My Generation Matthew 11:16-30
To what can I compare this generation? Jesus uses the phrase “this generation” multiple times in scripture and it’s always in a negative way. Today as Jesus attempts to describe the folly of his generation he talks of people in a market place. He could have talked about the people being in the street or in the synagogue or even in someone’s home, but he places them in a market place so we need to explore why he chose there.
In his day market places had all the things necessary to survive; flour, meat, wine; but they also had trinkets like silver or brass rings and bracelets. They had colored cloth and a host of other things that made you feel better than someone else, better about yourself; all kinds of things designed to make you feel you just had to have it. These places also had games of chance to bet on. The market place had a cornucopia of things to take your attention away from prayer and God.
Could Jesus be looking into the future to other generations and perhaps our own? Most churches are struggling, why? Like the marketplace our world bombards us with things that come between us and God. Companies spend millions to make us feel we need some trivial item or the newest model of something. Sports, clubs, jobs all can push our worship onto the back burner. I’m not criticizing anyone here I just want us all to at least give it a thought; is what we want to do, is who we want to spend time with worth interfering with our worship of our Lord and Savior.
“We played the pipe for you and you did not dance, we sang a dirge for you and you did not mourn.” This refers to John the Baptist and Jesus. John was too stern, his fire and brimstone preaching did draw some in but it repelled many. Jesus is too happy, eating with sinners; that can’t be right.
Again let’s look at our generation. Some churches are stern, hard, and full of rules about how to live; and how hell waits if you don’t follow their rules. This turns many off to God. There are ministers that preach God’s grace; how his love is above anything we do in this life if we believe. “You’re saying we can do whatever we want, God’s not going to punish us? That can’t be right, I’m not listening.” What was true when Jesus spoke is true today; there are people who will never accept him no matter how the message is delivered. I have a friend who is a devote atheist. He told me “I can see how God changed your life, but I don’t believe in God.”
“He is a drunkard and a glutton.” This is how the people are describing Jesus. Jesus is neither of these things but this line has meaning outside the people’s misinterpretation of Jesus actions. Deuteronomy 21:20-21, “They shall say to the elders, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious… He is a glutton and a drunkard…you must purge this evil.’” Then it goes on to say that such a person is to die a violent and painful death. Jesus, here as elsewhere in scripture, is pointing us toward his passion and crucifixion. How his generation will turn on him and how the Pharisees will try to purge his message by his violent death on a Roman cross.
“But wisdom is proved right by her deeds” Some Bibles say “by her children.” In a vineyard the soil, the grapes and the wine maker are all judged by the quality of the wine. Jesus is challenging his critics to judge him based on the effects of his ministry.
Today Christians are being judged by how closely we follow what we preach, and unfortunately many of us who love God and try hard to follow Christ’s teachings are being judged harshly because of those that claim Christianity and its message of love and acceptance and then turn around and say “You live a different lifestyle, you can’t get to heaven; you’re from south of our border, you’re a devil in our society.” We’re Christian; God loves us and tells us to love all others. “You had an abortion, that must have been an agonizing decision for you. I love you, God loves you, let me pray with you.” We don’t have to understand, we don’t have to agree; God tells us we just have to love.
Next Jesus mentions several towns and in each of them he performed a miracle. He healed a blind man in Bethsaida and this is where he also fed the 5000. In Capernaum he healed the centurion’s servant. Jesus expresses his frustration and anger because they have seen his work, heard his message and they still don’t accept the truth.
But then the mood of his speech becomes more optimistic. This optimism is not based on some massive influx of believers, it’s based on God the Father; Verse 25, “I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth.” He goes on to say “…you have hid these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children.” Those in high office, those who feel they have money, power or influence to lose; they reject Jesus. Those who know they are sinners and their need for God’s grace and forgiveness; these are the ones that flock to Jesus. The more Jesus reaches out to those that society rejects the more “society people” reject him. I believe that the Bible tells us we must reach out to those society pushes away. Those who are poor, come from different backgrounds and cultures, those who are LGBT, those in jail.
It seems that our generation is the one Jesus is talking to in these verses. Some who do God’s work are told they are wasting their time. Some churches across the globe preach love and yet try to marginalize those they should be reaching out to. Now true, this is not absolute. In Jesus day Nicodemus came to learn from him, Arimathea provided Jesus tomb, Gamaliel who was a Pharisee, warned the Sanhedrin to be cautious in their judgment of Jesus or they may find themselves in conflict with God’s will. Today there are good people doing good work in god’s name.
