Can you see that the whole world belongs to Jesus? – Sunday Gospel Reflection – Mat. 11:25-30

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A reflection on the Gospel reading for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Matthew 11:25-30 (NABRE)

At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Everybody wants to rule the world

I’m an 80’s kid, so I grew up listening to what is arguably the best music in history; 80’s music! Am I right? One of the great songs from the 80s is Everybody wants to rule the world by Tears for Fears. The title of the song reflects a mega-theme in both world history, and the entire Biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation. You could say that the story of the Bible is the story that seeks to answer two questions germane to the entire scope of human history on planet Earth: (1) Who owns the world? and (2) Who is rightfully in charge of the world? The answers to those two questions are given unapologetically here in the reading from Matthew 11:25-30.

First, a bit of context

In the ramp-up to Jesus’s prayer, proclamation, and invitation in Matthew, he has been interacting with the crowds in his preaching ministry through various cities and towns (Mat. 11:1). His first exchange is with disciples of John the Baptist who, along with John himself, want to know if he is “the one who is to come,” or should they keep looking for another? Behind John’s (and his disciples’) questions are probably other questions like; If you’re the one who is to come, why aren’t you assembling a military, rallying the troops and the people, kicking the Gentiles (Romans) out of the Holy Land and taking your place on David’s throne?! His response is likely disorienting to them:

“Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. 6 And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.” (Mat. 11:4b-6).

This is likely Jesus’ way of ironing out their messianic expectations, and reorienting their perspective. He has even bigger fish to fry, and there’s another power behind the earthly ones they are focused on that is being dealt with at its source.

In the sections that follow, Jesus gives testimony to John the Baptist as the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a messenger to prepare the way before the arrival of the Messiah (cf. Mal. 3:1), even though John himself seems to have questions about what exactly Jesus is up to. He then chides the crowds for not truly recognizing what was right in front of them. Instead, says Jesus, they are more like spoiled children who treat John and Jesus like hired entertainers or mourners at parties and funerals beholden to their whims and wants. Rather than seeing John and Jesus for who they really are in salvation history, the fickle and hypocritical crowds dismiss them and their ministries by accusing John of being a teeetotaler who is possessed by a demon, and accusing Jesus of being a drunkard with all the wrong friends.

16 “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, 17 ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.” (Mat. 11:16-19)

Finally, in his reproach of the unrepentant towns, Jesus pronounces woe upon them for being spiritually deaf and blind to the work of God being done in their midst; not by the prophets of the past, but by the very ones of whom the prophets had been speaking all along — the Messiah and his forerunner.

A prayer, a proclamation, and an invitation

All of this brings us to today’s Gospel reading. Here, we may see the camera angle shift to zoom in on Jesus as he turns his gaze away from the crowds and looks up to heaven to pray. His prayer begins with thanksgiving to God as Father, and as Lord of heaven and earth. This will be important language for understanding exactly what Jesus is talking about in Mat. 11:27. In his prayer, Jesus thanks God that there are people who do, indeed, see Jesus on his own terms rather than in terms of their own expectations, whims, or fickle hypocrisy. They are, according to Jesus, not the wise and learned, but the childlike.

In one of his homilies on this portion of Matthew’s Gospel, St. Augustine says of the “wise and learned” in Jesus’ prayer;

They are they peradventure who in their much disputation concerning God, have spoken falsely of Him; who, puffed up by their own doctrines, could in no wise find out and know God, and who for the God whose substance is incomprehensible and invisible, have thought the air and sky to be God, or the sun to be God, or any thing which holds high place among the creatures to be God. [1]

And regarding those to whom the truth had been revealed by the Father — the “little ones” in Jesus’ prayer, Augustine writes again,

What babes? To the lowly. Say on whom doth My Spirit rest?* Upon him that is lowly and quiet, and who trembleth at My words. At these words Peter trembled; Plato trembled not. Let the fisherman hold fast what that most famous philosopher has lost. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Thou hast hid them from the proud, and revealed them to the humble. [2]

This is a good place to remind the reader of the title I have chosen for this post: “Can you see that the whole world belongs to Jesus?” That is, I propose, exactly what Jesus asserts in the next verse when he proclaims, “All things have been handed over to be by my Father.” Let the reader understand! This is “Second Adam” talk! This is “original human vocation” talk. This is “Genesis 1:26” and “Psalm 2:7-12” talk —

Gen. 1:26 Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth.

