Are you weary?
Reflection on Matthew 11.16-19, 25-30.
When children play they are trying to make sense of the world and testing out their own increasing abilities. Which shapes fit in which holes, how high can I build, what does this feel like, who will play with me, do they like me and do I like them? The world of the individual child gradually expands and in the home, in the street and in school, children negotiate their place in the world.
Jesus had obviously watched children playing – and saw the ways that they do – and don’t – co-operate with each other. It’s great when children play together – but painful when they fall out. Jesus saw that they won’t always dance to the tunes that others play. But Jesus often pointed to children as an example for us to follow – not, I think, because of playground politics but because of their inherent openness to the world, their curiosity. As a counsellor, I’ve learnt that our curiosity can be our greatest gift to other people – showing open, nonjudgmental interest in the people we listen to. Wanting to learn about the world around us, enjoying it and giving thanks.
The alternative attitude is one of sharp judgmentalism that sees the worst in others, that will never be satisfied whatever others do; we notice here that John the Baptist and Jesus were both criticised. It’s a sobering reminder that discipleship following Jesus, can be difficult and may open us up to some of the same challenges that Jesus faced.
Despite his critics, Jesus turns to God in a prayer of thanksgiving. We know that sometimes when life is overwhelming we need to stop and take stock – as the Salvation Army used to sing, “Count your blessings…” A prayer of thanksgiving can be a wonderful way to change the mood, to give ourselves a fresh perspective.
Sometimes, the powerful, outspoken, intelligent and educated people in our world just get it wrong. I don’t think that is really a surprise! But in frustration with the people who really should know better, Jesus turns once again to the example of children and their curiosity and open minds. Prejudice and hatred, the impact of which we see in our world today, is learnt; we are not born prejudiced, even if we are born privileged. This is why children can sometimes surprise us with their insight – they don’t wear the blinkers that we wear or carry the scars that make us sore.
And so children would understand what others fail to see – that Jesus has a very special relationship with God. This is one of the Bible passages where Jesus dares to say something that, as C.S.Lewis reminds us, makes him sound either mad, bad – or truly who he says he is, the Son of God. “All things have been handed over to me by my Father…”
We have to take Jesus seriously because he makes such outrageous claims – or we reject him as blasphemous. You can see why he upset people. He claimed that he could introduce people to God – “no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
It is the strength of Jesus’s intimate relationship with God the Father that makes his invitation to you and to me so powerful and so welcome. “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” This is the invitation to discipleship – “learn from me”, Jesus says – but here it is not framed in terms of a pilgrimage where we follow, although “follow me” is the call to the disciple. Here, Jesus uses the image of the yoke – that carved wooden beam that helps to balance the load and can be used to help share the load, as two oxen are yoked together. For me, the power of Jesus’s invitation lies in the image of him coming alongside; he is not the cattle hand driving the oxen, cracking the whip as it were. He is one of the oxen, bearing the load.
Jesus comes alongside us. In his own words, he is “gentle and humble”; he is not demanding more, more, more – but inviting us to take sabbath rest, time for reflection and recuperation, building relationships with him, with the Father, with one another. Sidney Carter took a traditional tune called Simple Gifts and set it to words that compared Jesus’s life to a dance. The Lord of the dance invites us to join the dance with him. The invitation to follow Jesus – “learn from me” – is a wonderful invitation to leave behind the competitiveness of the playground, the point scoring of the work place, the pressures that we put upon one another, and to come alongside Jesus to find true meaning and purpose – an easy yoke and a joyful burden. May we be open, like children, to learn from Jesus.