Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
July 6, 2014
“Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will
give you rest.” These are beautiful
words. I say them at the beginning of
funeral services because they are comforting words, and they point to a part of
our faith that says God yearns for us to be comforted, draws us into rest when
we are weary from grief.
This is the God who cares – is interested in our lives and our
wholeness. This is the God that would
release us from all our burdens: Grief,
illness, addiction, fear, anxiety…all of us have felt weary at times, and we
can affirm that God is with us in that and offers us rest through tender love
and generous grace, as we see those in the life of Jesus. So these are, I believe, beautiful words that
can touch us personally.
They are also political words. When
we hear this passage out of its context, it may be helpful for us in difficult
times, but it is disconnected from at least a part of the author’s original
intent. These are very specific weary
people Jesus is talking about, with a very specific burden.
We have to remember who is listening as Jesus speaks these words – which
we know, because in verse one of this chapter, Matthew writes, “When Jesus had
finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and
proclaim his message in their cities.” And
then in verse seven Matthew writes, “Jesus began to speak to the crowds.” Jesus is speaking to crowds – to people in
cities. And he is not just speaking
words of comfort.
“To what shall I compare this generation?” While our passage ends in comforting words, it begins
with Jesus asking this question. It’s
our clue that there are two distinct groups of people in these crowds. Our lectionary skips a bunch of verses, I
assume to spare Susan from having to pronounce hard city names like
“Chorazin.” But we learn something very
important in these skipped verses…Jesus is upset with these cities.
“Woe to you!” He says. He condemns
them. Now, he condemns them as cities,
not as a bunch of individuals – much like we would condemn China for human
rights violations. He’s not upset with
every inhabitant of the city; these words of woe are for the people responsible
for the governance, the powerful ones – the city’s systems and laws are the
problem. That’s one group listening.
When Jesus is inviting the weary to come to him, it is a different
audience, and he offers them his yoke:
“Take my yoke upon you…for my yoke is easy,” he says. The “yoke” was commonly understood at that
time to be the Jewish laws of the Torah.
It did not necessarily have a negative connotation – the yoke in and of
itself: the law was good…given by God.
But when spoken of as a burden, the yoke – the law – was distorted. It meant oppression under the law.
When Jesus derides the cities, he is saying that though they claim to be
following the laws of God, the way
they are doing so has perpetuated oppression and suffering. Moreover, he tells them, when he came to
their cities and freed people from this oppression and suffering by healing,
restoring, and offering a way free of obligation to Rome, the powerful ones did
not accept him. Jesus is taking on the
current day practices of the religious authorities…and hitting them at the
heart of what they believe – hitting them at the heart of their way of life and
way of governance: their laws.
And in this passage, he takes on one law in particular: The Sabbath.
Now, we don’t think of the Sabbath as political, but for Jesus it most
certainly was.
Come to me….and I will give you rest.
“Rest” is not a minor concept in Jesus’ religion. It is core – it is core to the very
foundation of the universe. It is at the
heart of creation. It is a part of
God…rest is divine. Genesis 2:2: “And on the seventh day God finished the
work… and rested…” Rest is built into
the rhythm and fabric of creation. It
has a purpose: Creation and all its
creatures need Sabbath in order to be all that God intends us to be.
The commandment that gets the most ink of the 10 commandments is the 4th
– Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
The other commandments are captured in one verse and read like a
list. The Sabbath commandment goes on
for three long verses. These verses
spell out what the Sabbath means. It is
not about resting in the lay-on-the couch and watch TV sense.
“You shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or
female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.” Sabbath is a systemic concept…and the whole
point of Sabbath is rest for the ones who are burdened by the systems of
labor: Sons and daughters, slaves,
livestock, aliens. These are the ones
who are exploited and cannot themselves rest without being granted rest by
those in charge of them. And knowing
human nature, God grants them rest by
making it a law.
The law of Sabbath, from the moment of creation when God rested on the
seventh day, is about giving rest to the burdened – whether that is those who
toil in the fields, creation which suffers from overuse, or people who live in
long term poverty. Having one day a week
when everyone rests means EVERYONE rests.
The people in the fields can only rest if the owner of the fields
observes Sabbath. Just like the people
in the factory can only rest if the factory shuts down for a day.
Sabbath laws in the Old Testament also meant a Sabbath year when the land
was allowed to rest – it was to be left fallow.
“Do not overuse the land,” God says.
And then there was a Sabbath concept of Jubilee: Every 49 years all debts were to forgiven,
all fields returned to their original owners.
