The Easiest Example

The 11th chapter of Matthew is an unyielding progression of Jesus' expectations of us.  It is a vigorous progression from the faith that we expect down to the faith that Jesus expects.

This progression is framed initially as Jesus' response to the query from John's disciples: "Go and shew John again those things. . . ."  Jesus' response ends with an admonition: "And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me" (Matthew 11:2-6, KJV).

This admonition is a fitting preface for the discourse that is to follow, because it sums up the substance of that discourse.  Jesus is going to tell his followers that his greatest of expectation of them is in the negative: they must get rid of the unnecessary in order to get at what matters.  We are not to be offended in that Jesus wants to be exactly what he intends to be to us, and we are largely to understand those intentions in the framework of out own shattered expectations.

True religion is not going to be what we expect it to be: "What went ye out into the wilderness to see?" (11:7).  Jesus tells us that John was a prophet, a messenger, a faint foreshadowing of the true believer, a remnant of religion typified by ambition and striving, and a fulfillment of the promise of Elijah's return--a return that Jesus describes in deflating terms, scarcely reflecting the anticipations of the book of Malachi.  As Jesus says,

"Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.  But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed" (17:11-12).

Jesus disassembles John the Baptist, and then proceeds to disassemble religion.  All of the things that hold religion together in our preconceptions are to be torn away:

"But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.  The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber. . . ." (11:16-19).  Religion has always be burdened with--always untenable--notions that one's righteousness is seen in distinction to the un-righteousness of one's "fellows."

And religion has always been burdened with notions that (especially coupled with a false and convenient humility) getting right with God involves something more than a determination to get right with God.  Jesus tears into the idea that repentance has some sort of secondary or dependent relationship to true religion:

"Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes" (11:21).

Jesus continues prying away all the elements by which religion might be identified:

"I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes" (11:25).  The wordless lunging toward the meek and wholesome, so much a part of original and infantile iterations of "roused, readied, reaped," is what religion is all about.  We don't know why some people are inclined to do God's will, or inclined to encourage others to do God's will, or indeed why some people are induced to turn from unrighteous paths to the pursuing of God's will.  Never has religion, in any form, been able to answer those questions, and as far as the philosophy of religion is concerned, it is useless to try to figure the matter out:  Or as Jesus says,

". . .no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him" (11:27).  How, then, can anyone be saved?!  In our sin and despair, are we not left alone and in terror, deprived possibly of some salvation formula by which (according to the denominations) some satisfaction might be made for our lost souls?!

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (11:28-30).

Oh.