‘There’s just no pleasing
some people!’ If one wanted to sum up the opening of this morning’s Gospel then
it would be hard to find better words. It is a truth as true now as it was two
thousand years ago: it’s a facet of human nature, and something which God can
redeem. The people of Israel have had the last of the prophets, John the Baptist,
who came to them preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins, living a simple
life in the desert. His message is too hard for people, they think he’s
mentally ill or possessed by an evil spirit. When Jesus comes, a friend of tax
collectors and sinners, someone who clearly enjoys a party, as we see in the
wedding at Cana in Galilee where he turns 180 gallons of water into the
equivalent of 1100 bottles of wine, he’s a glutton and a drunkard. If you’re
harsh and abstemious, it’s wrong, if you’re the life and soul of the party,
that’s wrong too. The people of Israel are not searching for a golden mean, the
midway between two extreme positions; they are simply unable or unwilling to accept
either the difficult moral demands or the all-consuming joy of the Kingdom of
God. ‘Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds’ Both John the Baptist and Our Lord
bear witness to the truth of the Kingdom of God in their lives and in their
deaths, and those who take no offense at Him will be blessed (Mt 11:6).
The Kingdom of God preached by John and brought about by Jesus
is not something for the wise and the intelligent – it does not require intellectual
effort or knowledge. Instead it needs to be received like a child, simply,
humbly and with trust. The key to it comes when we say ‘Yes’ to God, when we
accept that we are loved and redeemed by Him, that His Love can save us from
our sins, from pride, from intellectual arrogance, of thinking that we
know better, of being judgemental and unwilling to accept the harsh message of
the prophet or the joyous celebration of the Messiah. At the heart of our faith
is the mystery of the Incarnation, it’s why we celebrate Christmas, because the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. In Christ, God
takes our humanity, so that He can redeem it.
At the heart of this morning’s Gospel is the astounding
statement “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest. 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.” (Mt 11:28-30) Christ will bear the burden of our sins, the
sins of the world, of the past, the present, and the future, upon Himself on the
Cross. The message of the Gospel is to lay down your burden, to rest in the
Lord, to bear Christ’s yoke and learn from Him. We do so with child-like trust in
the God who loves us and saves us, we do so with humility, knowing our need of God,
to cast ourselves upon his love and mercy. We cannot win our way to heaven, or gain
salvation through our own efforts but rather in and through Christ, through our
Baptism, nourished by His Word and His Body and Blood, so that we can have life
in Him.
There is something truly refreshing about the simplicity of the
message – Christ says to each and every one of us, to the whole world, lay down
your burdens and find life in all its fullness in Him.
So let us come to Him, let us be fed by Him, fed with Him, to have
life in Him. Let us take His burden and follow Him, learning from Him, freed from
sin, freed from the ways of the world, from hardness of heart. Let us enter into
the joy of the Lord, and encourage others to do so, so that they may believe and
give glory to God the Father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit, to who whom
be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty, glory, dominion and power,
now and forever.
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