Setting the world on fire

A recording of today's gospel and blog can be accessed here.

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Today’s gospel (Matthew 11: 25-30) offers us a series of Jesus’ teachings which are superficially easy to understand but beneath which lie chasms of gigantic, challenging truths. Jesus praises the Father for revealing His teachings to little children, while hiding them from those who believe they are the grown-ups. Jesus underlines His special relationship with the Father, and the fact that no one can know the Father except by His grace. Finally, He encourages us to shoulder His burdens which are easy and light.

It all seems so simple, doesn't it? Like a Helen Steiner Rice birthday card, or a car bumper sticker. These are the kinds of “Jesus sayings” that could be repeated on Radio 4’s Thought for the Day, for they seem to validate the kind of humble-crumble religion that does not threaten to overwhelm, and charms us a little with mystical allusions. If we take just these very lines that are read today from the lectern, we could easily imagine they had been polished for Jesus by a clever PR guru. One can easily imagine the sworn enemies of truth happy to turn most of this extract into a series of lapel badges with smiley faces, to be given out free of charge to young people at music festivals, once the drugs have worn off and the morning-after pills have been distributed.

But all of these flights of ironic fancy would only then disguise the stony hardness of this eleventh chapter of Matthew which begins with John the Baptist sending his own disciples to Jesus to ask whether He is really the Messiah - John the Baptist, a man who finds himself in prison for being what shall we call it…publicly judgmental about the tetrarch and his personal life? One can do all kinds of wicked things in this world with the world’s approval, from bankrolling orgies to dining with your enemies, but if you insist, like John the Baptist, on taking the law of God on marriage and sex seriously, then prepare yourself for tribulation. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. By the way, John the Baptist knew full well who Jesus was; he sent his disciples to Jesus only because they were too devoted to himself, and he wanted them to see the reality of the Messiah.

And, so, this disarmingly simple, perhaps we could say this deceptively simple, gospel continues. For on the one hand,

No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him,

but on the other, this gift of the Son does not come without responsibility on the part of the listener. Just before this passage, Jesus denounces the towns where His miracles have been performed. They have seen his works but found Him wanting. In other words, the Son offered to reveal the Father to these towns and yet they closed their minds against Him. When He cures the lame, these towns behave as if He had given them bread and circuses and can't get enough of Him; when He calls them to repent and to go and sin no more, He finds them indifferent – as if the problem lies with Him, not them.

I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgement than for you,

says the gentle Jesus, at least before the apostolic PR department get hold of the message.

Take a chill pill, Jesus, they will want to say. Are you trying to drive people away?

No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him, Jesus replies.

And then comes Jesus’ final coup de grace - my yoke is easy and my burden is light. This time the objections of the Apostolic PR department would probably relate to the terms of the trade description act. How can Jesus say His burden is light while also saying take up my cross and follow me? This is very mixed messaging. Jesus needs to simplify His message, doesn’t He? Or rather, instead of saying both these things, Jesus would be much better off just preaching about the easy and the light bit, wouldn’t He? And for us, isn't that what preaching the gospel is or all about, giving Jesus cupid lips, filling his arms with a basket full of Easter eggs for the children, and polishing His language so that He is fit to appear on the Graham Norton Show, or diplomatic enough to give an address to the United Nations?

Two scenes conclude this odd reflection on the gospel. The first is from St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

For our struggle, says the Apostle to the Gentiles who ultimately chopped his head off, is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

And the second is from St Catherine of Sienna, one of the little children alluded to in today’s gospel. Now, she was an extremist. Be who God wants you to be and you will set the world on fire, she says. What St Catherine does not say here is that when you set the world on fire, you will be called a pyromaniac, you will be imprisoned for arson, and your bad behaviour will be used as an example of hate-filled irresponsibility by the media who like to educate us all on the kinds of behaviour that are expected from responsible citizens.