Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67; Psalm 45:10-17; Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:25-30
Preached at Beckley Presbyterian Church on July 3rd 2005
Mary Poppins. At one point
in this classic Disney children’s movie, Mr. Banks is summoned before his aged employers to face dismissal after his
children have caused the Banks of London to go into financial crisis by refusing to invest their two pennies worth. (If you
haven’t a clue what I’m speaking of, you need to watch the movie!)
Mr. Banks is unperturbed. He
starts telling them all about the wonderful Mary Poppins, saying “supercalifragilisticexpealidocous” and declaring
his pride in his two wonderful children, Michael and Sarah. Then he tells them
a joke about two men he had earlier learnt from Uncle Albert.
The first says to the second, “I
knew a man with a wooden leg called Smith.”
“Really,” replies the
second man, “What was the name of his other leg?”
The aged board of mangers shake their heads in disgust as Mr. Banks
is ushered out to go fly a kite with his children. But then old Mr. Manager begins
to shake and cough and starts to float up to the ceiling in a fit of giggles. The
joke has finally gotten through to him! Finally he got it.
Sometimes it takes us a while ‘to get it’. I don’t just mean jokes, but life in general and more particularly, we just don’t get it about
God. We just don’t get it about what God is like, who Jesus was, how God’s
Spirit can help us, how the church fits ino it all. Oftentimes we have more questions than answers, and we’re not even
sure if we are asking the right questions let alone finding the right answers. We don’t get it.
Don’t panic. Lame-brains
we may be, but we are no more lame-brained than the people who shared Jesus’ life during his earthly ministry. We only read part of Matthew 11 this morning, but if you look at the chapter as a
whole you see a bunch of folk who just didn’t get it when it came to Jesus.
Surprisingly the first person pictured as not getting it in this chapter
is Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist. This is the man who proclaimed Jesus
as the herald of the Kingdom, heard the voice from heaven that proclaimed Him Son of God, and baptized him in the river. But
now he was in prison having fallen foul of Herod.
Life does bring to us situations when it is hard to see God’s
way. The darkness can cause us not to get it.
Undeserved suffering, loss and grief, pain, anxiety, and addictions can all be
prisons as real as that in which John lay when it comes to understanding God’s will.
John’s hope was renewed when he understood that his state of
imprisonment was not the end of the story. That whilst he was in dire straits,
glorious things were taking place - the reign of God was breaking into the hearts and lives of women and men, Gentiles and
Jews, rich and poor. Seeing the larger picture and hearing the Word of Christ
refocused his vision so that, although outwardly he was a still a prisoner, in his soul he was a free bird.
Whilst John had good reason for his doubts, it seems the general public
was just plain disenchanted. It didn’t seem to matter how God revealed
the presence of love towards them, they were just going to go ahead and complain anyway.
Jesus compares them to argumentative children who are falling out of friends over the games they try to play. They
didn’t get it.
John the Baptist came along and they said, “Oh, he’s so
gloomy and negative. All this repent or be judged stuff will never catch on.”
So they don’t listen to him. Jesus
comes along and turns water into wine at parties, hangs out with people of dubious character, talks about good news and new
life, and they say, “Oh, He’s so positive. It’s not right to be that joyful.”
No matter how the message of God’s Kingdom presented itself to
them, they found a way to criticize the messenger and evade the message. They were like children playing wedding music when
the others wanted to play funerals, and playing dirges when the others wanted to dance.
They just didn’t get it.
This was particularly true of the inhabitants of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, the areas where Jesus performed most of his miracles. Did they get it? Not likely.
They made Jesus mad. To paraphrase his anger towards Capernaum, “You strutting peacocks, you are going to end up in the abyss of hell! If the people of Sodom had the opportunities God has given to you, their city would still
be around. At Judgment day they deserve to get off lightly compared to you, you
faithless bunch of no hopers!”
It is spiritually dangerous to our souls when we neglect to acknowledge
the daily miracles of God’s blessing around us. Has there ever been a generation
in this nation that has had it so easy? Has there ever been a time when the message
of God was so easily available as in this current time? Yet it is obvious that
opportunity does not breed commitment and heartfelt turning to God. Complacency
breeds lukewarm, apathetic Christianity.
Particularly that applies to those of us who claim religious allegiance.
For it was the practitioners of the religion of Jesus’ day who were the
ones that really didn’t get it. The Pharisees and teachers of the law,
the Sadducees and the priests, the ones who should have had it all together, who should have recognized their God in Christ,
but instead crucified Jesus. They didn’t come near to getting it.
In the light of all these people around Him, who were totally misunderstanding
His message, who weren’t getting it, how does Jesus react? We’ve
seen that He gets a little mad. But then what does He do with that anger?
It is transformed into praise, and we are given a glimpse of things from God’s
perspective.
Jesus offers thanks to God! Talk
about Independence Day! Here is an independent action that cuts to the core.
When everybody is saying one thing, to hold fast to what is right, that is true
freedom, true liberty, and real independence.
It’s always a little strange to be a British guy preaching near
Independence Day. Putting that aside, my understanding of the war of Independence
is that it was as much a conflict about loyalties as a conflict between nations; between those Americans who wished to stay
loyal to the Crown and those who sought for self determination in government.
I don’t want to
get involved in any historical debate here; but simply to say that many situations of conflict we are involved in boil down,
somewhere along the line, to the question of loyalty. Who are we loyal to? What are we loyal to? What are we prepared
to protect, and what are we prepared to let go?
God has shown His loyalty to us through the life, death, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. Jesus was prepared to travel through deep suffering so that we may know the free reign of God’s love
in our hearts and lives. His love calls us to live independently of the forces
that would cheapen life and drag us down to a merely animal existence.
And this freedom, this love, is available to all. For this, Jesus gives thanks. "I praise thee, Father... Thou
didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes." Do
we get it? The love of God is not limited to those who can grasp it intellectually;
those who can by their own efforts make the grade. It’s the opposite. It’s the unpretentious, the little ones, the needy ones whom God sets free.
Matthew, Chapter 11, closes with an invitation from the one who is
Himself meek and lowly in heart; an invitation to all who know themselves burdened and in need of salvation; an invitation
to learn and become Jesus’ disciples.
Do you know what the best thing is that we can do right now? Bring our broken lives to God. Come to
God in simple faith, that through God’s Spirit in Christ we meet with a wounded healer. It
doesn't matter if we don't always get it. It doesn't matter if we don't always
understand. All God wants is that we seek for His way to be seen in our lives;
because then God can pour out blessing upon blessing towards us.
God knows that we are yoked to many things. There are forces that pull us in all sorts of directions. Our
calling is not to be yoked to anything other than Jesus Christ. With His presence
alongside us we find rest and peace. He helps us carry the load. He sets us free.
Do you get it? Well, if
not, we’re in the right place to find it. Maybe we will always have more
questions than answers, but that should not prevent us from throwing our lives on the mercy of God and seeking to do those
things we know are right.
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt
