Sermon: Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30, July 9, 2023Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

Sermon: Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30, July 9, 2023

Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

In today’s gospel reading, Matthew reports that Jesus did some social analysis, critiquing the trends of his day. Listen again to what Jesus said to the crowd: “To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’”

It's a provocative statement, but what on earth does it mean? In short, here’s my take on it: the people of Jesus’ generation, perhaps especially the religious leaders, refused to listen. They refused to listen to what Jesus was inviting them to. The music of flute with the dancing suggests a wedding feast to which Jesus was inviting them. But they didn’t join in the dance. And Jesus, in a word of lament, also invited the people to grieve the sins of their generation, but that didn’t get the people’s attention either. He wailed as at a funeral, but they did not mourn with Jesus. Giving the good news didn’t get their attention. But neither did the bad news.

Then Jesus elaborated: “For John [the Baptizer] came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”

In other words, Jesus suggests that the people of his generation found reason to take offense at both John the Baptizer and at him, giving the people excuses not to listen and thus to refuse Jesus’ invitation to part of the in-breaking of God’s reign, God’s dominion, ignoring both words of judgment and of grace.

That was then. What about now? To what might we compare our own generation? Well, first off, some things never change. Which is to say, there are plenty of people – again, perhaps especially our leaders – who refuse to listen either to words of warning or to words of good news today. And so many of us take offense at everything.

There are excuses galore for our refusal to the do the right things in tackling the challenges before us: systemic racism; continued homophobia and now transphobia; climate change; income inequality; the water crisis here in the desert Southwest, and on the list could go of the ways we put our heads in the sands and refuse to confront the challenges before us. We’re in denial. We know what’s right, but we don’t act.

That’s the human condition. It was in Jesus’ and John’s day. And it is in our day. The apostle Paul understands this when he explores the fickle qualities of our nature, the ambivalence, the inner tensions that burden us.

Here’s what Paul says in today’s reading from Romans: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Isn’t that true of so many of us, individually and collectively as a whole society? Deep down we and our leaders know the right things to do, but other forces pull us down and steer us in the wrong directions.

Thus it is that Paul goes on to conclude: “Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Indeed. Left to our own devices, we’re in dire straits. But then there’s the punchline and the point of the whole Christian message: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Which is to say that it is Christ Jesus who rescues Paul and who rescues us and everyone from the desperation of the human condition, even when we refuse to listen and when we find excuses to reject Christ and his word of salvation.

Even amidst our refusal and rejections, Jesus proclaims in Matthew: “Yet Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” This Wisdom is Christ himself. And the deeds are what Jesus Christ accomplished in the power of God on the cross and in the empty tomb. Yet, despite the forces weighed again her, Wisdom, Christ, wins the day via his death and resurrection.

Seen through Christian lenses, Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection become a fulfillment for us of what Zechariah prophesied as recorded in today’s reading: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey….” [Think Palm Sunday and Holy Week] The prophet continues: “As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, [think Jesus’ blood and the new covenant he unveils for us] I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.” (Zechariah 9:9; 11-12) Freeing us from hopelessness, restoring to us double – that’s what the grace of God in Christ does for us.

Because the wisdom of Christ is vindicated and Christ has the last word, there are those who do in fact respond to what Jesus has to offer. Again, here’s Jesus in Matthew: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”

The infants are the ones Jesus addresses in the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. They are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and the persecuted and reviled.

Indeed, for those who are finally drawn to listen and to receive the vindication of wisdom in Christ, there are wonderful things to be had. Listen again to these beautiful, familiar words of Jesus which Matthew records: “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

When it’s all said and done, we all are weary and carry heavy burdens – even those of us who refuse to listen and find excuses to distance ourselves from God in Christ. Jesus says, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens.”

Thanks be to God. And where do we find this rest? Here in this place, Sunday after Sunday. In the words of consolation from the Bible. In the sacraments. Right here in the Sunday assembly among you, God’s people.

Through the pages of scripture, Jesus says, “Come, find rest.” At the font, Christ bids us to come to him to washed, refreshed and be made whole in the living waters. At this table, Christ says, “Come, recline here with me, sup with me, let me feed you with my very self.”

These means of grace are the source of our rest, our renewal in faith and trust in Christ. This is our place and time of Sabbath.

But Jesus’ invitation to us also involves taking upon ourselves the yoke of Christ. “Take my yoke upon you,” Jesus says. A yoke is a harness fitted to us so that we can engage in the work to which God calls us. A yoke is placed on our shoulders so that Christ can guide us where to go. And where does Christ guide us to? Into the scoffing crowds to extend to them Jesus’ invitation to come and rest in him. This can be hard work.

And yet even this yoke is full of grace. Jesus said, “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 [kind], and my burden is light.” Sounds good to me. How about you?

When we take on Christ’s kind and easy burden, we go back into a hostile world lighter in being. Light enough even to dance to the music of the flute for the wedding feast of Christ and compelling enough that we can wail and mourn with those in grief.

Let it be so among us, Lord Jesus, let it be so. Amen.