Reading of the Word: Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Sermon: The Freedom of Following Jesus - Wisdom is shown to be right by its results
When I first looked at this passage I actually only intended to preach on the last couple of verses here on Independence Day Weekend. I actually verbalized it to several people as “Freedom is not the same as license – it carries responsibility with it,” because of the idea of being yoked with Jesus.
But the more I studied it, the more the words “Wisdom is shown to be right by its results” jumped out at me.
Putting this verse into context – John the Baptist has been arrested and has sent a message to Jesus asking, “Are you the one we have been waiting for.” And Jesus comes back with the response we all know, “ “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers[c] are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” In other words: “Wisdom is shown to be right by its results”
Then he begins to preach to them about John the Baptist and asks why they went to find him in the desert. He then explains that John’s purpose was to pave the way, in other words, their ministry is one. Their methods differ, but their wisdom was the same. That is where our passage begins.
And so he asks, “To what can I compare this generation?” And he uses the image of children quibbling in the marketplace while playing a game, complaining that the other children aren’t playing the game correctly.
This passage is not intended to show differences between him and John, but the fact that no matter what he and John did, they were rejected by the people, much like the quibbling children. Whether they were austere or exuberant, the crowd only noticed little unimportant things. They weren’t listening to the message; they were worried about what they ate and who they ate with.
He emphasized it with these words: “Wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”
Why does this matter to us? Because it happens in the church. I do not know if it is true, but I heard when I was in seminary that more churches split over the color of the carpet when it is replaced than any other reason. Well, except maybe the cushions in the pews. When Range Line needed to replace the outdoor carpet on their front steps a couple of years ago, I actually trembled. Fortunately, it wasn’t an issue.
However, I served as Elder over the Prayer Committee at my sending church. They created a team that would pray for the pastor and congregation during the service every single Sunday.
But there was a problem! They chose to use the Bride’s room to pray, not only because it was next to the sanctuary where the actions they were praying for were happening, but because it had a speaker where they could also hear the service as they prayed. When the pastor would preach, we would pray about the message he was preaching.
The Wedding Guild was outraged that it was being used by anyone who wasn’t conducting a wedding, even though they simply sat on the couches and prayed. They had fought long and hard when the building was constructed to reserve this area and felt like it had been stolen from them. To my knowledge, no one left the church over the issue, but it was a very big church. I could be wrong.
I found a list of 25 things churches had arguments over online. I don’t want to read the whole list, but here are a few that resonated because I know churches have fought over them.
A 45 minute argument over the size and color of a filing cabinet for the church office.
A fight over which picture of Jesus should represent him on the walls of the church.
A dispute over whether boots should be worn inside of the church, particularly if a pastor should preach wearing them. Similarly, a disagreement whether teens should be allowed to come to church wearing something other than a suit.
A heated dispute over how to handle a 10 cent discrepancy in the church financials. (Someone finally gave a dime to fix it)
An actual argument over using cran/grape juice instead of pure grape juice for communion. That, of course, doesn’t even touch on huge disagreements in a church when someone is gluten intolerant, something we have had to address in our Presbytery. Do you use a single loaf that is gluten free? Do you have a separate communion for those who can’t participate otherwise?
And this list doesn’t even begin to cover the other things like music, the pastor, or how to actually spend the budget, or serve the communion that churches argue about.
Every time we gather, every time we disagree, we need to go back to this statement: “Wisdom is shown to be right by its results”
Back in the days of Jesus, he told us two things. First, we were to follow him. Second, we were to follow what he taught, summarized in the great commandment, Love God, love your neighbors. It was only when we started having buildings to hold meetings that these other things came up. If the things we disagree about are not at the center of what God is teaching us, then perhaps we are not being wise.
When we start demanding our own way in the community of the church, we begin to become like those “people of this generation” that Jesus spoke about. We are like children arguing in the marketplace instead of people who are here for God’s message to us. And we forget those important words, “Wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”
If the first part is that the people aren’t listening, aren’t paying attention to what Jesus and John the Baptist says, the second part is about what they are teaching. They are teaching that we are free. But that freedom from sin involves responsibility.
