TEXT [Commentary]

D. Jesus’ Thanksgiving and Invitation (11:25-30)

25 At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. 26 Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!

27 “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

NOTES

11:25-26 Jesus prayed. At 11:25 things take a striking turn from rebuke to a prayer, not of lament but of thanksgiving. The prayer is evidently public.

hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. In the midst of increasing conflict and rejection, Jesus rested in the Father’s sovereignty in hiding “these things” (perhaps the eschatological significance of the miracles) from those who “think themselves wise and clever” and revealing himself to the “childlike” (cf. 13:10-17; Luke 10:21-22). A similar contrast was made previously between those who thought themselves to be healthy and those who were ill (9:12-13). Here the contrast is not between the brilliant and the stupid but between the proud and the humble. The former refuse to humble themselves under God’s authority and to repent when they are confronted with the gospel of the Kingdom. The latter respond to the Kingdom message by repenting, humbly acknowledging their childlike dependence upon the heavenly Father. Matthew speaks rather frequently of the followers of Jesus as poor, little, or child-like (cf. 5:3; 10:42; 18:6; 21:16; 25:40; Luke 10:21-22).

11:27 no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Jesus affirmed his unique messianic status as sole revealer of the Father. The Father has delegated all things to the Son (cf. 28:18), with whom he shares a unique reciprocal intimate knowledge. Only through the Son can humans receive the knowledge of the Father. The high Christology of these words reminds one of the Gospel of John (1:14, 18; 3:35; 14:6-9; 17:1-8).

11:28-30 I will give you rest. Jesus turns from taking solace in God’s sovereignty to an invitation for people to come to him. It is only through Jesus that people come to know the Father, so it is fitting for Jesus to invite them to come to him and to promise that he will give them rest as they take his yoke upon them. Here Jesus takes on the role of God in fulfilling the OT promises of rest (Exod 33:14; cf. Deut 12:10; 25:19; Josh 1:13; 22:4; 2 Sam 7:11; Isa 14:3; 28:12; Heb 3:11, 18; 4:1-11). This broader concept of rest is based on God’s rest after creation as the model for Israel’s rest on the Sabbath (Gen 2:2; Exod 35:2). The invitation is stated in a twofold manner: Jesus invites people (1) to come to him (cf. 4:19; 22:4) and (2) to take his yoke upon them and learn from him. Both invitations are followed by promises of rest (an allusion to Jer 6:16), and there is additional incentive provided in the description of Jesus’ yoke and burden in 11:30. But in reality there is only one invitation, and it is to a life of discipleship, one of following Jesus’ teaching and example of humility and gentleness (cf. 5:5), symbolized by the yoke.

Jesus promised rest to those who were weary because his yoke was easy to bear and his burden was light. This language echoes the way wisdom (cf. 11:19; 23:34) was characterized in the intertestamental book of Sirach (Sir 6:23-31; 24:19; 51:23-27), which seems to develop the personification of wisdom in Prov 8:1–9:6. It is likely that there is an implied contrast to the yoke (cf. Acts 15:10; Gal 5:1) and burden (cf. 23:4; Luke 11:46) of Pharisaism here. It is not that the Torah is a heavy burden that Jesus will remove but that the Pharisaic traditions have encumbered those who wish to obey the Torah. Jesus, as the definitive interpreter of Torah (5:17-20), fulfilled the role of wisdom and was the sole agent who could provide rest for the people of God. (See Laansma 1997 for a penetrating analysis of this passage.)

COMMENTARY [Text]

In this passage Jesus responds in two ways to growing opposition. First, he finds comfort and strength in the sovereignty of God, his Father (11:25-27). Second, he continues to invite people to follow him (11:28-30). It is striking that both of these responses follow the announcement of doom upon the towns that rejected Jesus’ Kingdom message. We can find no better response to opposition than that modeled by Jesus. When people reject the gospel of Christ, we can only rest in God’s sovereignty and continue to offer God’s grace. People come to faith in Christ for two reasons, ultimately because of God’s purpose in election and immediately because they have heard the gospel. We can continue today to rest in the sovereignty of God and the sufficiency of the gospel to bring people to faith.