It was an antidote to long-term, generational poverty, and systems of
slavery. – of course, it was also a bit of an inconvenience to those to whom
others were indebted.
In other words, the practice of Sabbath is about as political as it gets,
because if you think about it, it is not a law meant to protect everyone – it’s
meant to protect some people from those in power. It is a law for the poor and vulnerable. But the religious authorities had twisted it
so much, that not only did it not protect the vulnerable, it had become a
burden on them when they could afford no more burdens.
The author of the gospel gives perfect examples of what Jesus meant when
he talked about rest for the weary – when he talked about his yoke - the law of
Sabbath. The next two stories - that come right after our verses – are
Sabbath stories.
In the first, the disciples are hungry.
Though it is illegal to gather any grain on the Sabbath, they began to
do so. The Pharisees were angry and
accused Jesus of violating the Sabbath laws.
But of course, being hungry is not a Sabbath experience. The day of the week was not the point – Jesus
gave Sabbath to those who needed it, whenever they needed it.
In the next story, he cured a man with a withered hand on the
Sabbath. It is not lawful to cure on the
Sabbath, the Pharisees told him. Jesus
disagrees. What good are Sabbath laws if
people have suffered without a rest for years.
To deny them rest, finally, in the name of God is a complete distortion
of the law.
I think in offering his words of comfort, Jesus is offering himself as the
walking Sabbath. As he walks throughout
the countryside, he heals, feeds, loves, releases people from pain and
suffering. He is the walking Sabbath for
those the law failed to protect. That is
Jesus’ yoke. And that is why it is light
and gives rest. He embraces the law,
fully. Sabbath is essential to God’s
kingdom. But his understanding of
Sabbath provides rest for those most burdened.
For the oppressed, ostracized, hungry.
The whole Jewish system of laws – of commandments given by God – are meant
to protect those God most favored…the same ones Jesus most favored: The vulnerable ones. If, in the practice of those laws, the
vulnerable are being hurt, then the law – the yoke – has become a burden, not a
gift from God.
We, of course, face this reality all the time. All of us grab on to the laws of our country
– to the constitution and the thousands and thousands of laws out there – and
try to wring out of them every advantage for ourselves that we can. My right to pursue happiness is twisted into
laws that protect my fortune against the needs of others. My right to make money is twisted into the
right to rig the system so that wealth can grow for some even when it comes at
the expense of others.
My right to freedom is twisted into foreign policy that allows us to kill
others in the name of our own freedom. Think about where we find ourselves now
in Iraq. We entered into a war in the
name of protecting our “freedom,” and not only did it kill many people, it has
now become a yoke so heavy we can’t get out of the cycle of violence
there. We feel obligated to use violence
to curb violence. No one is free in
that. We are slaves to the idea that
peace can be achieved through violence.
Peace and freedom are good, but our understanding of them has become a
burden to us and the world.
Our laws become supports for those who make profits their gods, and
require endless, cheap labor from people who are at their mercy. We call it “free markets” and don’t intervene
in the name of that beautiful concept of freedom, even when free markets means
anything but freedom for those at the bottom.
Even our understanding of Sabbath, which is a far cry from the Jewish
understanding, is a twisted picture of what religion is meant to be. Sabbath has become an optional goal for those
who can afford leisure. Which means if
the powerful opt out in the name of increased productivity, Sabbath is not an
option for anyone who works for them.
Jesus invites us to a different way…a way where the spirit of the law is
embodied in our actions and systems.
Maybe it’s inevitable that laws will always be turned into protections
for the powerful, even if those laws look good on the books. So, maybe Jesus invites us to become the living law…the law of God that finds fruition in a
relentless pursuit of justice and rest for the vulnerable.
What would it mean for us to take seriously the fourth commandment – for
us to become walking Sabbath? Who are
the ones who can’t find rest – who suffer under the weight of the wonderful laws
of the greatest country in the world? What does “freedom” really mean when
looked at through the lens of Jesus’ understanding of the law? Who needs to be freed, and from what?
I love the idea of Sabbath – I love the idea of finding harmony with a creation
that has the rhythm of work and rest built into it. A collective breath for all of creation once
a week. A massive restoration of the
land and air after seven years of production.
A cancellation of all debts once every generation. Think of the freedom that would give. Think of the hope that might offer. Think of the healing and health we might find. And think of the justice – justice for those
most in need of breaths, restoration, and relief of debt. That’s not too bad of a law. Amen.