I have a close friend who is a believer. He waves the Christian flag high. He told me once that as a white Christian male I have the most to lose. What do I have to lose, a country run by people who look like me, think like me, live like me? That’s not Biblical. God addresses this very thing in Babel when he confuses men’s language and sends humanity to all parts of the earth. Paul writes of this in 1 Corinthians 12:22, “Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.” Diversity is the strength of Christianity.
Back to my question, what do I have to lose? Nothing, for Jesus says in John 10:28, “I give eternal life and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
What my friend has forgotten is our verse 26, “Yes Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.” God is not pleased when the rich or influential hoard what they have and ignore the downtrodden, he is pleased when those who have his grace turn around and lift others up into that grace.
Scripture doesn’t just tell us to reach out to others and then cast us to the wind as to how to do it. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…”
I imagine that our younger members may not know what a yoke is. It’s a wooden harness that joins two oxen together so they work as a team. A few years ago I was in Sturbridge Village in Mass. We were at a lecture about the use of ox in farming. I learned that they team a young ox with an older and more disciplined one so it he can learn. Being yoked to Jesus means we keep him with us at all times and therefore we will grow in faith and discipline becoming better Christians in the process. Jesus even tells us in this passage what we will learn from him, “I am gentle and humble in heart.”
Gentleness, not harsh and overbearing when we talk of Christ, no pointing out someone’s sins but recognizing our own sin and then gently talk about Christ and the grace of God offered to everyone.
Humble, not out of weakness but out of strength, God’s strength. I don’t need to be pushy, I don’t need to be forceful, I don’t need to be afraid of a changing society. I can be humble in God’s strength because heaven is mine and it cannot be taken away.
One more thing about the yoke, the ox driver directs only the older ox, the younger one follows. When we are yoked to Jesus let him lead the way. Do work for him where he directs you to.
“I will give you rest.” Traditionally this is Jesus telling us that in him we don’t need to keep worrying about getting to heaven, we are secure in our relationship with God. This is true, as a believer I don’t have to worry if my mistake will garner God’s anger. But I believe it goes beyond this. God, Jesus, Holy Spirit; the trinity, and it’s the Holy Spirit that travels and works in the world. Our job is like the farmer in scripture; all we can do is plant a seed and then let the Holy Spirit water and feed it. We can rest knowing it is not our responsibility to make someone “see the light.” All we can do is present the information.
We can rest from the rules and traditions that we’re told are necessary for salvation. Our traditions have merit, they give us a sense of stability but we must recognize salvation comes solely from faith in the cross. Too many preach that salvation comes from faith and…and doing this, and confessing that. We must be careful not to put man’s requirements above God’s.
Once again I want to talk of my friend the atheist. He says our faith is hard; the Bible is a book full of rules on how to live. The Bible’s not a book of rules dictating how to live, it’s a book designed to tell us how to love. The Old Testament shows us how hard life is without God’s love, and how God continues to love and bless people even with our failings. The Gospels show us God’s love for all people through the life, death and resurrection of Christ. And Paul’s letters show us how to respond to God’s love with love of our own. Ephesians 5:1-2, “Follow God’s example…and walk in the way of love just as Christ loved us…” In Romans Paul writes that we should administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another, do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, or the foreigner or the poor.
As with most scripture there’s a lot in these sentences and paragraphs. Generations past are the same as generations present. That all through the time of God’s church on earth there have been things in society that pull us away from God and worship. That it is for each of us to determine if what we want to possess in life, if what we want to do in life, if who we want to spend time with is important enough to interfere with our worship.
Our verses show us there will always be those who will not be happy about God no matter how we deliver the message.
Jesus tells us not to judge others but to simply love them, and that part of that love is to gently and humbly introduce them to a loving God.
We are told to yoke ourselves to Jesus. Keep him next to us at all time, learning from him by looking to him all during the day and following him where he leads.
Verse 30, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Always remember the Bible is not a book of die hard rules we need to follow or we’ll be punished by God, it is a book about love; God’s love for us, our love for God, and our love for each other.
God bless.