Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30 – Offered to the Clinton Presbyterian Church of Clinton, NJ
Sunday July 5, 2026, by Mel Prestamo, Ruling elder PCUSA
Today’s lectionary is one of several disjointed discourses recorded by Matthew. In 11 chapter, Jesus is teaching as he travels through villages in Galilee. Matthew gives us one discourse after another with seemingly very little to connect them. Looking at just today’s reading makes it difficult to understand what Matthew is trying to teach us about Jesus’ interactions in these villages.
So, I went back to Matthew to see what the set up was. Because normally you would expect that Jesus would be using these expositions as teaching opportunities for his disciples. But his disciples weren’t with him.
Jesus had sent his disciples to go out to preach on their own. So each grouping of the verses in this chapter represents different interactions Jesus had with the villages he visited. And as I read I learned that today’s reading should stand alone. It needs to be connected to Jesus’ other interactions disjointed as they may seem.
I found a commentary by Bible scholar William Barclay in which he suggests what we have here are six different expressions of what he calls the voices of Jesus. And what I would like to do today is look at these voices and see what Matthew is trying to reveal to us.
In Matthew 11 are vignettes – differing expressions of Jesus’ voice [how he speaks of and comments on what he encounters].
Let’s look at these briefly so that we can come back again to consider what is going on in today’s lectionary.
At the start, John the Baptizer is in prison. He sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the One. Jesus responds by essentially saying, “I am not going to answer that question. Instead, you go back and tell John what you have seen. Tell him that you have seen the blind given sight; the lame walking; that the deaf given hearing; the dead are raised to life, and the poor are hearing the good news.”
Jesus is saying, I know that John might be impatient for me to do things as he wants to see them done – on his terms, on his schedule, but this is my answer, tell him what you have seen and witnessed.
I suspect the gist of what Jesus is saying is, ‘The proof John is looking for is in how Jesus acts out God’s plan’ – on God’s schedule, on God’s terms.
Jesus finishes this conversation by saying to John’s followers, “God will bless everyone who doesn’t reject me because of what I do.” This is Jesus speaking with the voice of confidence. Jesus is saying that you may be impatient, but God will bless everyone who accepts me because of what I do. Jesus is saying, I am confident in God’s plan.
In verses seven through eleven. Jesus speaks with a voice of admiration for John.
Jesus asked the people, “When you went out into the desert to see John, what did you expect?
Did you go to see a reed shaking in the wind – someone without conviction?
Did you go to see a man who wore purple robes?
Or did you go to see a prophet?”
Jesus pronounces that John was more than a prophet. “John was of whom it was written, ‘I will send you a messenger who will prepare the way for you’…If you believe the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets then believe that John is Elijah, the prophet you have been waiting for.”
That is high praise from the Son, from the One God has sent. John was the voice crying out in the wilderness, “…make straight the way of the Lord.” I am the One he was preparing the way for. Jesus pays high praise for the work John has done.
In verses sixteen through nineteen we hear what Barclay calls a voice of sorrowful rebuke. But I don’t want to talk about this just yet. I want to save it for the end.
I’m going to verses twenty through twenty-four. Here we hear a voice of heartbroken condemnation.
Here we find Jesus on his own traveling through some towns in Galilee healing and performing miracles. But even though Jesus was performing great signs pointing to who he was, the people did not believe. In verse twenty Matthew tells us, “…the people refused to turn to God.”
So, Matthew recounts Jesus specifying these towns by name. Of Chorazin, Bethsaida. Jesus says, “You people are in trouble, if I had performed these miracles in the towns of Tyre and Sidon, they would have believed and turned to God. But you people will suffer more on the day of judgement than they.”
Then Jesus speaks of Capernaum, “You will go down to hell!” If the miracles I performed in your town were performed in Sodom, they would have believed and that town would still be standing.
These are serious charges leveled by Jesus because those two Gentile towns along with Sodom are denounced in scripture for their wickedness – in Isaiah, Jerimiah and Ezekiel. The bottom line is that these Galilean towns had been given the privilege of hearing Jesus directly speaking to them of God’s Truth and they refused to listen. Here is the voice of heartbroken condemnation.
The next voice we hear from Jesus is the voice of authority. In verse twenty-seven, Jesus states openly and clearly, “My Father has given me everything and he is the only one that knows the Son. The only one that truly knows the Father is the Son.”
Here Jesus is clearly claiming the special relationship between He and the Father. The Father has given the Son everything –complete knowledge of who the Father is and with that comes complete authority over everything the Father knows.
