The Yoke's On You

 

The Yoke’s On You!

 

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
11:16 "But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
11:17 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.'
11:18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon';
11:19 the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."
11:25 At that time Jesus said, "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;
11:26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
11:27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
11:28 "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
11:29 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.
11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

 

I would definitely preach on this text this week, as I did EVERY BLESSED TIME it came up in the lectionary! OH how our generation needs to hear, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.” Jesus came “playing the flute” of God’s endless, steadfast love, and rather than dance to the beat, we beat HIM up and crucified him! And then, we didn’t mourn, but like those first disciples, we “ran and hid,” hoping we weren’t next on the chopping block. God is a God of rescue, “freeing the captives,” lifting up the downtrodden, abiding in steadfast love, and all of the other wonderful promises of this weekend’s texts. GOD IS PLAYING THE FLUTE FOR US!!! Why won’t we DANCE? Our denomination just went through a horrible SPLIT because we shunned the music of the FLUTE and ran for fear we weren’t “orthodox” enough! Look at what Jesus says in verses 29 and 30: “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 and my BURDEN IS LIGHT!” Sounds like some dance-worthy “flute music” for me, not “marching orders” to orchestrate a schism because some don’t see it our way! BOY, does the United Methodist Church—especially the “post separation” version of it—need to hear this “yoke is easy” and “burden is light” stuff, right now! Preach it, PREACH IT, preach it! It is more than time for God’s GRACIOUS WILL as Jesus references in verse 26! We preachers need to stop “shoulding” all over our people!

 

The above is preaching commentary I wrote for the local pastors in the Butler District area. I continue to be “impressed” by this poetic phrase, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.” Had this been written in a Christian message in the 18^th century or later, I might start searching the works of William Shakespeare to find its origin. But it appears unique to this discourse by Jesus Christ. Most interesting, when we think of the “inspiration of God,” whether it is in the scriptures, or the arts!

 

If you look up this verse in the various commentaries, you will not be too excited by what you find. The “early fathers” largely suggest that those “playing the flute” and “mourning” are the prophets who warned Israel and foretold of the coming of Messiah. Makes sense, for sure, but doesn’t really stir the juices of a contemporary audience. We already KNOW how the generation of Jesus and its progenitors “ignored” much of what the prophets tried to tell them. Is that any worse than OUR generations so often ignoring the teachings of Jesus? Hmmm.

 

A few commentators, looking to verse 16, suggests that Jesus is borrowing from a popular children’s ditty, possibly part of a “marriage” game they played. Since no one really knows, this contextual “guess” is also as good as any, but it, too, robs the phrase of its poetic—and inspirational—power. 

 

Dr. Douglas Hare (one of my seminary professors), in his commentary on Matthew in the Interpretation series, adds an interesting insight—gender roles in it. If it is part of a childhood “marriage” game, the “dancers” referenced were male, as they would typically be the ones doing “reels” at a wedding, while the “mourners” were almost always women (often paid to do so) at funerals.

 

If we look for wisdom from these various commentators, we would first note the “inclusive” nature of Jesus’ critique—Jews, men, women, children, adults, as well as his own disciples, who still didn’t “get” it. Jesus was indicting all who have so given in to being bound by guilt, the accusations (including self-inflicted) that go with the “lists” of sins created to keep people “in their place,” and the “authority” of religious “rulers” of any stripe. The one person who fully knew what he was here to do—Jesus—and who knew what he would introduce to the world, in this moment was amazed to see how easy a “mark” the shame-ridden human being was for those who prospered or even just got their “jollies” by making them squirm. This Jesus was the same one who would tell humanity that God SO LOVED THEM that God sent him to offer an “ally, ally, in free” moment, and who would say, “Those whom the Son has set free are FREE, INDEED!” Sometimes it appears that we human beings don’t feel “secure” unless we are in a “cage,” even if we build it and crawl inside. Spiritually speaking, that is exactly what we often do. We search the scriptures in an effort to know “intimately” what are “sins,” and at least softly persecute those we feel are guilty of them, and then engage in a form of self-flagellation for the ones we are willing to cop to. Is this not true? Do YOU spend some of your waking hours at night thinking about the things YOU believe God may not be happy with in your life? If so—and it is most likely true for most of us—The YOKE’S on you.”

