Matthew 11:25–30
Second Sunday after Trinity
Pastor i.R. Horst Müller -
Matthew 11:25–30
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
27 All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
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.
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Dear congregation,
Psalm 36, which we prayed at the beginning of this service, is a song of praise celebrating the unique goodness of God. The psalmist calls it precious, abundant, satisfying, the source of life, and light itself - wonderful words flowing from a grateful heart.
The chapter from which our sermon text comes has a very different tone, especially at the beginning. There we read that John the Baptist, sitting in prison, sends messengers to ask Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come?” This is no song of praise. It is an almost fearful, desperate question from a man whose life is in danger. "Are you really the one I believed you to be? The one to whom I have dedicated my life?"
Jesus replies: “Go and tell John what you see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the one who does not stumble because of me.”In essence, Jesus is saying: Through me people experience the goodness of God. Yes, I am the one.
But then the mood changes. Jesus begins pronouncing woes because many people reject him—entire towns close themselves off to him.
How is that possible? How can people reject Jesus when he is putting into action the very goodness of God that Psalm 36 celebrates?
Jesus laments because the “wise and learned” believe they understand God, yet they understand nothing. More than that, they believe they must protect God. They think they have discovered a guaranteed path by which people can gain access to God's goodness. No fewer than 613 regulations had been carefully formulated. Keep these commandments, and God's goodness will be opened to you. Jesus grieves over this. He even weeps. The wise and learned are blind to the goodness of God that stands before them—visible, tangible, and real in him.
Then comes the prayer of thanksgiving that forms our text today: "I praise you, Father, because you have revealed these things to little children." My disciples, and many ordinary people with them, taste and see that I am good. They receive what I give them. They follow me and begin truly to live.
And then Jesus turns to everyone—including the wise and learned- and says: "Come to me." Lay down the burden of the 613 regulations. Lay down your attempts to reach the Father's goodness through your own efforts. That goodness is already here -here with me. Here you can find peace.
Here you can find rest. Walk with me. Let my life shape yours. My teaching is not a long list of prohibitions: You must not. You may not. Nor is it a relentless stream of demands: You must. You ought to. Instead, I call you to live as children of the light: in goodness, righteousness, and truth.
Repent - not as a fearful act, but as a turning around. Stop running away from God. Stop exhausting yourself trying to reach God. Turn back to me, so that you may be free, so that you may breathe, so that you may live.
Today we have celebrated a baptism in this service. In addition, the theme of this Second Sunday after Trinity is the Lord's Supper: Come, eat and drink - taste and see that the Lord is good.
Baptism and Holy Communion are gifts through which we can taste, feel, and experience God's goodness. They are the Gospel made tangible - the message of forgiveness and new life that we can touch. Baptism is something I receive; it is done to me. In Holy Communion I eat and drink. In John chapter 6 Jesus repeatedly says: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” Eating and drinking are among the very first things a human being does after birth, and among the last things before death. In these simple acts Jesus gives himself to us, so that in every stage of life we may eat, drink, and taste the Gospel. What a wonderful gift.
And yet we, the wise and learned, have managed to turn even these gifts - which are simply meant to be received - into regulations, rules, commands, and prohibitions. Take baptism. Some say that anyone with the wrong understanding of baptism is condemned. We are often told that infant baptism is invalid because faith is not yet present. According to that view, baptism only counts once a person already believes. The sequence must be correct: first faith, then baptism. We say that faith and baptism belong together - even when faith grows out of baptism itself. Others, in turn, condemn those who rebaptise believers, arguing that they trample the grace of baptism into the dust.
But Holy Communion has suffered even more. In the medieval church it became both a compulsory requirement for salvation and, at the same time, one of the most severe punishments short of death to be excluded from it. Excommunication meant being barred from the Lord's Table. The wise and learned decided who may eat and drink, and who may not. Who believes correctly, and who does not. Who is worthy, and who is not. Many Christians never come to Communion at all because they are convinced they are unworthy—or at least not worthy enough, good enough, faithful enough. Just as the 613 regulations developed within Judaism, countless rules, commands, and prohibitions were created around Baptism and Communion in an attempt to protect them.
"Come to me, all of you..." Yes - but not this person. And not that person either.
I often wonder how many times Jesus has wept over these past two thousand years as he has watched people transform his gentle yoke, his invitation to taste, to see, and to receive, into a heavy and crushing burden that robs people of joy. How often weary and burdened people have been turned away because they failed to meet the requirements. I pray that God will continually open our eyes to the wonder of his mercy: "Come." What an incredible and unrestricted invitation: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. Come."
"Come," says Jesus. "I do not want to place additional burdens on you. I want to set you free." Or, to use the image from our Epistle reading, Ephesians 2:17–22: "Come." You do not need to hide in a corner like a servant who feels out of place in the household. Through Jesus Christ, you belong. Come - you are a member of God's household. You are my child. For you I gave my life. You belong to me.
"Come," says Jesus. "Just come." "I give you life." Yes, I will place a yoke upon you—the yoke of discipleship. But it is tailor-made for you, so that you may walk with me as a blessed and gifted child of God. And because you are blessed, you will become a blessing to others.
Amen