Introduction
It might seem like we’ve been hopping around quite randomly in Matthew’s Gospel over the last few months but, I assure you, there’s a method to our madness.
We are committed to preaching systematically through the whole Gospel, all 28 chapters of it. It’s just that we’ve been focusing on the passages related to Jesus’ birth and death in the run up to Christmas and Easter.
But here’s the plan. If you remember back to July last year, we began our series in chapter 3 with the ministry of John the Baptist and we got as far as chapter 9 before we paused for our 30th anniversary celebrations last November. Then, in December we rewound the tape to focus on chapters 1-2 and we did that because the first two chapters of Matthew are about Jesus’ conception and birth, which fitted well for the run up to Christmas,.
In the New Year, we went back to where we left off in the late autumn. We managed to squeeze in one chapter in January, which was chapter 10. Then in February and March this year we camped in the final three chapters of Matthew, which are about Jesus’ last supper, betrayal, trial, condemnation, death, burial and resurrection. And we did that because all that fits with the run up to Easter.
From today, we’re back in chapter 11, and we’ll now follow the book all the way through to chapter 25 which, with a little break for Christmas again, and allowing for a few guest speakers, will take us through to next February. All in all, it will have taken us about 80 Sundays to complete the whole of Matthew’s Gospel, but we are going to cover all of it, every verse. So that’s the plan. And we aim to open up the scriptures together for about 30 minutes each Sunday morning.
It’s said that a clergyman once asked the Duke of Wellington for some input about an upcoming commemorative service. The reverend said, “What would you like the sermon to be about? And Wellington replied, “About ten minutes.”
Well, we believe in building a local church that is strong and resilient and resistant to error and deception and fleeting fashions, because it properly feeds on God’s word. We want steak and chips sermons, not a pot noodle pulpit.
The Response of the Galilean Towns (v1-6, 20-24)
If you can remember back to January, (and to be honest I struggle to remember what I had for dinner last Wednesday, so it’s as well we remind ourselves), we were at a crossroads in Jesus’ three-year ministry.
He had, in chapter 10, just started sending out his chosen twelve disciples as apostles to multiply his ministry far and wide. They were getting ready to be sent out two-by-two into the nearby towns to preach the good news and heal the sick.
And Jesus was managing expectations for them, saying that they would cause offence and face opposition, so they would be like sheep among wolves, do you remember? So after that really encouraging motivational pep talk from Jesus, off they went.
But what do you think Jesus was doing while the twelve were all out on mission? Have you ever wondered about that? He wasn't sitting on his hands. In chapter 11, verse 1 it tells us what he was doing. It says, “When Jesus had finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he went out to teach and preach in towns throughout the region.” So, Jesus was out on mission as well, and very unusually for him, this time he went alone.
How did it go? The answer comes in v4, and it comes as a reply to a question from John the Baptist’s followers. And it looks at first sight like it went pretty well.
“Go back to John” says Jesus, “and tell him what you have heard and seen – the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor.”
So there has been remarkable power in Jesus’ preaching, and it has been accompanied by extraordinary healings and even resurrections. Happy days.
Or were they? Did it really go well? Actually, when you look closer, the answer is, tragically, no it didn’t go well at all. Because the response to Jesus’ stunning and amazing ministry of life-giving teaching and life-changing miracles has been at best apathetic and at worst defiantly resistant. Let’s read from v20 (I'm reading from the NLT).
Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where he had done so many of his miracles, because they hadn’t repented of their sins and turned to God.
“What sorrow awaits you, Korazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. I tell you, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on judgment day than you. And you people of Capernaum, will you be honoured in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today. I tell you, even Sodom will be better off on judgment day than you.”
At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way! My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Prayer…
It is quite hard to calculate the population of Galilee in the time of Christ. The 1st century Jewish historian Josephus claims that there were about 200 Jewish villages in Galilee at that time.
Using this and other data, modern historians estimate that the population in the region around the Sea of Galilee could have been anywhere between 200,000 and 700,000 people. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, it would have been somewhere approaching the round figure of half a million, which is about five times the population of Darlington.
Four of the principal towns on the shores of the lake itself at that time were Capernaum, Bethsaida, Korazin and Tiberias. In our passage this morning, Jesus curses the first three on this list, because of their stubborn unbelief.