Ps. 2:7-12 – ⁷ I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father.
⁸ Ask me,
    and I will make the nations your inheritance,
    the ends of the earth your possession.
⁹ You will break them with a rod of iron;
    you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”
¹⁰ Therefore, you kings, be wise;
    be warned, you rulers of the earth.
¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear
    and celebrate his rule with trembling.
¹² Kiss his son, or he will be angry
    and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
    Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Remember the two questions I asked above? (1) Who owns the world? and (2) Who is rightfully in charge of the world? In just a few words of prayer and proclamation, Jesus answers both questions when he prays, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth,” and then proclaims, “all things have been handed over to me by my Father.” When we connect what Jesus is doing here to the big story of the Bible, we see him stepping into the shoes abandoned by Adam in his rebellion, and claiming the right to the throne abdicated by Adam in his acquiescence to the voice of the serpent.

We have seen that God’s created intentions for the human race are centered on the human vocation to image God, and to be the visible representation of God’s presence and reign over the world. Matthew has already helped us to see that this is where Jesus is headed when, in Matthew 3 Jesus inaugurates a new creation event at his baptism, the Father affirms Jesus as his own pleasing son, and opens the heavens to him (formerly closed off to Adam in Gen. 3:23-24). Then, in Matthew 4, the Holy Spirit leads him to go and face the ancient enemy head-on out in the wilderness! In that scene, Jesus will be offered the world and all its kingdoms in exchange for bending the knee to Satan. But he refuses to be Adam, and the devil leaves him.

Matthew will give us another important and related scene at the end of his Gospel. In Mat. 28:18-20, after his crucifixion, burial, and resurrection, Jesus will again proclaim that “all authority in heaven and earth” has been handed over to him by God. And in that scene, Jesus will use a lot of “king” language when he commissions his disciples to go and tell every group of people in the whole world that they are now invited to obey everything Jesus has taught, and to baptize everyone who is ready to accept his invitation, and to swear, through the sacrament of baptism, allegiance to Jesus as the world’s rightful Lord. But this is not the invitation of a despot. Remember the words of Jesus after his prayer and proclamation? Remember his invitation in Mat. 11:28-30?

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Rulers, burdens and yokes

The language of burdens and yokes in a world dominated by selfish and evil rulers can be pretty scary. For Jesus’ audience, living under Roman oppression and hoping for Messianic deliverance (through military victory), this language may have been somewhat confusing. It is “king” and “ruler” language, to be sure — but with a twist! Jesus is the rightful ruler of the world. The authority to exercise dominion over everything (and everyone) in heaven and on earth has been given to him by his Father in heaven. The whole world belongs to Jesus. The Gospel invites us to accept and live in this reality despite the counter-narrative seen in the oppressive governments of those who want to rule the world on their own terms.

Here is the struggle of the Christian life in a nutshell; it is accepting and living under the truth that, in contradiction to every other claim, God, the Lord of heaven and earth (remember?) has given the legitimate right to rule the world to Jesus (his pleasing son). Other loyalties will try to crowd him out and take his place in our lives. Other allegiances will fight against Jesus’ claims on our obedience. The other “rulers” have yokes and burdens too, but they will grind us down and crush us under their weight.

The liberating call of the Gospel to bend the knee to King-Jesus stands in contradistinction to the death-dealing call of principalities and powers and rulers to bend the knee to them.

We are invited to choose.

A Prayer: “Heavenly Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I bend my knee to Jesus Christ, the world’s true Lord and King. I take his yoke upon myself, and I accept his burden. Give me the grace today and each day to follow Jesus and to deny my obedience to every contrary voice and every competing claim on my life. Remind me of my own baptism and the new birth you have given me into a new life. Help me to continue to learn the way of Jesus, and to live in obedience to him with the help of the Holy Spirit. – Amen”

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References & Credits

Cover Image: Christ Pantocrator mosaic inside Cathedral of Monreale near Palermo, Sicily, Italy. *Christ Pantocrator means “The anointed ruler of the universe.”

Bible References are all from the New American Bible, Revised Edition

[1] Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament, vol. 1, A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, Anterior to the Division of the East and West (Oxford; London: John Henry Parker; J. G. F. and J. Rivington; J. and F. Rivington, 1844–1845), 156.

[2] Ibid, 159–160.