Sunday 14 TO. Cycle A
Wise and Simple (Matthew 11,25-30)
The passage from this Sunday contains an act of thanksgiving, a teaching and an invitation.
Act of thanksgiving. Jesus sees that people are divided before him, and catalogs them into two groups. That of the “wise and learned,” who have human wisdom, and therefore are scandalized by Jesus or reject him. They are especially the scribes, who have mastered the Scriptures after many years of study; also the Pharisees, very united to the scribes, who follow their teachings and consider themselves perfect knowers of God’s will. But there are also the “wise and learned” from a human point of view, those who consider themselves capable of criticizing John the Baptist and Jesus, even if they have not studied theology.
On the other hand, there is the group of “ordinary people,” without prejudices, to whom God can reveal something new because they do not believe they know everything. Fishermen, a tax collector, prostitutes, the sick… These people accept that Jesus is the Messiah, although he does not impose religion by force; they accept that he is God’s envoy, although he eats, drinks and associates with people of ill repute; they allow themselves to be challenged by his word and amend their conduct. This, like the future confession of Peter, is a gift from God. The ability to see what is good, what is positive, what builds. The wise and learned remain in disquisitions, nuances, analysis, and end up not accepting Jesus.
Teaching. In a few words we have a little treatise on Christology, centered on what Jesus has and what he can reveal to us. What he has, the Father has given him. The best commentary is found in the fourth gospel, where it says that the Father has given Jesus the two greatest powers: that of judging and that of giving life. To these two powers is added here the power to reveal the Father. These simple people, through Jesus, will know God as Father, not as an omnipotent being or an inexorable judge. He will reveal it to them, because he is the only one who can.
Invitation. But this revelation of the Father is not something abstract, theoretical. It is relief for those burdened and overwhelmed by the yoke of the laws and norms imposed on them by the religious authorities. The rabbis spoke of the “yoke of the Law,” to which the Israelites were to submit themselves willingly and desiring to please God. But that yoke sometimes became unbearable because of the multitude of commandments and prohibitions, and because of the cruel idea of God they conveyed. In contrast, the yoke of Jesus places the person before the Law, as the two subsequent accounts will demonstrate, centered on the observance of the Sabbath.
Summary. These verses contain a very curious dynamism: the Father reveals to the Son, the Son reveals to the Father, but the great beneficiary is the man who welcomes that revelation; he is freed from a legalistic, harsh, burdensome image of God and religion. His piety, in becoming more divine, becomes more human.
A simple king, but of immense power (Zechariah 9, 9-10)
The fact that Jesus presents himself as “meek and humble” brings to mind the promise of a king “modest, mounted on a donkey,” announced by the prophet Zechariah. We are, probably, in the late fourth century B.C., shortly after Alexander the Great has passed through Palestine on his way to Egypt. Against the grandiose image of the Macedonian monarch, mounted on his horse Bucephalus, the prophet contrasts the image of a king of modest appearance, mounted on a donkey, but of enormous power, capable of accomplishing what other prophets had attributed to God himself: without need of an army (he will destroy the chariots of war of Ephraim and the cavalry of Jerusalem, he will break the bows of the warriors) he will establish peace and rule from the Euphrates to the end of the world. An exceptional, almost divine king.
The evangelists will relate this text to the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. In the context of this Sunday, it seeks to reinforce the image of a meek and humble Jesus, who does not establish peace among nations but in hearts.
“I will exalt you, my God, my king” (Psalm 144)
The psalm chosen for this Sunday brings together well the two readings. It captures the image of the king, but does not highlight his military might or his universal dominion, but his clemency, mercy, piety, goodness. “He is good to all, he is affectionate to all his creatures.” Like Jesus, who relieves the tired and burdened, the promised king “sustains those who are falling, straightens those who are already bending.” Therefore, the reaction we should have when hearing the words of the gospel is to bless the Lord Jesus day after day, forever.