Seeds for 08/18/2023 - Matthew 11:27-30

Scripture: “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.”

Observation: In the first paragraph, knowledge of the Father and the Son are restricted to one another… with the caveat that Jesus chooses to reveal the Father.

What’s going on here? Here are a couple of options, based on observation of the text, not extra speculation. (Warning: Bible nerd rabbit hole for the next three paragraphs!)

First, it could be that the Son just happens to reveal the Father widely. Matthew, the other Gospels, and the New Testament generally are shot through with references to Jesus revealing the Father. Maybe this is yet another text emphasizing that Jesus is the fullness of the revelation of God and the One through whom God is made known to all humankind.

Second, it could refer to the present moment when Jesus speaks it—that is, prior to Jesus’ death and resurrection. In that case, Jesus has revealed more of the Father to His closer disciples than to the crowds at this point. Matthew (with Mark and Luke) is noteworthy for the “messianic secret,” Jesus’ frequent instruction to recipients of His healings or other miracles not to tell anyone about Him. People seldom if ever obey, but it’s a distinctive feature of the narrative.

In the end, perhaps it’s both—Jesus shows more to the disciples early in His ministry, but post-Resurrection, He reveals the Father far and wide and tells us to do the same. Now we read the Gospels and recognize that revelation was there all along.

Next, Jesus seems to be speaking in riddles once again. But He’s again portraying the Kingdom of God as a place where the high and mighty are second fiddle to the lowly and weak—not merely in a physical sense of course, but socially and religiously. He’s inviting the worn out and burned out. Those at the end of their rope. Again we see the upside-down, inside-out nature of the kingdom. Those with the least to offer from a worldly perspective are urged to share the yoke of Jesus.

The truth is that we’re all in need of the rest for our souls that Jesus makes available. Do we realize it? Do we know that we’re pushing a burdensome religious boulder uphill, or are we under the illusion that we’ve got things under control? A yoke was and is a physical apparatus used to allow a team of oxen to share a workload. It was also a euphemism for a rabbi’s teaching. Jesus’ yoke is “easy and burden is light” for at least two reasons.

First, His teaching is life-giving rather than life-crushing. Even while demanding, Jesus’ teaching leads us to become more deeply connected to ourselves because we’re more deeply connected to Him. Second, His yoke is easy because we’re not handed a set of rules to keep, but a relationship to share. Christian behavior involves obedience of course, but it flows from relationship—trust, love, and loyalty—not fear and legalism.

So, who in their right mind would prefer to shoulder a religious burden alone when we could have the Son of God pulling alongside us?

Application:

• When has a hard task become easier by leaning on Jesus?

• When has a routine task become harder due to ignoring Jesus?

• What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?

Prayer: Lord, give me the grace I need to say yes to you, that I may learn from you and find the soul-deep rest you promise. Amen.

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“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)

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