In verses twenty-eight to thirty, we hear in Jesus’ the voice of compassion.
“Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Jesus is speaking to all of the people who were endeavoring to the best of their ability to be good and seek God, but they were being heavily burdened by the onerous Temple rules for worship.
Jesus uses the example of a yoke that is well fitted for oxen. Oxen were beasts of burden expected to do heavy work. The people knew however that a well fitted yoke made that burden easier. Jesus is telling them that he offers them a well fitted spiritual yoke so that their burden in approaching God would be made easy and light.
Approach God through Jesus and you will find rest for your souls. This is the compassion and love that God has for God’s children. God does not want to make your faith journey difficult. God wishes to embrace you lovingly.
Now let’s return to today’s lectionary where Jesus is speaking with the voice of sorrowful rebuke.
Jesus asks the question, “What is wrong with you people?”
“You people are like little children at play. One cries, we played the flute and you did not dance. You say, “I’m sad”. Then they said we’ll play a funeral song, and you then respond, “I don’t want to be sad.”
Jesus continues, “John did not eat or drink with you and you said, ‘There’s a demon in him.’ Then the Son of Man comes eating and drinking and you say, ‘He eats and drinks too much! He’s even a friend of sinners and tax collectors.’”
Jesus frames the people as whining little children. No matter who comes bringing them God’s truth, they find fault in the messenger.
Sometimes this is how we can be?
Imagine yourself at a dinner, and the host presents you with a beautiful and expensive bottle of White wine that he selected with care just for you. But you decline it saying that you prefer Red. Then they go and return with a bottle of Red and you decline again saying that it is too fruity and that you would just prefer water – but not tap water – perhaps something bubbly. Then you hear the bottle pop when it is opened, and you tell the host, ‘it’s too gassy,’ and that you are fine without anything to drink.
That is how Jesus is characterizing the people.
John came and he had a very austere presence. He lived a solitary life in the desert. He didn’t eat the kinds of foods in the people’s regular diet. He ate honey and locusts. Locusts – that’s disgusting! And the people said of John, “…he has a demon in him.” Why? Because he didn’t socialize? Because he was different?
Then Jesus says that he [the Son of Man] has come reaching out to the community by eating and drinking as they did. He ate at celebrations and drank at weddings. He socialized with sinners eating and drinking with them.
Then Jesus says, but then you complain saying “…That man eats and drinks too much!”
What is it you want?
You complain no matter how the Truth comes to you. The truth had come bluntly to you with no airs telling you to prepare yourselves, repent and make straight the way of the Lord. And you complained.
Now the Son of Man comes gently and humbly offering an easy yoke, welcoming repentant sinners and sharing food and drink with them and you call him a glutton.
Whinny, whining little children. You exhaust me! Jesus throws up his hands in frustration.
Then comes Jesus’ rebuke. “Wisdom is shown to be right by what it does.” Barclay comments here, “The ultimate verdict [of God’s plan] lies not with … perverse critics [those whining little people] but with events [that is the things that the Son does].”
What Jesus does is to give sight to the blind so that they can see; healing to the lame so that they can walk upright; curing people with leprosy making them clean; giving hearing to the deaf; bringing the dead to life and bringing the good news of God’s salvation to the poor. And each time, he not only heals their outward malady but washes them clean on the inside forgiving their sins. This is how Jesus validates the Truth of God’s Wisdom – by his actions – because he would not have been able to do these things if God’s Truth was not with him.
Matthew tells us this is how Jesus comes to us. He comes with the voice of confidence because he is the One that God has sent to bring rest to your soul. Even though at times, he may be heartbroken when we refuse his healing touch. Then we might hear a voice of sorrowful rebuke. But Jesus knows that he has the authority to bring to you God’s mercy and saving grace then Jesus speaks with a voice of compassion offering you a yoke that easy to bear.
Jesus comes to open your eyes so that you can see the Truth. He comes to heal your inability to walk upright before your God. He comes to open your ears so that you can hear the Word of God. He comes to give you [who are poor in heart] new life with the promise of God’s saving grace and mercy. He comes to wash you clean so that you can walk humbly before your God.
So now I ask you, how will you react to Jesus when he comes to meet you? Will you complain about his demeanor? Will you complain about the kinds of people the Spirit draws to him? Will you complain that he eats with people that you don’t like or understand? Or will you respond, please sir, I desire the yoke that you have prepared for me.
