In Matthew 11:25-30, Jesus' prayer of thanksgiving becomes an occassion for teaching something about himself and the Father and for inviting all to find rest in Him. In these lines, He comes out as the Son through whom the Father has dispensed all the good things he intends for His children. Only those who have become children of the Father in their adherence to Jesus can know the Father's will as it is revealed through His Son.
Matthew 11:25-30 can be divided into two sets of verses. The first (vv. 25-27) has been called "The Messianic Shout of Joy" (Jubelruf). It is a Q logion that appears in Luke 10:21-22 with some differences. The parallel in Luke appears as Jesus' joyful response to the rejoicing of the seventy-two who return with a positive experience of their mission. In Matthew, Jesus rejoices right after he expresses woes over the towns which have rejected him. Within this saying is a verse that expresses the intimacy that exists between the Father and the Son (Matt. 11:26-27; Luke 10:22) and sounds like something taken from the Gospel of John.
The second set of verses (vv. 28-30) is from Matthew's store of materials, unique to him. Here, the key words or phrases are "give you rest", "yoke" and "burden" and the verb "learn". In "Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 1", Benedict XVI, working on materials provided by Neusner, concurs with this latter in showing that these verses go with the immediately following controversies between Jesus and the Pharisees regarding the Sabbath and is better understood within the Sabbath theme1. However, he also adds that this second set of verses develop further the Messianic Jubelruf.
The Messianic Jubelruf
Jesus praises Father for hiding "these things from the wise and the clever and revealing them to infants." Following as it does the denunciation of the towns which have rejected Jesus, we are made to understand that what has been rejected are the "things" which the Father has hidden from the wise and clever, but which He chooses to reveal to the infants. Later on, Jesus will be saying that the kingdom of heaven was meant for little children (19:14). The "wise and the clever" are those who think that they already know and understand the ways of God among men -- as exemplified by the Pharisees and the bible experts who approach Jesus to test him. They choose to see what they want to see and so fail to understand what the Father reveals through the Son. There is a similar idea in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 where Paul talks about the wisdom of the world and the folly of God. Later on, this "hiding-revealing" will be given further explanation in the parabolic section, Matthew 13 and specifically in Jesus' use of Is. 6:9-10 (Matt. 13:14-15).
We already noted how vv. 27 sounds like something taken from John. In fact, it can be compared to those Johanine passages where it is said that the Father has given all to the Son (John 3:35), that the Son says and does what the Father gives him to say and do (Jn. 5:19-20), that only those whom the Father draws, comes to the Son (Jn. 6:37) or that the Son has revealed all that He has heard from the Father (Jn. 15:15). In these Johanine passages as well as in Matthew 11:27, the intimacy of the relationship between the Son and the Father is such that the Son can choose to reveal the Father to those whom He chooses (cf. John 15:15-16). In Matthew 13:11 it will be shown that while Jesus speaks in riddles to the crowds, he however explains his words to his disciples because they are the ones allowed to know the mystery of the kingdom.
Jesus and Rest
Rabbi Jacob Neusner2, in a book that Benedict XVI singles out in "Jesus of Nazareth, vol 1", has pointed out that vv. 28-30 belong to the context of the Sabbath controversies. Indeed, the phrase "I will give you rest" refers to the Sabbath rest. The key words "yoke", "burden", "learn" belong to the same semantic field. "Yoke" and "burden" are references to the "Torah" meditated on during the Sabbath so that the faithful can truly act the way God acts. The Sabbath is not a day of inactivity or being indifferent; it is the day when the faithful change activities. They cease engaging in day-to-day activities in order to focus on what really matters. And what really matters are compassion and mercy as Jesus illustrates in his Sabbath controversies. His interpretation of the Sabbath Law shows him to be the Lord of the Sabbath. And as Neusner has shown, he is the Sabbath rest itself, the exemplification of the way one should imitate God.