It’s chilling and sobering that if ever you go on holiday to Galilee today, your tour guide will show you the ruins of Capernaum, Korazin and Bethsaida. Moss now creeps over the scattered ancient stones where those bustling towns once stood. There's nothing left of them.
But notice that Jesus doesn’t curse the fourth main town of Tiberias. And, unlike the others, it’s still standing. In fact, when you visit the Sea of Galilee now in all likelihood your hotel will be in the thriving city of Tiberias, on the western shore, overlooking the blue and shimmering lake. (I have only been to the Sea of Galilee in Israel once, in my life and when I did, this city is where I stayed).
It is yet another confirmation of the trustworthiness of the Bible. But the authority and accuracy of Christ's words should make us tremble.
He said he would be rejected and mocked and he was. He said Judas would betray him and he did. He said Peter would deny him and he did. He said he would be handed over to death and he was. He said on the third day he would rise and he did.
He cursed three towns for their unbelief and they're gone. He said nothing about the fourth and it endures to this day.
He said he will return and he will. He said he will come to judge the living and the dead - and it's going to happen. He said every secret will be laid bare.
Are you ready to face him? Psalm 25 says, All those whose trust is in you, Lord, will never be put to shame.
But we need to ask why were these three towns that Jesus denounces so resistant to the gospel? Why, even when people are having their blind eyes opened and getting raised from the dead, are they so stubbornly unbelieving? How can you explain cynicism like that?
I mean Jesus says that Tyre and Sidon would have responded better than they did, and these were foreign, pagan towns steeped in idol worship. The wicked and murderous queen Jezebel in the Old Testament was from there.
And Jesus says Sodom would have responded better than they did as well. This town was famous, proverbial in fact, for godlessness, violent disorder, and sexual depravity.
Being teachable (v25-27)
Korazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum were more resistant to the gospel than these places. Why?
The answer seems to come in v25-26 where Jesus prays, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!
The three Galilean towns that Jesus cursed thought of themselves as so grown up, so above it all, so wise and clever, so elite. And it hardened their hearts to stone.
The American church leader John Ortberg once talked about a friend of his who was reading his Bible one morning in a Chicago coffee shop. This is how he tells the story.
A young woman looks over and asks, “Why are you reading that?”
He looks at her and says, (and this is an exact quote): “Why am I reading this? Because I don’t want to go to hell when I die.”
She rolls her eyes and says, “Well, there’s no such thing as heaven or hell.”
He says, “Oh, that’s interesting, why do you say that?”
She says, “Everybody knows that when you die, you die. Your candle goes out – and that’s it.”
He says, “You mean to tell me there’s no afterlife?”
“No.”
“You mean, there’s no judgement day or anything? In other words, everyone can just live as they please?”
“That’s right.”
“Well, that’s fascinating to me,” he says, “where did you hear that?”
She says, “I read it somewhere.”
“Wow,” he says, “can you give me the name of the book?”
“I can’t remember.”
“OK. Can you give me the name of the author of the book?”
“I forgot his name.”
“OK. Maybe I can google it. Did the author write any other books?”
“I don’t know.”
He says, “Is it possible that this author changed his or her mind after writing this particular book, and then wrote another one that said there is a heaven and a hell? Is that possible?”
“It’s possible,” she says, “but not likely.”
“All right,” he says, “let me get this straight. You’re rolling the dice on your entire eternity predicated on what someone you don’t know said in a book you can’t recall the title of. Have I got that straight?”
She looks back. “That’s right.”
He waits a moment and says, “You know what I think? I think you’ve created a belief that guarantees the continuation of your lifestyle. I think you protect yourself with this belief because it is uncomfortable to think of heaven and hell. It is very unnerving to think of a holy God calling us to account on a day of reckoning.”
The famous and brilliant theoretical physicist Albert Einstein once wrote, “I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or who would directly sit in judgement on creatures of his own creation.”
But what really matters at the end of the day is not what Einstein thinks about God, but what God thinks about Einstein!
Even the greatest intellects can fail to grasp the simplest spiritual truth. When people ignore or reject the notion that God will one day hold us to account, it’s as if they choose to sleep on when their house has caught fire.
