowds, What did you go out into wilderness to look at? After offering possible reasons, Jesus asserted that John was the messenger, the preparer, for him. In describing John’s greatness, it is important to notice Jesus’ comment that the kingdom is coming violently into this world and that John is the Elijah who was to come.

Then we come into first section of today’s Gospel. Jesus is commenting how the people around him are group of complainers! The people to whom he is bringing his Life have all these expectations, but people like himself and John the Baptizer are not meeting those expectations! He cites two examples: We played a flute for you, and you did not dance! We sang a funeral song, and you did not mourn!

Jesus then observes how such complaining extends to the Baptizer as well as to himself.

John shows up as the preparer for the Messiah, watching carefully what he eats and drinks…and the people say he has a demon! Jesus appears as the Son of Man, the One who is the world’s Redeemer, the One who is indifferent to what he eats and drinks…and the people tell others to look at him, describing him as a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!

Jesus responds mysteriously to this complaining by stating that wisdom is justified by her deeds. Recall that, in the Old Testament, especially in Proverbs, wisdom is described as a being of the Lord God. Jesus’ point in citing this is to reveal that in the works of both the Baptizer and the Son of Man people can see the Lord God beginning to unpack the world’s salvation. The people in Jesus’ generation, however, do not see the works leading to that salvation and, further, are huge complainers about the way that salvation is being unpacked!

Then we come to the gap between these two sections. It is important to notice what emerges from this gap. Jesus expresses his anger at the cities that refuse to see the work he is doing and who refuse to repent of their self-asserting and self-centering ways. He chillingly concludes that the judgment landing on them will be overwhelming.

When we turn into the second section of this passage, Jesus reinforces what he has just expressed in a prayer to his Father as he thanks him for hiding “these things” from such people! What are “these things?” The realities cited earlier: blind people receiving their sight; lame people walking again; lepers being cleansed; deaf people hearing; dead people being raised; Good News being brought to poor individuals; people being blessed because they are not offended by Jesus!

Our Lord is thankful that the Father has hidden “these things” from the people who believe themselves to be wise and understanding. He is thankful that the Father is revealing them, instead, to little children (remember from last Sunday’s Gospel, “little children,” are not just young people, they are Jesus’ followers).

It is striking, too, that Jesus points to the Father as the Lord of heaven and earth. The Father’s Life, despite its hiddenness and the pretensions of the world’s gods, is the most dominant reality in this world. It has always been the Father’s intent to draw the world’s people, despite their self-assertion and rebellion, despite their self-centeredness and ignorance, back to his Life. In his prayer Jesus states that everything has been handed over to him by the Father (this is so the world’s rescue can be accomplished!). He also states that no one can know the Father except the Son and anyone to whom Jesus chooses to reveal the Father (this is why Jesus brings the Father’s life to the world through a ministry that concludes in his dying, rising and ascending!)

Jesus then startles us with both an invitation to his Life and his description of it! He invites those who are weary and heavily burdened to come to him so he can give them his rest, a rest that comes from being yoked to him. Most of us are not around animals anymore that are yoked (we’re mostly familiar with dogs and cats, animals for whom yoking does not come easily!). But we are aware of draft horses, such as Belgians or Clydesdales (nearly six feet high and weighing around two thousand pounds!). These huge horses are braced or harnessed together in pairs of two, four, six or eight. Such yoking joins them together, enabling them to work better with much more support and strength. If these horses are not yoked together, their work will not be efficient. They will go in different ways, their attitudes and their energies canceling one another out.

The people in this world who are weary and heavily burdened are that way because they insist on living for themselves, on being their own person! But, if they recognize how ground down they are, how their gods have used them so they can be thrown away, then the Lord God will begin to turn them into his Life. As he pulls them away from their selves and yokes them to himself, he will lift their burdens and power them with his energy! The key to such recognition, though, is whether people will be obedient to themselves or to the Lord God who desires to give them his Life. When we are harnessed to his Life, we will see the ease and the lightness of his Life.

Such a turning takes people who blindly thought that life was only what is given at birth…now they see Life given at Baptism! Such a turning takes people whose lame lives wobbled and lurched as they followed their desires and obsessions…now they are striding as Lord’s sons and daughters!

Such a turning takes people whose dirtied lives had separated them from others and forced them to live among their own kind…now they have been cleansed by the Lord God and can interact with all kinds of people! Such a turning takes people who used to hear only what they were saying…now they can hear the Lord when he speaks to them!

Such a turning takes people whose lives had shut down so much they were like dead…now they have been revived by the Lord God and have a Life in front of them that is filled with purpose for the present time and will find completion in eternity! Such a turning takes people who used to be non-responsive when the Lord God pushed into their lives…now they rush to him and kneel in his presence!

These turnings, occurring now, are hidden from those individuals who are completely wrapped up in their selves. However, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are choosing to reveal their rescue to the people who are wearied and heavily burdened by the demands and realities of living in this world. Through the works of both the Baptizer and the Son of Man, people can now see the Lord God unpacking the world’s salvation. Further, through the daily and weekly realities of the Lord’s Scriptures and Sacraments, he is always turning us from the life given us by the world at birth to the Life given us by the Lord at Baptism!

As we may make our through a lengthy Pentecost season, it is a privilege and a responsibility for the Lord’s people to faithfully carry and stubbornly reflect his Life to the people in this world who are helpless and harassed, restless, lost and confused! May the Lord’s Spirit continue to power us as his daughters and sons so that the difficult and hard work into which we have been baptized and ordained continues to get done in this generation!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts

and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord.

Pr. Carl A. Voges
Columbia, SC
E-Mail: carl.voges4@icloud.com

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