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At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you 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."
- Matthew 11:25-30
In yesterday's reading, Jesus continued His chastising of the crowds regarding John the Baptist. This is after two of John's disciples came to Jesus, asking, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?" He then answered, "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." In yesterday's reading, Jesus said, "But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying: 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; We mourned for you, and you did not lament.'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, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom is justified by her children." Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, i will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you."
At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes." My study bible points out that, in this prayer of Jesus, it is the Father alone who is the source of knowledge. It tells us that the Father alone opens the hearts of men to receive knowledge, and that He "communicates in a hidden way to responsive hearts. The paradox: the veiled reality of the Kingdom which Jesus reveals is seen by babes, simple fishermen, and sinners, not the wise and prudent, the Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes."
"Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." My study bible says here: "Another clear statement about the deity of Christ, Son of the Father, who knows the Father and reveals Him. The Son reveals only as much as we have the capacity to receive."
"Come to Me, all you 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." My study bible explains: "Jesus' yoke is submission to the Kingdom of God. A yoke may be the symbol of hardship, burdens and responsibilities (1 Kings 12:1-11; Jer. 27:8-28:2; Sir. 40:1). Although it may feel heavy due to our sins (Ps. 38:4), Christ's yoke is easy. In Him the soul is refreshed and sees that the Lord is gracious (Ps. 34:9; Is. 55:2; Jer. 31:25). A sign of Jesus' lordship is His meekness -- He is gentle and lowly. King David emphasized that the Lord would teach His ways to the meek (Ps. 25:9). Meekness is the mother of love, the foundation of discernment and the forerunner of all humility. Jesus finds rest in the hearts of the meek, while the turbulent spirit is home to the devil."
Jesus chastises elsewhere the leadership in the temple regarding their hypocrisy, "for they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers" (Matthew 23:4). In this sense, we get a vivid understanding of His familiarity with the subject, and His objection to placing burdens on the faithful which are too hard to bear. If we take the whole of this Gospel together, then, we get the contrast between Jesus' burden, and the burden imposed through certain legalistic (and hypocritical) practices. In some sense, this is the core of our faith, because Christ's teaching here really has everything to do with love. He does not teach His disciples that they will Lord it over others, but rather that they must be servants of all -- again, a teaching about love, and about "meekness." In this context, the truth of the Father is revealed to babes, and hidden from the "wise and prudent." What we receive from the Jesus who has just railed against the crowd for its attitude of criticism to both John the Baptist and Himself is the truth of the essence of the character of God, and that is love. He's not looking for the hard-hearted to bear His truths into the world. He's looking for those who are like Him, those who know they have need of Him, those who desire what He offers. Revelation has been given to John the Baptist, who is now locked up in prison, a man of extreme asceticism, who lived only for God, who seized the Kingdom with a kind of violence akin to extraordinary passion. Revelation has come to "babes," those lost, weary and scattered sheep who know that Christ offers what they desperately need. It is these to whom He calls to take His yoke and to bear His burden in this passage, those to whom the Apostles have just been sent out on their first mission. The true essence of Christ is His love, which we encounter in relation to Him, in prayer, a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light precisely because He is gentle and lowly in heart. This is the quality of our encounter with love, the quality for which people take up their own crosses, face every danger, and find worthy so much sacrifice. It is love that truly motivates when nothing else will, no material sense of power, no ruler who "lords it over" others, but rather the One who saves, who comes into the world to rescue us from such a worldly and oppressive notion of power. Let us remember He will call us friends, and lay His life down for us. But first let us remember His love most of all, in which we find His promise of rest for our souls.
