Matthew 11:25-30 is a Wisdom teaching although echoing elements of OT Wisdom, also breaks from it. The new element in this teaching is Jesus himself, who is revealed as the revelation of Divine Wisdom.
The saying has its parallel in Luke 10:21-22 but only until Matthew 11:27. Verses 28-30 is not found in Luke. There are some scholars who think that verses 28-30 may be exclusive to Matthew. Others think that those verses were part of the Q tradition but Luke omitted them because he didn't deem the passage intelligible to his Gentile audience. To my mind, it would be safer to think that Matthew drew those passages from the tradition peculiar to him, rather than to think that Luke omitted something.
The saying is divided into the following sections:
25 ... Thanksgiving to the Father for Revelation 26-27 ... The content of Revelation, Jesus Himself, the Wisdom of God 28-30 ... The invitation by Jesus to Himself as Wisdom in Person
The structure is comparable to Sirach 51:1-30. 51:1-12 is a thanksgiving prayer addressed to God for salvation received. 51:13-22 is an autobiographical poem about Wisdom, recounting Sirach's relationship with her. Finally 51:23-30 is Sirach's invitation to himself as a teacher of Israel, one through whom Wisdom is learned. In Matthew 11:28-30, we find a resemblance to Sir. 51:23-30 with Jesus' invitation. This time, however, the invitation is for people to go to Jesus and find comfort in the Wisdom he gives.
The Saying In Context
We already noted above that Matthew 11:28-30 is not found in Luke. The existence of Luke 10:21-22, however, shows us that the saying in Matthew 11:25-27 belongs to a tradition that both Matthew and Luke shared. The saying however is used differently in both gospels. In Luke 10, the saying is uttered as part of Jesus' response to the seventy-two who announce the defeat of the demons (10:17). Jesus' reply is in verses 18-24. After telling the seventy-two the right reason for rejoining (18-20), he addresses a prayer to the Father for the triumphal progress of the gospel (21-22), and then he turns to the disciples to tell them about the great privilege that they experience (23-24). What in Luke appears as a prayer of thanksgiving for triumph over the kingdom of Satan (see Luke 10:18), in Matthew, is a prayer of thanksgiving for those who have received Jesus as the fullness of Divine Revelation.
In context, Matthew 11:25-27 appears in a section that recounts the ambivalence of Jesus to the people around him, beginning with John the Baptist (11:2-6) and the "people of this generation" (11:16-19). The saying, furthermore is preceded by the woes uttered over the Galilean towns which have rejected Jesus (11:20-24) and followed by controversies with the Pharisees who test hiim (12:1ff). In this context, then, Jesus' prayer of thanksgiving is for those who have believed him and who continue to believe in him inspite of the accusations hurled against him. as "a glutton and a drunkard" (11:19) and a collaborator of Beelzebul (12:24).
Christ Our Wisdom
Those who have compared Matthew 11:25-30 with Sirach 51 conclude that its structure is original. It is for this reason that they think that the saying as it appeared in Q may have included even verses 28-30. Understood however as Jesus' prayer, it says more than is said in Israel's wsdom tradition, because here, we find Wisdom Incarnate thanking the Father and inviting people to himself. It is no longer a personified Wisdom that speaks and iinvites; it is now Wisdom Himself that has opened his doors to those seeking direction and extends his arms to offer them consolation.
In Jesus' thanksgiving prayer, he addresses the Father for two actions: hiding "these things" from the wise and the knowledgeable, and revealing "them" to mere babies (nepios). In verse 26, Jesus declares that this is what pleases the Father. What are "these things"? In verse 27, Jesus identifies "these things" as the "all" which the Father has handed over to him -- the full disclosure of Himself and His will to the Son. Subsequent NT Christian writers will express this in different ways. Paul, for example, calls Jesus the Wisdom of God. In proclaiming his theology of the cross, Paul tells the Corinthians
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart." Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord." (1Corinthians (RSV) 1:18-31)
This statement of Paul bears striking resemblance with Jesus' prayer in Matthew in that it brings out the ambivalence of Christ, his rejection by "the wise" and acceptance by "the simple". His declaration that Christ has been made by God "our wisdom" echoes Jesus' declaration of His exclusive knowledge of the Father and how he reveals that knowledge to whom He wants. The passage from Paul also tells us what "babes" mean in Matthew: they are the unlearned, those of lowly birth, the "nothings" of this world, the "weak", the "low and despised".
Apart from Paul, we find John beginning his gospel with the declaration that the Word of God took on flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son (1:1-18). In a saying found in John 1:51, Jesus says that he is the stairway that leads to heaven, another way of saying that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Through Him, the Life and the Truth that is in God becomes available to all.
This very short survey of the way the content of Jesus' prayer in Matthew 11:25-27 is echoed in Paul and John justifies Harnack's observation that here we find the core of later Christology1.
Those who labor and are burdened
Matthew 11:28-30 is an invitation by Incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Himself, to those who "labor and are burdened". In Qoheleth, those who labor and are burdened are all of humanity: "For all his days are full of pain, and his work is a vexation; even in the night his mind does not rest. (Ecclesiastes (RSV) 2:21)". Within the context of Matthew, these may be the harassed and helpless crowds who await the Messiah's advent (Matthew 9:35) , or in a wider sense those who are in anyway tired. To these, Jesus offers himself as comfort and consolation. He ís "meek and humble of heart" not inaccessible nor too lofty to reach. The "yoke" that he offers does not add to the burdens one already has, but is "easy and light", because laid upon the shoulder with love2- 1. This is noted in Viviano's commentary on Matthew in the NJBC, 653
- 2. I admit this is more an Augustinian interpretation of the text than what Matthew would intend his listeners to understand. In Matthew's school, the yoke that is easy and light may refer to the teachings of Jesus that are accomodated to the understanding of the simple: shorter and easy to learn compared to that of the Pharisees. The Augustinian interpretation is not dependent on just one of the Augustine's writings but can be gleaned from the idea that charity makes everything easy to bear.