For some interpreters of verse 30, the easy yoke and the light burden of Jesus due to his gentleness and meekness; his teachings are not strict. But if we look back at the Torah that he presents in the Sermon on the Mount, can we truly say that Jesus' teachings are easy and light? Remember that he demands a righteousness that is higher than that of the Pharisees (Matthew 5:20)! Rather, the Torah of Jesus is indeed easy and light because -- as Augustine would say -- "He gives what He commands." Or to paraphrase St. Paul: What the Law could not do, God has done by sending us His Son who empowers us to live according to God's will through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:3-9). It is also in this sense that the Son is our Rest. He is "the Way" that when taken gives "rest to your souls" (cf. Jer. 6:16a, Jn. 14:6).
Matthew 11:25-30 in the Catechism
Below are the places in the Catechism where certain verses of Matthew 11:25-30 are directly quoted; allussions have not been included in the below list. Note how vv.25-27 are taken as examples of Jesus's prayer (2603, 2701). Faith is crucial in accepting the Father's revelation through the Son (cf. 151, 153). The "infants" in Matthew 11:25 are identified with the "poor and the lowly" for whom the kingdom of heaven is reserved (544). In the Jubelruf, Jesus is revealed as "the Son", simply (cf. 443). In par. 1615, we find an instance where the easy yoke and light burden of Jesus is applied to the teaching about marriage.
| Matthew 11 | CCC Direct References |
| 25-27 | 2603 The evangelists have preserved two more explicit prayers offered by Christ during his public ministry. Each begins with thanksgiving. In the first, Jesus confesses the Father, acknowledges, and blesses him because he has hidden the mysteries of the Kingdom from those who think themselves learned and has revealed them to infants, the poor of the Beatitudes. His exclamation, "Yes, Father!" expresses the depth of his heart, his adherence to the Father's "good pleasure," echoing his mother's Fiat at the time of his conception and prefiguring what he will say to the Father in his agony. The whole prayer of Jesus is contained in this loving adherence of his human heart to the mystery of the will of the Father. |
| 25-26 | 2701 Vocal prayer is an essential element of the Christian life. To his disciples, drawn by their Master's silent prayer, Jesus teaches a vocal prayer, the Our Father. He not only prayed aloud the liturgical prayers of the synagogue but, as the Gospels show, he raised his voice to express his personal prayer, from exultant blessing of the Father to the agony of Gesthemani |
| 25 | 153 When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood", but from "my Father who is in heaven". Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.'" |
| 544 The kingdom belongs to the poor and lowly, which means those who have accepted it with humble hearts. Jesus is sent to "preach good news to the poor"; he declares them blessed, for "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." To them - the "little ones" the Father is pleased to reveal what remains hidden from the wise and the learned. Jesus shares the life of the poor, from the cradle to the cross; he experiences hunger, thirst and privation. Jesus identifies himself with the poor of every kind and makes active love toward them the condition for entering his kingdom. | |
| 27 | 151 For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his "beloved Son", in whom the Father is "well pleased"; God tells us to listen to him. The Lord himself said to his disciples: "Believe in God, believe also in me." We can believe in Jesus Christ because he is himself God, the Word made flesh: "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known." Because he "has seen the Father", Jesus Christ is the only one who knows him and can reveal him. |
| 443 Peter could recognize the transcendent character of the Messiah's divine sonship because Jesus had clearly allowed it to be so understood. To his accusers' question before the Sanhedrin, "Are you the Son of God, then?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am." Well before this, Jesus referred to himself as "the Son" who knows the Father, as distinct from the "servants" God had earlier sent to his people; he is superior even to the angels. He distinguished his sonship from that of his disciples by never saying "our Father", except to command them: "You, then, pray like this: 'Our Father'", and he emphasized this distinction, saying "my Father and your Father". | |
| 473 But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God's Son expressed the divine life of his person. "The human nature of God's Son, not by itself but by its union with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself everything that pertains to God." Such is first of all the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of God made man has of his Father. The Son in his human knowledge also showed the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts. | |
| 29-30 | 1615 This unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the marriage bond may have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand impossible to realize. However, Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too heavy - heavier than the Law of Moses. By coming to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God. It is by following Christ, renouncing themselves, and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to "receive" the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ. This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ's cross, the source of all Christian life. |
