Proper 9
Preaching
PREACHING MATTHEW'S GOSPEL
A Narrative Approach
The text appointed for this week omits 11:20-24. It may be necessary for us to retrieve these verses in our preaching practices as they help to set the context for the climactic words of Jesus in what follows them. In 11:20-24 Jesus upbraids the cities in which he did mighty deeds to no avail. There was no repentance! For such cities judgment is at hand. "How is the reader to understand that Jesus should meet with such rejection? In private prayer, Jesus explains his rejection by invoking the will of his Father (11:25-26)."1
In this intimate portrait of Jesus we are given to understand that Jesus' "Father" is in charge of revealing and concealing. "The theme of God's hiding and revealing of mysteries is dealt with also in other passages (10:26-27; 13:1-23, especially vv. 10-17; 13:35, 51-52; 16:17)."2
To whom is God's will revealed? To the babes! But though God has hidden his revelation from Israel, he has nonetheless also made it known, to "infants," that is to say, to Jesus' disciples (11:25). Within the surrounding context of chapters 11-12, this hiding of divine revelation and making it known corresponds to the fact that whereas all Israel turns away from Jesus (11:16-19; 12:14, 24), the disciples continue to adhere to him (12:49-50). God, then, while hiding his divine revelation from Israel, imparts it to the disciples. But what is the nature and substance of this revelation? As elaborated in the context, it concerns in greatest measure two matters. The one matter is the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven (13:11). And the other is insight into Jesus' identity as the Son of God (14:33; 16:16).3
Jack Kingsbury identifies the babes as the disciples. In Chapter 12 we discussed Matthew's concept of the "little ones." See 10:42; 18:1-14 (vv. 4, 6, 10, 14) and 25:31-46 (v. 40). These "little ones" are the choice of God's revealing work! The very nature of the gospel is demonstrated here! The babes, the little ones, "get it." John the Baptist did not get it: 11:2-6. "This generation" did not get it: 11:16-19. The mighty cities in which Jesus worked his works didn't get it either: 11:20-24. Neither did the wise and understanding ones get it: 11:25. Only the "little ones" get it. Such is the nature of God's revelation (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31). This story is not at all about some form of predestination. It would appear, rather, that only those who make no claims upon God, only those who stand before God in their need, "get it." These are precisely the people "blessed" by Jesus in the Beatitudes! (Matthew 5:3-11).
There is much of theology in these few verses: "...no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." Verses such as these are important for trinitarian speculation. The accent here, however, is not on abstract theological speculation but on the reality that Jesus chooses to reveal the Father's kingdom and himself to "babes."
This week's brief pericope closes with other powerful words of Jesus: "Come to me...." Invitation is a hallowed biblical tradition. In the Wisdom tradition it was Wisdom--incarnate as Lady Wisdom--who invited all to her banquet. "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight" (Proverbs 9:1-6, 5-6).
The Apocryphal book of Sirach gives the most complete statement of Wisdom's kind invitation:
Draw near to me, you who are untaught,
and lodge in my school....
Put your neck under the yoke,
and let your souls receive instruction;
it is to be found close by.
See with your eyes that I have labored little
and found for myself much rest.
-- Sirach 51:23, 26-27
We recognize that Jesus' words in our text for today are words that have probably been informed by this Wisdom tradition. The prophet Isaiah also picks up this theme, though he turns it for his own purposes: "Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.... Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live" (Isaiah 55:1-3).
In his words from Matthew 11:28-30 it would appear that Jesus has entered this tradition of invitation. His words are very similar to those in the Sirach passage. Jesus enters this old tradition but he makes this tradition his own as he reveals God's final invitation to salvation. "Come to me...."
The word rest also has an interesting biblical history. In 2 Samuel 7:1 we read that the Lord had given David rest from all his enemies. Rest is usually identified in the Old Testament as rest from war. In 1 Kings 4:25 we have what some scholars call a definition of rest: "During Solomon's lifetime Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, all of them under their vines and fig trees." Rest is associated with God in Psalm 95. There is a lament in this psalm that Israel had turned their hearts against the Lord. The Lord's response was: "Therefore in my anger I swore, 'They shall not enter my rest'" (Psalm 95:11).
Hebrews 4:1-13 is a meditation on the concept of rest. The promise of entering God's rest still remains. The author now identifies rest with the fact that God rested on the Sabbath. "So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God's rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest...." (Hebrews 4:9-11). And how shall we enter such a rest? We enter God's rest through the invitation of Jesus! "Come to me...I will give you rest."
Homiletical Directions
The key to preaching on this week's text is to take up the wonderful proclamation of Jesus that it contains and enable Jesus, through your speaking, to make his proclamation to the people in your pews. One way this can be done in narrative fashion is begin this sermon by telling the stories of rejection as we have them in 11:1-24. John the Baptist (11:1-6) was there from the beginning, and yet he was not sure if Jesus was truly the One he was looking for. He has to ask! He gets an answer. Does he believe the answer? We don't know. We just know that many people seem to be offended by Jesus: 11:6.
