WelCom July 2020:
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time–Matthew 11:25-30
25 At that time Jesus exclaimed, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. 27 Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’
28 ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’
Reflection on Matthew 11:25-30
Kate Bell
So it’s not the ones who have it all together, the savvy and smart who Jesus delights in and gives thanks for today! The lectionary translation of ‘infants’ or children risks a literal understanding of the noun and masks the Aramaic meaning of the anawim – understood more clearly as the ‘little ones’ the poor, the vulnerable, those on the edge of society, through whatever circumstance. The ones who are always being squeezed and are struggling. These are the ones for who the Kingdom of God is Good News an opportunity for growth, a moment of redemption and hope. It’s only the anawim who are able to ‘know’ the Son and the Son’s revelation of the Father.
Thank God that all of us have cracks and wounds making us a woggily and infantile! These embarrassing sites of vulnerability, nakedness and exhaustion are the only places where is room for Jesus Kingdom to happen… .
Jesus invites us to down our tools, to drop our kit; to accept his teaching, his pattern of loving service, the yoke that is the antithesis of worldly power, honour and prestige.