a lawless bloggle

seeds of truth / nemesis of evil

                              
                               

At that time, Jesus exclaimed, "I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth,
 for hiding these things from the learned and the clever
and revealing them to mere children.
Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.
Everything has been entrusted to me by the Father;
and no one knows the Son except the Father,
just as no one knows the Father except the Son
and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.
Shoulder my yoke and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light." (Jerusalem Bible)


There are many people for whom this short passage of the gospel is a favourite. People who have suffered long under the cruel tyranny of domestic abuse, under a harsh bullying boss at work, or under the stress of poverty or illness, have survived by repeating over and over, as a mantra, the prayer: “Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine.”

And there are so many who are conscious of not belonging to the wise and learned elite, who yet know and understand the warmth and generosity of the Father’s love and care.

The best way to prepare for Sunday’s eucharistic celebration will be take these three readings in meditation and, with much wondering, gently focus on some key words and phrases:

“See now, your king comes to you, victorious, triumphant, humble and riding on a donkey.”
"...the Spirit of God has made his home in you.”

"...and revealing them to mere children."

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On another level, over the past few days I have worked through a few questions which might lead to some sharing. It is perhaps unfortunate that this short passage has been singled out for the image it provides of Jesus. I thought about his words:

and the more I turned them over the more amazing they became to me, particularly the core statement: Learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart. What does it mean?

You can say it in a number of ways, none of which may be acceptable:

A. You can learn from me because as a teacher I am gentle and humble in attitude - not like those high and mighty, legal minded pharisees?

B. Learn from me - imitate me, in the way I am gentle and humble, as a caring and
supporting friend should be?

C. Learn from me that, just as I am gentle and not over-bearing, so is the Father gentle and compassionate?

D.Learn from me that by being meek and keeping your head down you can survive any amount of bullying???

There might be other ways of saying it. The commentators sometimes pass over this
important statement without a word. I wonder why. The model of Jesus meek and humble has been a classic way to put down people who try to express their anger or impatience at how they are treated in the community of the church. This little word “meek” does so much to confuse us when we attempt to answer the question: Who do you say that I am?

That's why it is a pity, and even a falsification of the gospel, for the lectionary to separate this passage from what went before it. For some reason the Jerusalem Bible (which we use in the liturgy in Australia) translates the introduction to this section as: “At that time Jesus exclaimed”  The common translation acknowledges the link with the preceding section: “At that time Jesus said in reply”. We are left with the question, in reply to what?

I want to suggest that it could be something like: Reflecting on what he had said (as in the above passage), Jesus made these remarks.

In the above passage there is a vigorous challenge to the pharisees over their supercilious rejection both of John for his asceticism and of Jesus for living simply as one of the people. This is followed by a resentful and angry tirade against the towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum for their failure to listen to and understand his message. This is just one of the times when Jesus was anything but meek or gentle. ( You can find the text here.)

So it is surprising to find Jesus putting himself forward at this moment as a model of gentleness and humility. For that matter I have never heard any serious teacher say, You should imitate me because I am so gentle and humble. The gentle and humble person just doesn't promote himself like that. So what is going on here?

Here's a suggestion from outside the square: perhaps this section, where Jesus suddenly praises the Father for revealing these things to the little ones and surprisingly talks about himself as never before, is in fact Jesus on the rebound. He has just been very outspoken and, I would say, lost his temper. On reflection he realises that this is not the way, and he shares this insight with his disciples.

Is this interpretation possible? I think it might even be necessary. Jesus "grew in wisdom" as he got older, which as we know means throughout his life. That means he understood life bit by bit, through reflecting on his own experiences and what he observed in others. His anger and resentment were healthy human feelings, but on reflection he realised they were counter-productive, so he shared his insight with his friends: "There's something to learn here. We've got to be gentle in the way we speak, and we can only be gentle if we're truly humble."

Gentleness comes with the quality of self-possession. It is not found in the person driven by an ideal, by ambition, or by a mission to change others. It arises out of the knowledge of self that has been tested by experience. Stripped of our illusions and conceit, with nothing left to lose, we have no more need to be bullying or manipulative. We are peace-full.

It has its foundation in that most elusive of attitudes: humility, being humble of heart - again, a disposition that is learned from experience, especially hard or painful experience, the kind you wake up from, perhaps some years down the track, and find yourself surprised to be still alive, still in one piece, still on the road to your final purpose.

What are we to learn? Jesus unashamedly, from the experience of his own reactions, proposes himself as a model to imitate, and a standard to aim for. But we might remember, the accent is still on the verb: LEARN.