The five verses that form Sunday’s gospel conclude Matthew 11, a chapter in which Jesus responds to a question that John the Baptist asks as the chapter begins. John sends some of his disciples to Jesus, asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we wait for another?”
In response Jesus tells the messengers to report what they see and hear. He is referring to the healing and freeing actions he has done for people. The blind receive their sight and the lame walk; lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the good news preached to them.
Many people of his time see and hear Jesus’ actions without finding in them God’s vision of wholeness for humankind and social transformation for people who are poor. For these witnesses, who Jesus is remains hidden.
Jesus’ deeds echo the prophet Isaiah’s promise to the exiled Israelites that they will see the glory of their God (Isaiah 35.5-6):
God will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind
shall be opened, the ears
of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap
like a deer, and the tongue
of the speechless sing for joy.
His deeds identify Jesus as Isaiah’s promised messiah and connect him with Israel’s history. The work Jesus begins and sends his disciples to imitate is a mission that we continue—healing human ills and brokenness, lifting up the poor. It calls for living the beatitudes.
- In whom do you see and hear Jesus’ healing mission continuing?
- How do you participate in bringing about God’s vision for the human race?
The Christology in Matthew 11 identifies Jesus both as the one anointed to bring good news to the broken and the poor, and as Wisdom, the one who was with God from the beginning in all things, the people-loving Spirit who found in Israel a people among whom to live. In Sunday’s gospel Jesus speaks as Wisdom’s prophet.
The wisdom writings in the Old Testament include Proverbs, Sirach, Ecclesiastes, and Wisdom. For Israel, wisdom begins in awe at God’s gracious work in creation and envisions human harmony shaped out of wise, God-centered, Spirit-animated relationships among people.
Proverbs describes wisdom as a woman who is with God from the beginning—helping put the heavens in place and marking out the limits of the sea. Lady Wisdom is God’s delight. She delights in the human race and seeks to instruct them as her children. All creation is Wisdom’s house. She sets her table of bread and wine for the simple and foolish, inviting them to the way of insight (9.1-5).
Sunday’s gospel draws on the intimate relationship between the Creator and Wisdom to describe the relationship between Father and Son. No one knows the Father but the Son. Like Wisdom the Son seeks to reveal God and the goodness of creation to all—the way of insight.
Just as Wisdom invites the simple and those without sense to her table, Jesus invites the weary and burdened to come to him. As Wisdom’s messenger, Jesus welcomes the least to his table and his community. Jesus invites us all into his revelation of who God is.
Jesus is Wisdom’s prophet, who welcomes and refreshes the weary, burdened, and lowly. He incarnates and brings among the people God’s gracious goodness, God’s dream of shalom for humankind.
- How have you experienced God’s awe-inspiring, gracious goodness in creation this summer? In people?
- What does the wisdom image add to who Jesus is?
- How do we set a table in our midst for the weary and burdened?
Jesus entices the weary to come to him because his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. A yoke is a collar used to harness animals for plowing or pulling. In that sense, a yoke symbolizes submission. But Jesus’ yoke lightens loads and gives peace. This is the sense in which many rabbis understood Torah or the law of God. It is a yoke that puts human relationships in right order and brings peace.
For Jews, Torah holds the way to find and worship God and to do right. Torah is the name for the first five books of the Bible, which include the ten commandments. Torah is about more than the 613 laws it contains. Torah is a sweet yoke.
Every autumn Jews celebrate the feast of Simchat Torah (Sim-kat), the day they finish reading the Torah in the synagogue services and begin over again with Genesis 1. The Torah is divided into sections to read each Sabbath. It takes exactly one year to read the whole Torah.
On the eve of Simchat Torah all the Torah scrolls are taken from the ark and paraded around the synagogue. Children follow carrying miniature Torah scrolls and colorful banners and flags. People blow kisses to the Torah or touch it reverently when it passes by. People sing and dance with the Torah and each other.
Because Simchat Torah comes in the fall, some synagogues begin their religious education classes then. The rabbi and their teachers bless the children and give them a gift of a prayer book or bible. It is also traditional to give the children a sweet treat, so learning may be sweet.
Like Wisdom, Torah makes life sweet and harmonious. Like Wisdom and Torah, Jesus lightens, refreshes, and restores our spirits.
The rest that Wisdom, Torah, and Jesus offer has its origins in Sabbath, the seventh day on which God rests and enjoys all that has come to be in the six days of creation.
Sabbath rest is a pause to appreciate God’s gracious goodness in all that is. Rest acknowledges our need for restorative sleep and rejuvenating experiences. Rest is willingness to relax in the mystery of God as a swimmer floats in the bouyancy of water.
Rest is stopping to let indescribable beauty soak in. Rest frees imagination to sight heaven’s edge on the horizon. Rest is existing in right relationship with all that is, acknowledging ourselves and all that is as gift, welcoming and blessing even the least among us.
- Where do you find rest?
- How do you keep sabbath as a right relationship to God? As a right relationship to all God’s creatures?