Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest

Christ the True Vine, 2004, icon commissioned by Orthodox Recovering Addicts, Moscow (link)

 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 defense of John the Baptist:   "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 to 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 all 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, it 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.  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 cites Theophylact's commentary, that God has hidden the mysteries from the wise of the world, not out of malice toward human beings, but rather because of their own unworthiness in trusting their fallen wisdom and judgment, rather than God.  Moreover, it is out of love that God withholds this revelation from those who would scorn it, so that they do not receive a greater condemnation.   To understand such mysteries, we have to know that they are not obscure intellectual concepts, but rather the presence of the Kingdom of God, which my study bible says cannot be defined.  One must accept this Kingdom in the heart in order to grasp the mystery.  This mystery of the Kingdom is revealed through the Son.

"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 comments that Jesus' yoke is submission to the Kingdom of God.  Generally speaking, yoke can be understood as a sign of hardship, burdens, and responsibilities (1 Kings 12:1-11, Jeremiah 27:1-11, Sirach 40:1).  But in Christ, the yoke is easy, as the power of God works in each person.  Moreover, it says, there is a reward to this which is infinitely greater than any effort which human beings put forth.  Gentle here in the Greek is somewhat akin to "meek," but it denotes a strength under control, or having the capacity for power but using it without undue harshness.  Lowly in heart denotes humility that comes from putting God first before self.

In today's reading, Jesus puts two things together that might not normally be seen to go together.  There is first of all knowledge and understanding of His disciples, who are simple people, and not the highly educated or those who form part of the formal religious establishment and its schools.  This is a gift of great wisdom and knowledge that has been given to His followers, whom He refers to as "babes," while the "wise and prudent" are those in exalted offices of authority and social status.  This power of knowledge and understanding is coupled with the authority of Christ the Son, to whom God has granted the authority to reveal God to those to whom He will.   So this wisdom and understanding, knowledge of great mysteries, has behind it the greatest power in the universe, that of God.   But Jesus qualifies the power of God, and His personal power, by teaching that He does not exercise it with harshness.  He rather encourages all those who labor and are heavy laden to come to Him.  In chapter 23, when Jesus criticizes the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, He says that 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" (23:4).  But about Himself He says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  Rather than being a harsh and punitive taskmaster, He offers rest to the same people about whom it was said earlier that they were "weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd" (9:36).  In today's reading, Christ champions those who do have faith, after He has harshly criticized the cities in which He is rejected, despite having done "great works" there of healing.  Those who are the "wise and prudent" have rejected His ministry, in which the "babes" have received wisdom through faith.  He speaks of the hidden power of Creator behind these mysteries, and His own connection to the Father through which all things have been given to Him, including the power of revelation and of the Kingdom hidden to those who cannot receive it.  But the powerful statements in today's reading remain His characterization of that supreme power and authority, as offering a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light, and rest to the heavy laden and those who labor.  It should be remembered, in this context, that the definitions of the Greek word for "evil" or "evil one" (as in the prayer given by Christ, in which we pray to God to "deliver us from evil" or from "the evil one" -- see 6:13), include a sense of toil and tedious hardship.  In this sense, we must also see Christ's characterization of His power as that which is contrasted with what is evil and seeks to lay heavy (and unjust) burdens upon human beings, a harsh power which imposes toil and unnecessary agony.   Moreover, this yoke is rewarding, and the labor for the kingdom a way of sharing in His ministry.  His exercise of His power and authority invites trust, and there we really get to the root of the message.  It all comes down to this question of trust, and where we will place our trust.  We may compare the "wisdom of this age" with the "wisdom among those who are mature" (1 Corinthians 2:6-8).  But Christ's ultimate qualifier of what He offers, in which we may put our trust, is Himself.  That is, the One who is gentle and lowly of heart, in whom we find rest for our souls.  It is He in whom we choose to rest (John 15:9).