“All you who are weary” Sunday July 6th (Mt 11:25-30)

Jesus had little success with the ‘professionals’ of his day. Yet in this Sunday's Gospel He bursts into a prayer of thanksgiving for revealing wisdom to those who are considered ‘infants’. In the context of these chapters of Matthew, it is stressed that the poor are the only ones who truly understand the wisdom of God and they do so under the weight of great oppression and demands placed on them by the religious authorities. For example, the ‘wise’ place their particular interpretation of the law on the ‘ritually unclean’ by excluding them from meals (9:10-13) or place restrictions on the Sabbath that ignore human need (12:1-14).

Jesus wants people to leave aside these oppressors and learn from Him; find rest in Him. His focus is on mercy, compassion and love. This passage shows the tenderness with which Jesus welcomes and accepts. Jesus knows the reality of people’s suffering. He is not saying that there are no burdens in life; but that he will help people to find wisdom. This wisdom gives consolation, tenderness,

acceptance and the rest for which the soul yearns.

“Lowliness is humility, and that means down-to-earth realism. I accept myself as the raw material God has chosen to work through. For God can use me if I am ready to be me. God cannot do much with me as I wish I were, and even less with me trying to be someone else. In supple strength and cheerful self-acceptance lies the secret of a calm and restful spirit.” (William Yeomans)

Outsider teaches the insider what the insider should have known - the Good Samaritan

Parables are never what they seem. They have a clever way of causing confusion and forcing you to figure out what is really going on beneath the surface. The Samaritan, an outcast, is made the hero of this story. This would have caused outrage amongst those who heard the parable. The oil and the wine have a significant part to play as the priest and Levite may have had such items with them for making sacrifices in the Temple. It is, however, the Samaritan who offers correct worship to God as he uses the oil and wine to clean the man’s wounds. Jesus spoke about a God who was not concerned with the constraints of the Temple, but God who was in the streets. Look at what the Samaritan does for the man on the road: bound his wounds, poured oil, took him to an inn etc. They are all action words. The emphasis in this parable is on action and on compassion. The lawyer is concerned with the limits to ‘love of neighbour’. But there are no limits, no boundaries, no outsiders in God’s Kingdom. Holiness is not separation from the marginalised, but proximity to them.

“Our prayer, our worship, our fasting are of little value to God if we have ignored those of God’s children who suffer on the margins of our societies. We are Christians who follow the message of Jesus, not because we say ‘Lord, Lord’… it is in our compassion that we imitate God who is compassion” (Peter McVerry)