Jesus as Wisdom

Prov 8:22-36, Matt 11:25-30

The passage that has just been read to us has some of the most familiar and well-loved words of the gospels in it. It is good to know that our God is a god who will carry our burdens, indeed who will carry us when we feel burdened. A few years ago I was talking about this passage and used an example that still seems very powerful. Joshua was quite young at the time – before he went to school – and he used to carry a backpack everywhere and at all times. He was a bit grizzly one day so I picked him up along with a few other bags and bits and pieces, then Ben asked to be picked up also. I explained that I couldn’t carry Ben because I already had my books, my bags, Josh and Josh’s backpack to carry. Josh said to me – “No mum, I’m carrying my backpack” I thought at the time and I still think it is a great illustration of being held and supported by God even when we feel we are carrying the load.

But the image in Matthew is rather one of a yoke. The yoke is a contraption that is used to attach an ox or a bullock to whatever it has to pull. Usually they work in pairs so the yoke lays across the shoulders of both with a frame around the neck of each. The word translated “easy” as in “my yoke is easy” does not necessarily mean that there’s nothing much to pull, but that the yoke fits well and so does not chaff and cut into the flesh as the bullock pulls against it. And the image of working in pairs means knowing that wherever we are we have another there beside us, sharing the load.

So this is a wonderful and comforting image, but today we’ve read from a few verses earlier to put it in its broader context: in my bible the section is entitled “Jesus as Wisdom’s spokesperson”. Indeed the whole chapter seems to have this focus. It marks a transition from teaching the disciples to a broader challenge to hear and act on his words – verse one says “now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.” With a discussion about the role of John the chapter has rich links to the prophetic literature of the Old Testament, and a surprising parable about children in the market place in the middle of the chapter makes a link to Jewish wisdom literature of Proverbs as well as other wisdom books that are not in our bible.

In the Old Testament there is a range of wisdom teaching, from short easily remembered sayings typical to the book of Proverbs to the 42 chapters of the deeply anguished book of Job. There are riddles, parables and sermons; there is the pessimistic outlook of the writer of Ecclesiastes and the strongly optimistic belief by other authors that it is possible to find the key to the good life and to pass it on. There are profound theological issues that are dealt with by wisdom traditions, and there is the ordinary stuff of life. Despite the range of wisdom teaching in the Old Testament the common factor is that people of faith are trying to make sense of life in the light of that faith.

What is of particular interest for us today is that there are also a number of passages where Wisdom receives a capital “W” – becoming an attribute of God but being spoken of as a separate entity. So the passage we read from Proverbs 8 where Wisdom herself speaks (the word in Hebrew is feminine) – as the daughter and co-creator of God before all other things came into existence. At the beginning of that poem it states “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work” but the verb is more often translated “acquired”, and in other parts of Proverbs the student is exhorted to “acquire wisdom.” So God is the first to take on the attribute, and thus becomes an example for all people of faith. When in Matthew’s gospel Jesus says “Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds” he is showing that he has taken that step too, of acquiring wisdom and allowing it to be seen in his life.

It is pretty clear from the gospels that Jesus was a teacher of wisdom. His short memorable sayings and parables are typical of that sort of teaching and were remembered and recorded by his followers. But other biblical writers with a more theological approach have gone the next step and presented Jesus as capital “W” Wisdom - the person who most fully embodies divine wisdom. The first chapter of John that we read from last week is an example – with the divine Word being present with God and identified with God at the beginning of all things – clearly a passage related to the poem we read from Proverbs 8. Paul also speaks of Jesus as wisdom in his letters to the Corinthians in particular.

And Matthew places the person of Jesus squarely in this tradition too. This isn’t surprising because Matthew is the evangelist who most stresses the teaching of Jesus, and teaching is a central part of the wisdom tradition. As a prophet and child of Wisdom, Jesus was calling his followers to a different way of life. He saw himself in the tradition of the sage who knows God's wisdom and seeks to live by it, and he was offering that way of life to others too.