This generation also did not get it. See 11:16-19. They reject both John and Jesus.
The cities in which Jesus did his mighty deeds did not get it: 11:20-24. Matthew's Gospel seems to downplay Jesus' miracles. Is that because Matthew's experience was that Jesus' mighty deeds in and of themselves did not call people to faith?
Here we might move from biblical discussion to contemporary discussion. Why is it that people in our day are still offended by Jesus? Why do they not repent? Why do they have ears but they do not hear? And what's wrong with us? Why is it that the words and deeds of Jesus are so slow to take hold of our lives?
What, then, is our hope for "getting it," for coming to faith? Faith comes through the revealing work of Jesus. The babes "get it"! So we encourage our hearers to come as babes to hear the story of Jesus. Come over and over again. Jesus is at work whenever or wherever his story is told inviting people to faith. "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Faith comes through invitation. As preachers we can surely issue the invitation in Jesus' name. We cannot, however, do more than that. Faith-creation is the work of the Holy Spirit. We issue the invitation. We invite the Spirit to drive that invitation deep into every human heart.
Invitation is the very nature of this week's text. A second sermon possibility would be to track the background of this invitation to the Wisdom tradition of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. Make use of the material from Proverbs 9, Sirach, and Isaiah. Trace the theme of invitation. Jesus enters this tradition and makes the invitation his own. This approach to the text should also conclude in invitation.
A third preaching possibility would make use of the biblical concept of rest. 2 Samuel 7:1 and 1 Kings 4:25 speak of rest as real rest from the enemy. Each person is at peace under his or her own vine and fig tree. Psalm 95 indicates, however, that when Israel strays from God it will not find God's rest. The book of Hebrews takes up this theme in 4:13. Rest is reinterpreted as Sabbath rest, and this Sabbath rest is still open to all people.
What kind of rest are people seeking today? What kind of rest are people in your congregation longing for? You might wish to take some time with this theme as you prepare people to hear Jesus' invitation to rest. The biblical tradition of rest comes to its fulfillment in Jesus' words: "Come to me. I will give you rest." This is the word restless people need to hear.
This text includes powerful, proclamatory words of Jesus. However you choose to structure your sermon, do not fail to enable your people to hear Jesus' word of invitation spoken to them.
____________
1. Jack Dean Kingsbury, Matthew As Story (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), pp. 72-73.
2. Robert H. Smith, Matthew: Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1989), p. 158.
3. Kingsbury, op. cit., p. 137.
In this intimate portrait of Jesus we are given to understand that Jesus' "Father" is in charge of revealing and concealing. "The theme of God's hiding and revealing of mysteries is dealt with also in other passages (10:26-27; 13:1-23, especially vv. 10-17; 13:35, 51-52; 16:17)."2
To whom is God's will revealed? To the babes! But though God has hidden his revelation from Israel, he has nonetheless also made it known, to "infants," that is to say, to Jesus' disciples (11:25). Within the surrounding context of chapters 11-12, this hiding of divine revelation and making it known corresponds to the fact that whereas all Israel turns away from Jesus (11:16-19; 12:14, 24), the disciples continue to adhere to him (12:49-50). God, then, while hiding his divine revelation from Israel, imparts it to the disciples. But what is the nature and substance of this revelation? As elaborated in the context, it concerns in greatest measure two matters. The one matter is the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven (13:11). And the other is insight into Jesus' identity as the Son of God (14:33; 16:16).3
Jack Kingsbury identifies the babes as the disciples. In Chapter 12 we discussed Matthew's concept of the "little ones." See 10:42; 18:1-14 (vv. 4, 6, 10, 14) and 25:31-46 (v. 40). These "little ones" are the choice of God's revealing work! The very nature of the gospel is demonstrated here! The babes, the little ones, "get it." John the Baptist did not get it: 11:2-6. "This generation" did not get it: 11:16-19. The mighty cities in which Jesus worked his works didn't get it either: 11:20-24. Neither did the wise and understanding ones get it: 11:25. Only the "little ones" get it. Such is the nature of God's revelation (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31). This story is not at all about some form of predestination. It would appear, rather, that only those who make no claims upon God, only those who stand before God in their need, "get it." These are precisely the people "blessed" by Jesus in the Beatitudes! (Matthew 5:3-11).
There is much of theology in these few verses: "...no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." Verses such as these are important for trinitarian speculation. The accent here, however, is not on abstract theological speculation but on the reality that Jesus chooses to reveal the Father's kingdom and himself to "babes."