John the Baptist said that we need to repent from our past and join ourselves with the Kingdom of God. People stepped into the water with him to celebrate the past washed away and the new, Kingdom life that we were entering.
Jesus says “take my yoke upon you.” If we are yoked with Jesus, it is our job to do the work that Jesus is doing, because that is what the yoke is intended to do, bring two animals into agreement so they can share the load.
Jesus takes on our burdens, we take on responsibilities Jesus assigns to us. We are freed from our burdens for a purpose.
Jesus declared us Free. But he declared us free of the “legalistic form of the law,” not of the responsibilities of living God’s way.
Back when I wrote my book on the Sermon on the mount, I chose to title it “Growing Wings, Lessons for Earthbound Christians.” I chose that title because so many people think that following Jesus is about following a lot of rules. They see Christianity as a legalistic faith. Instead, following Jesus focuses on the things that free us.
And the thing that best frees us is actually the Law of God.
Where, over time, God’s law had become a burden, it was never intended to be that way. It was given to a people who had been enslaved and who were trying to figure out what it meant to be free. It was intended to resolve differences between people and tell them the right way to live in freedom.
We all agree that the first three commandments are about Loving God.
Love the Lord your God.
Worship no other Gods
Do not take the Lord’s name in vain
And we love God, not because it is commanded of us, but because God loved us first. We are responding to God’s love the same way an infant learns to love by being loved by its parents. We are called by God’s own name.
Perhaps the fourth commandment could be looked at that as well, honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Some people still see the Sabbath as being about how we act on a particular day.
For a long time there grew rules about what you were allowed to do on the Sabbath, rules that in Orthodox Jewish Churches even today. But also in Christian Churches.
Many of us, as young children, were prohibited from playing or having fun on Sunday, since it was dedicated to God. As if God, somehow, would resent children laughing and having fun.
Jesus said that God created the Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath. The purpose of the fourth commandment was that we could find rest for our souls. It was specific, by the way, not only weren’t we to work on Sundays, we were supposed to not have others work on our behalf. We were to honor others in our respect for their right to have rest as well.
Today, we have labor laws insisting on a limit of the number of hours people are required to work, which reflects back to this concept. We need time to renew ourselves. When we take this time, we are freed from the burden of endless work. The fourth commandment is for us.
From there, we have the other commandments.
We are told that honoring our parents is important, they gave us life when we were young, and as they grow old, we are to care for them. When a society protects its most vulnerable, we are at our best.
Scriptures tell us that we are to respect the lives of others, not killing them. And they are to respect our lives and protect them. Killing others is always wrong. Here in our country, you are only entitled to do so when your own life is at threat.
Those of us who are married or who have been married know the importance of protecting our marriages. It is only in the safety of fidelity, love, and honor that we can create a family. When those boundaries are broken, the safety is no more.
Obviously, not stealing is about respecting the the belongings of others. But it is equally about protecting the things that belong to us.
Not lying is not only about respecting the reputations of others, it is about protecting our own reputation for integrity. Being truthful with one another is how we are able to trust one another.
The final commandment is to at peace with what we have. Coveting what others have that we don’t only leads to our own unhappiness.
All of these laws are designed not to limit our freedom, but to protect the freedoms we have been given. They protect our neighbors, and they protect us.
As one of my Sunday School teachers defined it when I was young, it is ok to swing your arms around until they hit someone else. Your freedom stops where another person’s freedom begins.
Even issues in the Old Testament about food laws, and health laws are all intended not as burdens, but as learning to live in community with one another.
Here in this passage, Jesus invites us, in our freedom, to be yoked with him. He invites us to belong to him and to work with him.
In doing so, we discover that those things we argued about “like children in the marketplace” aren’t important. Rather the work that we do with Jesus is what is important.
So here, as we celebrate our freedom, I invite you to find true freedom in Jesus.
Accept that we are loved and treasured by God and invited to partner with Jesus.
Love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, and minds, and being.
Love our neighbors as ourselves.
That is a faith worth having!