With the end of Matthew 11 we have come to the end of the first of three sets of two passages on unbelief (11:2-19; 11:20-24) followed by a passage on belief (11:25-30; see the analysis of chs 11–12 in the commentary on 11:1-6 above). Opposition to the Messiah and his messengers has been increasingly alluded to as Matthew’s story continues (2:16; 3:7; 4:1; 5:10-12; 7:6; 8:20, 34; 9:3, 11, 34; 10:14-39). But as Matthew 11 unfolds, the situation is unmistakably grim. The Messiah’s forerunner was in prison, and even he was beginning to have doubts about Jesus’ ministry (11:1-3). Jesus pointed to the unmistakable signs of the Kingdom’s presence in word and work (11:4-6) and extolled John’s unsurpassed greatness. However, the Kingdom was being violently attacked by people who arrogantly and obstinately refused its authority (11:12, 16-24). Nevertheless, the Father was revealed (and continued to be revealed) by the Son to certain “childlike” people whose weariness compelled them to find the rest Jesus offered in Kingdom discipleship (11:25-30; cf. 10:42; 18:1-10; 25:40). Those who are wise in their own eyes increasingly reject this humbling message as Matthew’s narrative unfolds the second (12:1-21) and third (12:22-50) sets of unbelief and belief passages (cf. 9:11; 12:2, 10, 24; 18:6; 25:45).

The Father and Son. The unique relationship of the Father and the Son in the redemption of God’s people is described with unparalleled clarity in 11:25-27. Matthew has prepared the reader for this quintessential statement by means of previous declarations about the Son. Immanuel, the Son miraculously born to Mary, signifies the unique saving presence of God with his people (1:23). Matthew’s narrative of Jesus’ baptism mentions the pleasure the Father takes in the Son in words echoing Isaiah 42:1 (3:17; cf. 17:5). Satan was unable to shake the Son from his resolve not to test the Father (4:1-11). Jesus did miracles to show that the Father had given the Son of Man authority to forgive sins on the earth (9:6). In times of persecution, the disciples must confess the Son if they wish the Son to confess them to the Father (10:32-33, 40). Further comments on the grandeur of the Son will occur, culminating in the “great commission” being predicated on the Son’s unique authority (28:18-20). But one would be hard pressed to speak of the Son in terms more exalted than those used in 11:27, which bluntly yet elegantly says that saving knowledge of God the Father comes only through the selective revelation of Jesus, the exclusive mediator of salvation.

The reader of Matthew 11:25-30 may be surprised at the way in which the sovereignty of God (11:25-27) is joined to the appeal for human decision (11:28-30) in this passage. The history of the church has often witnessed polarization on these two areas of its doctrine, with some emphasizing the sovereignty of God and others human responsibility. But since biblical texts often speak of these matters side by side (see Gen 50:20; Acts 2:23; 13:48; 2 Tim 2:10), it seems foolish to attempt to separate them. It is only due to the sovereign grace of God that sinners repent and believe in Jesus. And that sovereign grace operates only through the message of the gospel of Jesus. The church must rest in the sovereignty of God if it is to gain strength for its labor of inviting people all over the world to believe in Jesus.

It is also important to note how Jesus spoke of discipleship here. The mention of a yoke is in keeping with Jewish metaphors of discipleship, but in what sense was Jesus’ yoke easy and his burden light? It was light because Jesus did not endorse the oral traditions of the Pharisees, which threatened to obscure the weightier matters of the law (cf. 15:3-9; 23:16-24). But Jesus’ yoke should not be viewed as less rigorous than that of the Pharisees, since he stated that the righteousness he required surpassed that of the Pharisees (5:20). Jesus’ yoke of discipleship is light compared to that of the Pharisees, but it is still a yoke. Jesus is the sole revealer of the Father and he, not the Pharisees, is the definitive teacher of the Torah (5:17-48). He is gentle and humble, while they are proud and ostentatious (6:1-18; 23:1-7). Their traditions obscure and even transgress the obligations demanded by the Torah (15:3, 6), but Jesus goes to the heart of the Torah by stressing its weightier matters. Paradoxically, his focus on weightier matters leads to a lighter yoke (cf. 1 John 5:3).