Kindom Talk: Viewer Discretion Is Advised

 

Before television shows there is often a disclaimer, something like:

Due to course language, violence, and nudity, this program may not be suitable for all viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.

This morning’s sermon comes with a disclaimer.

You will not like what you hear.

 

Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, 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.

Don’t get excited! These verses are not the “ahh,” the sigh of relief and comfort from the very hearing of these words. The words are not directed at you, or for you, as an individual. They have nothing to do with the removal of weariness or comfort from everyday life situations and circumstances.

These words are part of a holy rant by Jesus. With fiery passion and course language everyone has come under scrutiny and is being lambasted. Viewer – hearer - discretion is advised.

 

We enter the show at verse 16 of Matthew chapter 11. John the Baptist has recently sent his disciples to Jesus to ask if Jesus is the Messiah, the one who is to come, or should they wait for another? To the crowds Jesus praised John the Baptist and the prophetic God-given work John performed.

 

Viewer- hearer- discretion is advised. Jesus uses course language “this generation.” Jesus’ words are not flattering. Jesus is beyond annoyed. God has sent two completely different messengers to the same area, at the same time, because God knows people hear and process things differently.

So, God sends John – the fiery prophet, living on locusts and wild honey, working in the desert, wearing camel hair, Law abiding and offering a baptism of repentance. The people write John off for his austere living and his disregard for societal norms.

God sends Jesus – a respectable teacher who knows the Law and mercifully applies it, a miracle worker who banquets with tax collectors and sinners. The people write Jesus off for liberal interpretation and compassionate application.

The people have been given choice, one message, two very different approaches, both provided by God. And yet people determine that both John and Jesus can be ignored and dismissed as irrelevant.

Kindom talk – living into a full covenant – as in a relationship with God, creation, and each other – is dismissed as irrelevant. It seems too big an ideal – impossible- for everyday life. It takes too much time or energy. It takes one away from human and worldly pursuits of power, greed, and success.

 

Jesus, ever the storyteller, channels his disappointment into a “parable of the children.”

I have to admit, that this text as a parable was a new-to-me insight, gathered from Douglas Hare’s thoughts in the Interpretation Commentary: Matthew.

The parable has a group of children wanting to play. There is a group, likely the girls, who want to play funeral. This is comfortable for them because the cultural practice of the day was to hire professional mourners – a woman’s profession– for funerals. The other group, likely the boys, want to play wedding. Traditionally men were responsible for the round dance that was part of a wedding celebration. The children can’t figure out which to play, so end up playing nothing. The children are bored. They pick on each other and either succumb to laziness or aimlessly get up to no good. Funeral or wedding. Mourning or joy.

 

God invites the people to experience the drawing near of God’s kindom -

From John the Baptist via stern warning of coming judgement, and through Jesus with a joyful announcement of the arrival of kindom. Neither side or approach is wrong. God provided both because God knows people hear and process things differently. Jesus is at wits end because “this generation” has not accepted or committed to either. The people remain idle – as if the kindom doesn’t exist, as if God’s restorative and covenantal work is not important or relevant.

 

Viewer  - hearer- discretion is advised –

Jesus is feeling alone. The learned, the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious, the Law keepers, the Synagogue attendees, the people of faith, have chosen to remain uninvolved and unchanged to God’s kindom coming near. All have failed to take either of God’s end-time, kindom-preacher-messengers, seriously.

Jesus, a tirelessly working teacher-preacher-healer, wants to see his message bearing fruit and making a difference in peoples’ relationships and the life of the whole community. Jesus just wants the people to -

Get at it! Embrace kindom living, either because you take judgement seriously, so you act accordingly, or you take the joyful arrival of kindom seriously so live accordingly. However you go about it – make a choice and start playing together. Both playing and working with kindom goals.

 

Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, 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.

Octavia Raheem, a rest coach and author, wrote, “For so long, I’ve relied solely on the trinity of hard work, grit, and relentlessness. This holy trinity has served me well and, at the same time, left me weary and tired.”

When I read this, I thought about what the trinities are that make us weary and tired? In the same thought, I wonder what keeps us from hearing the Holy Trinity and receiving the joyful announcement of the arrival of God’s kindom (or if you prefer the stern warning of coming judgement). For me these were not individual ponderings but rather, thoughts of the whole church. What are the heavy burdens we carry as a church? Our very human childishness that hinders us from embracing God’s preacher-messengers and making a choice to not sit on the sidelines bored and lazy or getting into trouble – but deciding to play and live out God’s kindom? I wonder how we are hindered by burdens of fear, self-service, expectations, legacy, worry, doubt, scarcity, unbelief, survival, property, comfort, status quo…

 

Viewer  - hearer- discretion is advised.

This text is not about rest, as in no work. It is rest from the human trinity of power, greed, and success. It is about kindom work. It is about work that takes commitment, dedication, and faithfulness. It requires a sense of play and relationship. And Jesus promises it will be ‘easy.’

The Greek word that has been translated as ‘easy’ has a root meaning of ‘kind.’ Yokes used on animals like oxen, can be shaped specifically for an animal to cause the least amount of chaffing. Jesus’ yoke will be kind – enabling us to more easily carry the load. There is an expectation that we carry a load. Yokes are used to connect two oxen to help them work together as a team - to pull the plow through the fields, move heavy carts, and do work impossible, too big to do alone.

At the end of the rant Jesus is calling on people to carry the load he is carrying all by himself!

Jesus is convincing them, imploring them, inviting them – and us- to yoke up with him and be a team.

Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Set aside your worldly burdens and share Jesus’ load and with kindom purpose play as a team.