This week's brief pericope closes with other powerful words of Jesus: "Come to me...." Invitation is a hallowed biblical tradition. In the Wisdom tradition it was Wisdom--incarnate as Lady Wisdom--who invited all to her banquet. "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight" (Proverbs 9:1-6, 5-6).
The Apocryphal book of Sirach gives the most complete statement of Wisdom's kind invitation:
Draw near to me, you who are untaught,
and lodge in my school....
Put your neck under the yoke,
and let your souls receive instruction;
it is to be found close by.
See with your eyes that I have labored little
and found for myself much rest.
-- Sirach 51:23, 26-27
We recognize that Jesus' words in our text for today are words that have probably been informed by this Wisdom tradition. The prophet Isaiah also picks up this theme, though he turns it for his own purposes: "Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.... Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live" (Isaiah 55:1-3).
In his words from Matthew 11:28-30 it would appear that Jesus has entered this tradition of invitation. His words are very similar to those in the Sirach passage. Jesus enters this old tradition but he makes this tradition his own as he reveals God's final invitation to salvation. "Come to me...."
The word rest also has an interesting biblical history. In 2 Samuel 7:1 we read that the Lord had given David rest from all his enemies. Rest is usually identified in the Old Testament as rest from war. In 1 Kings 4:25 we have what some scholars call a definition of rest: "During Solomon's lifetime Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, all of them under their vines and fig trees." Rest is associated with God in Psalm 95. There is a lament in this psalm that Israel had turned their hearts against the Lord. The Lord's response was: "Therefore in my anger I swore, 'They shall not enter my rest'" (Psalm 95:11).
Hebrews 4:1-13 is a meditation on the concept of rest. The promise of entering God's rest still remains. The author now identifies rest with the fact that God rested on the Sabbath. "So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God's rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest...." (Hebrews 4:9-11). And how shall we enter such a rest? We enter God's rest through the invitation of Jesus! "Come to me...I will give you rest."
Homiletical Directions
The key to preaching on this week's text is to take up the wonderful proclamation of Jesus that it contains and enable Jesus, through your speaking, to make his proclamation to the people in your pews. One way this can be done in narrative fashion is begin this sermon by telling the stories of rejection as we have them in 11:1-24. John the Baptist (11:1-6) was there from the beginning, and yet he was not sure if Jesus was truly the One he was looking for. He has to ask! He gets an answer. Does he believe the answer? We don't know. We just know that many people seem to be offended by Jesus: 11:6.
This generation also did not get it. See 11:16-19. They reject both John and Jesus.
The cities in which Jesus did his mighty deeds did not get it: 11:20-24. Matthew's Gospel seems to downplay Jesus' miracles. Is that because Matthew's experience was that Jesus' mighty deeds in and of themselves did not call people to faith?
Here we might move from biblical discussion to contemporary discussion. Why is it that people in our day are still offended by Jesus? Why do they not repent? Why do they have ears but they do not hear? And what's wrong with us? Why is it that the words and deeds of Jesus are so slow to take hold of our lives?
What, then, is our hope for "getting it," for coming to faith? Faith comes through the revealing work of Jesus. The babes "get it"! So we encourage our hearers to come as babes to hear the story of Jesus. Come over and over again. Jesus is at work whenever or wherever his story is told inviting people to faith. "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Faith comes through invitation. As preachers we can surely issue the invitation in Jesus' name. We cannot, however, do more than that. Faith-creation is the work of the Holy Spirit. We issue the invitation. We invite the Spirit to drive that invitation deep into every human heart.
Invitation is the very nature of this week's text. A second sermon possibility would be to track the background of this invitation to the Wisdom tradition of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. Make use of the material from Proverbs 9, Sirach, and Isaiah. Trace the theme of invitation. Jesus enters this tradition and makes the invitation his own. This approach to the text should also conclude in invitation.
A third preaching possibility would make use of the biblical concept of rest. 2 Samuel 7:1 and 1 Kings 4:25 speak of rest as real rest from the enemy. Each person is at peace under his or her own vine and fig tree. Psalm 95 indicates, however, that when Israel strays from God it will not find God's rest. The book of Hebrews takes up this theme in 4:13. Rest is reinterpreted as Sabbath rest, and this Sabbath rest is still open to all people.
What kind of rest are people seeking today? What kind of rest are people in your congregation longing for? You might wish to take some time with this theme as you prepare people to hear Jesus' invitation to rest. The biblical tradition of rest comes to its fulfillment in Jesus' words: "Come to me. I will give you rest." This is the word restless people need to hear.
This text includes powerful, proclamatory words of Jesus. However you choose to structure your sermon, do not fail to enable your people to hear Jesus' word of invitation spoken to them.
____________
1. Jack Dean Kingsbury, Matthew As Story (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), pp. 72-73.
2. Robert H. Smith, Matthew: Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1989), p. 158.
3. Kingsbury, op. cit., p. 137.
