July 9, 2023
Rev. Mary Erickson
Hope Lutheran Church
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
The Fickle Pickle
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
In the children’s story Goldilocks and the Three Bears, little Goldilocks happens upon the bears’ house in the woods while they’re taking a walk. Very rudely, she enters, even though no one is at home. She begins in the kitchen, where she finds their morning porridge. You know how it goes, the first bowl is too hot; the second one too cold. But the third bowl is just right.
From the kitchen, she moves into the living room where she finds their three chairs. Two of the chairs are too big, but Baby Bear’s chair is just right. She rocks and rocks until the chair breaks into pieces.
Then Goldilocks moves onto the bedroom where she finds the Bear family beds. And by now you know how it goes. One is too hard, another too soft, and the third one just right.
Goldilocks is very picky. She’s super-critical and she’s unsatisfied until things are exactly to her liking. Something like that is going on in today’s reading from Matthew. Jesus calls out the critical spirit of those who disparage both John the Baptist and him.
They complained that John was too strict. He subsisted on locusts and wild honey. He wore scratchy camel’s hair shirts. John was too strict, but Jesus is too lax! They complain that he’s a party boy.
John held everyone to a very strict line. John was too strict, they said. For John, everyone was a brood of vipers! But Jesus is just the opposite. He’s hanging around with tax collectors and all sorts of deplorables! John is too hard; Jesus is too soft.
Jesus calls them out for their overly finicky spirit. This is one of the few texts where we find Jesus frustrated and critical. Usually Jesus’ heart is overflowing with compassion. But there is something that gets under his skin. On the few occasions when we encounter Jesus angry, there’s a common denominator that sets him off. Jesus calls out people who are quick to judgment, people who look for the flaws in others rather than towards their common humanity.
The crowds were finicky and fickle. They like Jesus when he gives them free lunch, but when he doesn’t come through the next day, they don’t. The religious leaders were holier-than-thou. In their opinion, nobody else was good enough. Either they were too soft or too hard. They were too strict or they were too accepting.
Jesus throws up his hands in frustration. They’re overly complicating faith. Faith isn’t meant to be so difficult. It’s not supposed to be as hard as cramming for a CPA exam. Faith is meant to revive us! We can REST in faith! It’s meant to ease the soul. It’s not supposed to eat us up with self-criticism. Jesus says that his yoke is easy, it’s not hard.
Jesus prays to God. It’s a prayer of thanksgiving, and a rather unusual prayer at that. “God, thanks for keeping your truths hidden from the know-it-alls in this world. Instead, you reveal it to babes.” He prays out loud, and his petition must come with a sting to those who hear it. It’s pretty clear that Jesus’ prayer is critical of their attitude. Jesus is basically saying that the essence of faith has eluded them.
They have overly-complicated faith. They’ve added to it a bunch of artificial standards and external baggage. We might think of it as the difference between faith and religion. Faith is our personal encounter with our maker. Religion is connected to an external, social construct that’s been organized as a means of worshiping God.
At its best, we need religion so that we have a means to express our faith. It’s like when we sing, air rushes across our vocal cords. But we shouldn’t confuse the air or our singing technique with the main thing, and that’s the song. Singing is simply the means to express the beauty of the melody.
Religion has its purpose. Religion provides us with a way to express our faith. It’s there to enrich us with hymns and traditions. Its depth of understanding and theology give us greater understanding of the lived faith we experience. But we must never confuse religion with faith. Faith is always the ultimate end, because faith is the living connection we have with our God who created, redeemed and sustains us.
• Faith is the living heartbeat; religion is the EKG reading on heart functioning.
• Faith is the fragrant rose blooming within our breast; religion is the horticulturist’s report.
• Faith is the athletic team on the field playing the game; religion is the play by play commentary.
Too often we fall into the trap of idolizing religion. Religion becomes the ultimate concern instead of a living faith relationship with God. When that happens, then we’ve pushed our connection with the divine to the side. We’ve sidelined it and put something else in its place, something artificial.
It’s very tempting for us to line up behind these religious constructs. We lift up our religious denomination, our personal way of understanding the unknowable God as the one and only truth. We judge and vilify other people of faith who hold a differing perspective as fallen, wondering how they can even consider themselves to be Christians.
That’s what had happened to many of the religious leaders in Jesus’ day. Their religion became their primary objective, with all its rules and regulations and positions. So when Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath, they were scandalized. When his disciples dared to grab a handful of grain while walking through a field on the Sabbath, they cried foul. When Jesus reached out to touch a dead child, when he took a cup of water from the hand of a Samaritan woman, they judged him in error.
But what they had missed was the very simple essence of the divine spirit in their midst! Here they had the divine incarnation standing right in front of them, and they were unable to see! And if they were unable to see with Jesus standing right in front of them, is it any wonder that we can be confused and contrary, too?
Jesus challenges us to turn our gaze onto him. Look to him, learn from him. See his gentle and humble heart. Observe how he seeks out the lost and shunned. Listen to his words of grace, words that ease your burden and free your heart. And witness his unlimited, eternal love which even death cannot extinguish.
Look to him. Learn from him. For only his yoke is easy. In him you shall find rest for your soul.