 

This passage is a kind of “self-revelation” (forgive the use of multi-leveled, theological irony in this expression) on the part of Jesus as to what he hoped to accomplish in what we call the “Christ Event.” Forgiving the sins of all of God’s people? That was the easy part. Getting people to reduce their excessive attention on listing and accusing each other of multitudes of sins and to “love God and neighbor” instead? Clearly, that was going to be a bigger assignment. Jesus came to affirm that God was love. Human religious leaders preferred to preach that God was a “righteous judge” who would put us all on trial for disobedience, and their role was to regularly remind us what all constituted “disobedience.” After a few millennia, human beings develop such a habit of rule-keeping in an effort to “please” deity, and even come to believe it is what ULTIMATELY does. Jesus came to “fix” this fixation, and to announce again to humanity that God is “blessed” when WE are blessed; God is “loved” when WE feel loved; God is “praised” when we feel like dancing to the music of the flute just because we feel like dancing! And God is empathetically moved by our mourning when it is from-the-heart-and-soul mourning, and not just “wailing” to convince others we know we should be grieving. As human beings, we are so often enculturated—sometimes with a good dose of religion—to proudly wear our yokes, and the heavier, the better.

 

We all know Jesus came to redeem humanity from our sins and to reconcile us to God. But our personal yokes of heaviness too often keep us from seeing his wider message that gets us to love of God and neighbor. Jesus ALSO came to “play the flute” so we might recover the joy of “dancing” through life, rather than walking in fear on the journey. Jesus desires to break our judgmental yokes so that they may fall off under the freeing wash of grace. And the new “yoke” Jesus offers is “easy” and its burden “light.” Life DOES have its responsibilities, be they careers, parenting, and being compassionate, caring citizens. And life includes dealing with death and grief. Jesus will play the flute for our dancing, but also will join us in genuine grief when life calls for it, as well. Jesus understands both, more than any other being who has ever walked the earth. 

 

Several times, Jesus refers to us as needing to understand things more like children, as in this passage. Children are obviously more objective in their thinking, but we have learned to not underestimate their ability to be deeply moved, and to show compassion at a level adults often might label as “irrational.” God’s love is an irrational love. That God would “give his only begotten Son” for us—however we understand this—is irrational. A “child-like” faith is not at all the same as a “childish” faith. Childish faith is one that would build a theology upon a judgmental God who will harshly judge persons for “sins” that make religious lists, and a God who must be “appeased” by such things. Child-like faith believes what Jesus tells us he came to do, and dances when the divine flute begins playing. 

 

As a pastor, I have seen so many people encumbered by an unnecessarily heavy yoke of their own design that they rarely, if ever, experience JOY. And if they do find a few moments “escape” from the weight that they DO experience a sample of joy, they reflexively begin praising God, mostly for fear they don’t “deserve” it. Jesus told us he came “that we might have life, and abundantly.” What kind of “abundant life” would keep us from the dancing and the joy? 

 

Some who like to quote Jesus when accusing and denigrating others whose lifestyles they dislike, or at least disagree with, conversely have a hard time taking Jesus at face value when he announces an easy yoke and a light burden. The “rule keeping” they feel compelled to enforce seems counter to a Jesus who says he is gentle and humble of heart. Jesus wants to give our souls rest. Rule-keepers seem bent on seeing we get the rest of what’s coming to us for our “disobedience.” Their yoke is iron, and their burden is measured in tonnage.

 

Jesus would be happy if the rule-keepers would abandon this as their means of “pleasing” him, or of believing this pursuit is within God’s “gracious will.” Jesus would be pleased if any of you reading this text from Matthew would abandon the overly heavy yoke you have taken upon yourself, or at least allowed someone else to affix it to your neck. Jesus would rather be playing the flute that we could all be dancing, or holding our hands and sitting with us when we are grieving life’s legitimate and heart-wrenching losses. 

 

Anyone for a little joy, courtesy of the liberating, compassionate Son of God, who fully demonstrated the gracious will of God, to our benefit and blessing? Ally, ally in-free! But if you refuse this life-giving, life-uplifting joy, the yoke’s on you. Amen.