If we only ever see bible readings printed out on the notice sheet or cut up into chunks in specially produced books and never look them up in a bible itself we miss so much. When the particular passage selected for a day is taken on its own we don’t see what comes before it or after it or even, as with today, in the middle of it; we don’t see the bits that have been missed out (Matt 11:16-19, 25-end). We left Jesus last week at the end of Chapter 10 of Matthew’s gospel and this week we have parachuted into chapter 11 missing out the first 15 verses. So it is not clear why Jesus is asking ‘to what he will compare this generation’ and we don’t notice that 5 verses have been cut from the middle of the reading. So, to set the scene and fill in the missing bits.

After Jesus has been instructing his disciples and sent them off on a mission, he has himself gone off teaching in the cities. Meanwhile John the Baptist is languishing in prison, having annoyed King Herod by telling him off for having an affair with his brother’s wife. In his prison cell, John the Baptist realises that he is not likely to come out of this alive and has plenty of time to think. In the doom and the gloom of death row he goes through a bit of self doubt. Has he backed the right horse? Is Jesus ‘the one’ or has he made a horrible mistake? So he sends messengers to ask Jesus straight out: is it you or are we to expect someone else? Am I about to die with my eyes having seen salvation or am I about to be executed mistaken?

Jesus replies that they should tell him that the blind see, the lame walk, the poor have good news brought to them - classic tags of the Messiah. He gives words to comfort John, to assure him that something great is indeed happening. He then turns on his audience.

He asks them what they were looking for when they went out to see John the Baptist? Crowds had after all flocked to him. The implication of this and what follows is that their response has been rather apathetic to say the least. And then this is where our reading today clicks in. He asks, ‘to what shall I compare this generation’? What are this apathetic and indifferent lot like? The answer he gives is taken from the children’s playground; hardly flattering! They are like children sulking and refusing to join in a game. They think they are above this, perhaps too grown up for games, too important to play. ‘We don’t have fun because we are serious.’ ‘We are holy so we have to be solemn’ - no one ever said that! The implication is that they should have joined in and they are missing out by being sulky and refusing, just like children in a bad mood. For all their sophistication they are behaving like children, squabbling and moody!

Then in between the two phrases “wisdom is vindicated by her deeds” and “I thank you Father...” there is a chunk cut out from our reading. In these 5 verses, Jesus reproaches the cities in which he has done marvellous things for their lack of response. He gives them a right ear bashing. He says they are worse than the worst degenerate places of the Old Testament - like Sodom (that’s a place, not a reaction) and other Old Testament places that would have been very familiar to his audience. This is not Jesus gentle, meek and mild. This is Jesus with attitude. And then our gospel reading today picked it up again with Jesus talking about things being hidden from the wise, made known to infants and yokes being easy to carry. We need to look at this a bit more carefully.

Wisdom is hidden from the so called ‘wise’ because they are closed to learning. When we see this passage in the whole of the chapter it becomes clearer that these are those who regard themselves as being an elite; know-it-alls who have nothing to learn, certainly not from this young, travelling rabbi. They are filled up with so much that they are closed to seeing things from a fresh angle, the fresh angle which children come at things from. Children have not learned to see things the ‘right’ way, so they are not boxed in. ‘Right’ here means in a customary way, one that follows certain learned assumptions. The children then are those who are in some ways the beginners, but in another way are the ones who can see because they are not overloaded with training.

Our brains tend to work in a certain way. We assimilate everything we see in line with what we know already. We have no other way of dealing with new information. Children can be more open to new things because they are not set in their ways. They can be able to see beyond the surprise of the unexpected to decide whether it adds up or not and not just whether it is different. Jesus challenged expectations and upset more than just the money changers’ tables and so he presented a shock to the established way of seeing things, and like so many before him he says that the established ways have become skewed and need to have the balance restored.

To be like a child means being open to see, to be unencumbered by so much that we have come to treasure, but which can stop us from seeing. It means being open to see the Spirit of God in ways that surprise us. The test comes, as Jesus puts it, when we see wisdom being vindicated by her deeds rather than reacting against seeing him keeping what looked like the wrong company, wrong to their expectations that is - hence the reference to accusations of him being a drunkard and a friend of sinners. Holy people were not supposed to keep certain company and for Jesus to even give some of these characters the time of day was a shock. That is less pronounced for us today, but there are always equivalents in every society because they are the things we associate with holiness and then find that holiness can be encountered in their opposite!

This chapter begins with Jesus teaching and John the Baptist languishing in prison. It begins with Jesus issuing a tirade against those who have been too closed up to follow him. The point is that we are to follow him like a child, to be prepared to be surprised and freshened by being liberated from expectations that lock us in.

This is the yoke that is easy. A yoke was something used to control working animals on a farm. It was used to control prisoners of war. It is a metaphor of submission, of toil and obedience. Hardly a total free for all. Following Jesus contains its demands and they are not always easy. Sometimes they are very painful and difficult to put into practice. Jesus tells his followers to take up their cross and follow him. As with a yoke the arms are forced outwards. Following involves commitment and dedication. He has just been telling his disciples that there will be opposition and not everyone will love them.

The yoke imagery implies demands and having work to do. The ease implies that submission to it, accepting it, will in turn set us free as things do when they feel natural and right. A burden is lifted. That is a challenge itself to expectations. We join the crucified one and walk the way of the cross and like countless generations before us find it none other than the way of life and peace. Sometimes what needs placing on the cross are our expectations, what needs to die is a rigidity to the ways things have always been done. All of this requires the childlike openness to allow ‘wisdom to be vindicated by her deeds’, to let the Spirit of God surprise us and move us.

© Ian Black 2002

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