REFLECTION

'There's no pleasing some people!' A phrase I know I have heard and used myself on more than one occasion. Perhaps you have too. At times when it seems that whatever one does there will be some who don't like it, criticise you, oppose you. At such times it seems the only appropriate phrase to sum up the situation - whatever you do, some people will not like it. The opening words of Jesus in our reading from Matthew's Gospel seem to echo this sentiment.
This passage in Matthew follows that of the messengers sent by John the Baptist from his prison cell to ask if Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus' words of praise for John as a prophet. Here he compares the responses of 'this generation' to John and himself - neither of them satisfied popular expectations. John the Baptist's ascetic lifestyle - living in the desert, wearing camel hair, eating locusts and wild honey - was unappealing. His preaching a call to repentance and baptism (wiping the smug smiles off the faces of those who were too complacent about their own goodness) and his rebuking the Pharisees and Sadducees as a 'brood of vipers' was an uncomfortable message, a challenging and deeply disturbing one for many. Their response was to be like children in the market-place, calling "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance". Jesus came preaching about the merciful love of God, offering forgiveness, healing the sick, and proclaiming the kingdom of God as like a great banquet. He was known to reach out to lepers, to accept the outcasts, to eat and drink with the most questionable of social contacts. Their response was to be like children in the market-place, calling "we wailed, and you did not mourn." John, for his pains, was accused of having a demon; Jesus was accused of being a glutton, a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners. No, 'there's no pleasing some people!'
Yet who is right? John the Baptist for pointing out the need for repentance, new commitment and greater faithfulness, or those content to rely on their having been born into 'the people of God' and observance of certain ritual observances? Who is right? Jesus, revealing by word and action a God who cares for all people, who is reaching out to all with the offer of life in all its fulness, or those who hold vehemently to a very exclusive them and us attitude that holds no hope for those who are not among the 'in-crowd'? Whose way is God's way? Jesus was sure of the answer: 'Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.' ('Wisdom' here is God's Wisdom - his actions prove the point).
However, Jesus continues, 'the wise and the intelligent' of this world are too wrapped up in their own intellectual arguments and pontificating, too assured that they have the answers (or even the devastating question that belittles everyone else), that they cannot see the truth of who Jesus is and the significance of his actions and teaching. On the other hand it is the 'infants', the weakest and most insignificant in society, those who respond simply and straightforwardly, receiving with sheer joy and genuine appreciation, that receive him and the gifts of God through him. They are the ones who see God at work through him, they are the ones who see God in him. They are the ones open to God and God's activity in their lives.
And that love of God in Jesus pours out in Jesus' invitation, an invitation overflowing with compassion for the weary and those carrying heavy burdens. These are people wanting to do the right thing, to be faithful in their worship and daily life, but for whom the prescriptions of the rule-makers are practically impossible to keep fully. Even attempting to fulfil the requirements is most wearying. The recognition of failure to keep every rule every time, the guilt and sorrow it produces as well as the judgement of others, is a heavy burden on life. Yet, this, Jesus says, is not how God sees it: 'Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.'
Here, in these words, there is invitation 'Come to me', instead of the 'keep away' attitude of the self-righteous towards those 'sinners' they fear will contaminate them and upon whom they look down from such a height of 'superiority'. And these were not just words for Jesus. He was not afraid to reach out to lepers, publically to call Zachaeus the tax-collector down from the tree and invite himself into his home for a meal, or to converse with a Samaritan woman by the well. He was a man who cared deeply for others. He wept over the Jerusalem because the people were like lost sheep without a shepherd. He didn't ignore the woman who touched his cloak in the crush of the crowd but insisted on speaking with her with words of comfort when she would have expected rebuke. He was himself tired out by responding to the crowds who flocked to him, but he would not turn away the children brought by their mothers for a blessing. For these wearied and heavy-burdened, his invitation offered rest.
Here, in these words, Jesus offered himself as the teacher of a new way: 'learn from me'. Learn the lessons of my example, not just my words. Learn how to live, not just the rules to be kept. And most significantly of all, 'learn what God is like because you see him through me.' And Jesus is a good teacher, not just telling, not even just showing, but accompanying every inch of the way: 'my yoke is easy'.
In the uncertainties of life at the present time, with Covid-19 still being a threat, not knowing how it will continue to play out around the globe, with confusion about what is and is not allowed as lockdown begins to be relaxed, and the regional variations further clouding things, life may well seem very wearying. For people worried about their jobs or their businesses and the financial implications of this situation there is a real burden of worry and concern. In looking ahead to what the 'new normal' might look like for every aspect of life, we should heed Jesus' invitation to find God's way in all of it, and not simply the way of the loudest voices in society. With the debates that rage about what to do now in response to the virus; with the anti-social behaviour of those coming together in mass gatherings careless of social-distancing, dropping their litter and in danger of starting wild fires by carelessness, God's way will not please everyone, but it is the way of life.