And yet he was pointing the way to a different sort of wisdom – not the conventional world of sage advice and truisms such as those who are good prosper and those who are bad lose out. The wisdom he represented went much deeper – it affected the whole way one lived. It was a call to participate in the kingdom of God – a totally different kingdom to that of the world around. In the Kingdom of Rome and even the small kingdom of Judea where Herod reigned there was an emphasis on titles, names, status, education. It was a patriarchal, hierarchical, world. The Kingdom of God that Jesus was committed to was not exclusive, in fact some have called it a kingdom of nobodies, a kingdom of undesirables. Jesus speaks of it with colourful language – saying it was hidden from the intelligent, but revealed to infants. When he tells a parable earlier in the chapter about children calling out in the market place he brings together surprising images. The market place was the place for legal settlements, for public discourse and display of status and wealth. Not necessarily a place for children. So talking about children in the marketplace would have made them sit up and take notice. Wisdom had more to do with how we live and act towards others than how much we know and have control over others. And then there was the earlier discussion between Jesus and John’s disciples – John sent his followers to ask Jesus if he was the one they were waiting for, and his answer was “go back and tell John what you hear and see.” No sophisticated analysis is needed, just an observation of how lives were being affected, people being freed from burdens, the many occasions of joyful drinking and eating of Jesus and his friends. In the book of Proverbs the passage about personified Wisdom continues on to invite those who are listening to a feast. The new way of interpreting and understanding God's will that Jesus represented would satisfy the thirsty and feed hungry souls. No wonder our most central and abiding symbol of Jesus present in the church today is at the communion meal – the place where we are invited to come back regularly so that our spiritual thirst and hunger may be symbolically nourished.

In fact it was a strong Jewish tradition that to be a person of wisdom meant to understand and follow the Torah – to hear God’s ways and live them out in everyday life. It sounds a beautiful and meaningful summons. Why then did it became a threat to those who wielded power – so that Jesus like John and other prophets was ultimately rejected and removed?

As a child of wisdom Jesus called all who were weary and carrying heavy burdens and offered rest and shalom. He proclaimed that the discipleship of wisdom was a yoke easy to bear, because it came from the gracious goodness of God. But it had to be an offer to all without exception. In its inclusion of poor and outcast it became a subversive movement, one that threatened the status quo, and overturned the structures. In the very next passage in Matthew there is a controversy over Sabbath laws. You see, When Matthew recorded Jesus' words "my yoke is easy, my burden is light", he undoubtedly had in the back of his mind the demands of the Jewish law. The rabbis spoke of the law as the yoke of the Kingdom of God. But their interpretation of that law had made the yoke too heavy.

The law said that the Sabbath was a day of rest. The interpretation of the rabbis meant that the work of reaping could not be done and the work of healing could not be done. So when Jesus plucked grain for food on the Sabbath, and healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, he was challenging their interpretation of the yoke of the law.

The law said people must be clean to come before God in worship. The interpretation of the rabbis meant that people who were physically ill were excluded, women who may have been menstruating were excluded, foreigners whose motives were suspect were excluded. So when Jesus welcomed lepers, women and Samaritans amongst his followers and encouraged them to worship God he was challenging their interpretation of the yoke of the law.

Remember the image of the yoke being that of paired bullocks working together. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,” sounds like we may be supposed to learn from him by doing what he doe. A bullock doesn’t learn by doing what the bullock driver does, but by doing what a more experienced bullock does. Jesus’ invitation was a call to be paired with him in a double yoke, pulling together, working together on the same job. This makes sense in the context of Matthew’s gospel directed to the new Christian church, because the word ‘disciple’ means something more like apprentice than pupil - one learns on the job from the qualified worker, not from the books and the lecture. “Come to me,” says Jesus, “and get into the harness with me and work shoulder to shoulder with me.” It would have been a particularly welcome invitation to those who felt driven into the ground by rules and regulations that had no care for their welfare, or that viewed them as a case number without recognising their real lives were being affected.

This invitation is for us also. While the image of taking on new work may not immediately sound like an image of rest, Jesus is saying that this work fits, and because it fits it is easy and light and gives rest to our souls. To take on the yoke of Jesus is the way to avoid being yoked by something else. Fulfilment will be found in taking on the yoke that fits right, putting our shoulder to the task for which we were created. It is not a call to heaviness, but a call to lightness of being. It is an invitation to be yoked to one who is truly wise, who is gentle and humble in heart and who enables our whole being to relax and be at peace.

Like the pair of oxen, we are being invited to join with Jesus in his work. We are invited to follow his lead. When the yoke of the law was lightened, the followers of Jesus were freer to do the work of Jesus. In the book of Galatians we find Paul stating this very clearly: "Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2).

We worship a God who knows we often carry burdens. We are invited to yoke ourselves to this God, sharing the work but allowing God to take the heavy load from us, to carry us even when we are shouldering a weight. We are invited to follow the one who is best able to guide us and who will be with us, even when the way becomes rough. And we are asked to do this together, to share one another's burdens.

There are some practical ways we can do this even today, and as we gather around the communion table we are going to draw in some community news in order to share burdens and joys with those who are part of our spiritual family. But as we prepare to do this let us turn to Hymn No. 455.