Over the last few weeks my attention has been in a few places. On a large scale we celebrate the 250th birthday of our country, and the music today affirms this. While the climate of our country is, well, what it is, this weekend we celebrate and honor our country’s beginning.
On the homefront, you know well the places where my attention has been drawn as doctor’s appointments and tests have been conducted, and results have come in, for both myself and Jennifer.
But now there is a new focal point that has also come into focus which you are also aware. Our nephew: Colton.
And as you know he is attempting to work through the complexities of a thing that you and I, as formed adults in Christ, will struggle with. Loss. Grief. The language of speaking about this pain, and regardless of what that loss is, or how it is manifested, this is hard work.
In Colton’s case the loss is deep. Jennifer and I have seen him search for the necessary words to his questions only to watch those same questions be ‘un-formable’ in his young, impressionable, mind. This is not to say that anything is wrong with him; for he is 5 and 5-year-olds will struggle to make sense of what he is dealing with.
His work, his struggle, if you prefer that word, is noteworthy if you remember that when I often talk to the children of the church, I will tell them how wise they are. I will tell them that we need their wisdom. I will conclude by telling them that they teach us many things and show us directions forward that we often miss. For in the mind of a child lives complexities, nuance, and perspective that we cannot fully see or unlock.
It is in this fact that Jesus in Matthew 11 begins by making children, or infants, the subject of this discourse that are considering before we come to the Table of the Lord.
Move 1- Infants/children.
Twice in this passage Jesus speaks about children. Each time he tightens up what he is stating to the church. Let’s look at them each.
The first occurrence is right from the outset of our text. In verse 16, we have the word for children. Little children. Jesus compares the current generation, and by extension every generation that follows, to children. Then Jesus tells us why he makes this assertion. And his illustration or example is harsh. The children seem to complain that the rules of the game, the rules of life, whatever game they could be playing or attending to, are not fair.
We find this in verse 17-24. For the child did everything they were supposed to . . . play music but no one danced. Wailed and no one mourned. This example is pushed outward is extended to include Jesus and John the Baptist.
Jesus says that the cultural expectations have not been fulfilled as the child (or the body of believers) thought it should be. John does not behave as the people thought and neither does Jesus and our Savior offers no commentary on why or how but just states his conclusion.
So, we are left to wonder about why this is happening and what lack of learning has taken place in this moment. . .
The second example of this idea is found in verse 25.
At this point Jesus focuses his language even tighter and used the word: Infants. Now this is a two-prong approach that our Savior is using to speak to us. First, he is again talking about those who are very young: actual infants. But that might carry little weight to some who hear Matthew 11 and remember what he just said about welcoming the Little Ones from last week (those of little esteem in the community).
It is the second, figurative, definition that focuses us in further.
This is new material that builds off that first concept or definition that Jesus offered in verse 16. Now Jesus adds on teaching us to widen our view to include those of immature faith, understanding, or behavior. This links us back to the Little Ones that we thought about from last week for we again know who they are. These people, however, they might be defined, are the folks who God seems to have chosen to reveal himself to.
Jesus knows that there is something special happening in the mind of the Little One, the infant, and so we are left to think on this as we grow in our faith and our understanding. Why do they understand the mysteries of God, and at the same time, we are left to wonder why Jesus and John are not living up to our expectation?
With the Table of the Lord set before us, we come considering what is it about this type of mind, these little ones, these spiritual infants who seem to comprehend the mysteries of the revelation of God? They might just understand the depth of the Lord in a way that we have clouded with our mature minds.
Move 2- the yoke.
As Christians we are called to recapture our children’s level of understanding and faith and stop working so hard by ourselves. In this Matthew 11 text, Jesus wants us to learn about dependance, surrendering to God, and working with God—not trying to push ahead alone as if we can do this on our own, as if faith is a matter of just working harder and longer than the person next to us.
Perhaps the primary answer is found as we keep reading in the text and settle our minds on that most familiar of images that comes at the end: the yoke that Jesus speaks about.
Now normally we draw ourselves to the close of this reading and focus our attention there, but that means we lose the general context of what is happening and how we need to approach this work.
For there are always strenuous demands upon each of our lives as disciples of Jesus as Matthew 10 told us, and we are often rejected as the early parts of Matthew 11 teaches us. Yet Jesus offers us not freedom from work, but freedom from hard labor. Jesus offers us union . . . dare we believe, in this moment, that Jesus offers us communion.
The Lord takes the vulnerable, the young, the small, those who struggle, as we each do, with the words and the work of faith, and he places them beside himself. Jesus walks/works with us even as we cannot find the words, and especially as we do not understand the places where life is taking us.
And again, there is freedom in this work for we are not working against God, and we are not working alone, but we walk with him in union.
Side by side. Learning as we walk. Even if we do not have the words or understand the places where this path is taking us, as the vulnerable of the Lord, we walk with Him—together. Yoked. And together, with Jesus, the work becomes lighter.
Conclusion
The image of children in this text, they teach us this. For more often than we know, we will find ourselves doubting, wondering, and feeling lost or isolated. These are especially important moments to return to the Table of the Lord and to the experience of communion with Jesus. For here at this Table, Jesus invites the broken, the vulnerable, and those who struggle to understand any of this, to join him.
So as we come to the Table, and eventually leave this very same table, I wonder if you will take those lessons with you and find others to invite to join our Lord here?
DM
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