Come to me… (v28-30)
And it’s with all this in mind, that Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
What is this? At first glance it sounds a bit like a self-help article in a magazine supplement called “10 Top Tips to Beat Stress.” But it’s not that. It’s not 5 pillars of submission like in Islam. And it’s not 4 noble truths towards enlightenment like in Buddhism.
This is unlike anything else before or since. Jesus says, not “Come on a course or programme” or even “come on a journey” but “Come to me. I am the key to lifting the load of everything in life that weighs you down.”
Jesus is looking at people who are stressed, anxious, driven, workaholic, worried, loaded down by life, looking like the weight of the world is on their shoulders and he’s saying, “Do I ever look worn out and world-weary like you?”
We’ve been looking closely at Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel for about 9 months now. And we’re halfway through. Not once, until his final hour on the cross, did he ever look drained and depleted. He was always at the top of his game.
Jesus says, “Learn from me.” In other words, “Be teachable. Observe closely. Watch how I do it. Copy me. I just go with the grain of what the Father is already doing - it’s easy that way.”
Jesus says in John’s Gospel how this works; “the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing… for the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.”
I love that in a hectic world, where so many people are ground down and crushed under the weight of stress, Jesus says this.
Twice Jesus uses the word “rest”. “Come to me and I will give you rest... (v28) You will find rest for your souls (v29).”
Former Bishop of Durham Tom Wright says “rest” is perhaps best translated “relief.” It doesn’t mean put your feet up and doss about aimlessly.
It’s not that. It’s not a wasted life of wall-to-wall computer games and reality TV and sunbathing. It means Jesus relieving you of what’s grinding you down and exhausting you and wearying you, and replacing that with his own yoke so you walk side by side with him. It's not relaxing away from him, it's working with him through life.
And look, in v 29 Jesus says, “Learn from me.” What are you learning from Jesus at the moment? Are you learning anything in particular?
I asked Kathie once, “what it is about unteachable people?” And we both thought instantly of a couple we knew who rocked up one day in the church plant we were involved in.
They both had a kind of detached arrogance. They seemed above it all. “You can’t tell me anything.” Maybe the people of Korazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum were like this…
We lived with a permanent expectation; “as soon as I challenge either or both of them on any particular issue they’ll be off and we’ll never see them again.” And, sure enough, the moment I did, they disappeared without trace.
How teachable are you? Are you able to walk in step with him in life, give him your burdens, take his yoke, cast your cares on him?
Ironically, Jesus would probably have made yokes in his carpenter's workshop.
A yoke is a kind of wooden frame that joins two oxen around the neck. It makes pulling a plough or a trailer so much less arduous. A yoke makes burdens easier to carry.
Jesus is saying here, “If you walk in step with me, if you live close to me everything is comparatively effortless, because I’ll take the weight.”
Talking of which, in 1956, Paul Anderson won the gold medal for weightlifting at the Melbourne Olympics. He only stood 5'9" tall, but he weighed over 26 stone, or 170 kilos. His massive body allowed him to lift weights his competitors couldn't even imagine. In the 1970s, was the strongest man in the world.
Paul Anderson was also a devoted Christian who put on shows to support orphanages he ran in his home state of Georgia. He did things like lift a table holding 20 of the biggest people from the audience. He also drove nails through two boards with only a handkerchief protecting his palm.
Then he would say: "If I, the strongest man in the world, can't get through one day without Jesus Christ? What about you?"
Ending
As I draw to an end, I have in my hand a glass of water. Question; how heavy is it? Any suggestions...?
…If I put it on the weighing scales it would register 500g (about 17oz).
But the absolute weight doesn't matter. What actually matters is how long I hold it for. If I hold this for a few seconds, it's not a problem. It's 500g, no problems.
But if I hold it for five minutes, my arm will start to ache. If I have to hold it for an hour, it will feel like it weighs a ton. The absolute weight of the glass is still 500g, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes for me.
The worries and anxieties in your life and mine are like that glass of water. If you think about what stresses you for just a little while – it’s pretty manageable. If you think about them longer they begin to weigh you down. And if you think about them constantly, they will torture you. You will be incapable of doing anything else.
The Bible says, “Cast your cares on him, for he cares for you.” This is at the heart of learning to live like Jesus.
Let's stand to pray...
Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 21 April 2024
