Paul was wrestling with the question at the heart of Christianity: how are we saved? For Paul that had to be answered against his Jewish background. What part did the Law play in all this? After all he had been taught that obedience to the Law was the only way to good relationship with God. And yet as he says while with his mind he wants to keep the Law nevertheless at the same time other forces seem to be working against him. The harder he tries the more difficult it all becomes to the point that he feels torn apart as though two forces were at war within him. “For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” After his anguished cry already mentioned and one which resonates with our humanness and all our good but unfulfilled intentions he finds resolution: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

What Paul realized was that our salvation does not depend on human effort; it cannot be earned or worked for; it is not a matter of right related to who we are or what we do or have achieved; it is not a reward for perfect keeping of the Law. No our salvation, our right relationship with God is a matter of gift; God’s gift to us in and through the life and work of Jesus Christ. It is a free gift, a gracious or grace-filled gift which is offered generously to all who turn to God with open hearts and minds and with trust in his power to save. It is in response to God’s great saving initiative, an initiative based on his love for what he has created, that we cry “Abba, Father” in recognition of the source of our new life. It is only as we take this step of faith that we can consider our response of obedience to God’s law and to the way of life embodied in Jesus. Our obedience to the law of God is not the way to relationship to God; it is our response to God’s reaching out to us in Jesus who is God’s relationship with us. It is in light of Paul’s great insight, an insight based on his experience on the Damascus Road, that enables him to go on in the passage read: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”

If Paul was concerned with the issue of the place of keeping the Law with relationship to salvation, Jesus in today’s Gospel from Matthew addressed the issue of human wisdom and knowledge with relationship to our salvation. The clue to the gospel words lies in the context of the preceding verses where Jesus lambasts those who on the one hand criticized John the Baptist because he was too austere but on the other hand accused Jesus of eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners. He then turns on his local Galilean towns: “Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent.” These people who had the experience; who saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears; it was these people who failed to recognize the Christ in their midst. It is in this context that the words of the Gospel come. “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” Remember Jesus’ words elsewhere: “ Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”(Mark 10: 14-15) Like Paul discovered that Salvation comes through God’s gracious gift received in faith and trust so Jesus points us to childlike trustfulness as the model for our acceptance of God’s gift.

Returning to the Gospel passage Jesus continues: “All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” What Jesus is saying here in this somewhat convoluted Christological passage is that knowledge of God comes from God by way of the Son. In other words it is a gift of grace given freely. This knowledge of God is not something that can be controlled like a genie in a bottle or accessed by special knowledge or insight or for that matter by human wisdom or intelligence.

I have always loved the story told by the Cure D’Ars about passing through the church and observing the peasant praying before the crucifix. Some hours later he passed through the church again and there was the peasant still kneeling and gazing at the Crucified Jesus with tears streaming down his cheeks. The Cure D’Ars asked the old man did he have some problem or crisis in his life; could he help. The old man answered No. He just enjoyed kneeling before the Christ and gazing upon the face of love. He added: “He looks at me and I look at Him and that is enough.” It is to that quality of trusting faith that Jesus commends in the gospel passage.

It is in light of all that that Jesus utters those much loved words, words which formed one of the “Comfortable Words” in the old prayerbooks: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, And I will give you rest.” After all the tough words that Jesus had given the newly chosen and called Twelve these words with strong pastoral feel come as a relief, as a welcome counter balance to the more astringent words in the previous chapter which have been read over recent weeks. Here Jesus reaches out to all those who feel they have no justified place in God’s kingdom, the poor, down trodden, the uneducated and the marginalized, those street people dragged into the dinner after the appointed guests had refused. To them he offers “rest”; not a good lie down; but the divine Sabbath, life in relationship with God; a seat at the table of the divine banquet; participation in God’s community of love. “Learn from me” says Jesus. This is another call to discipleship. This one sounds more attractive to our ears. “You will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The way of discipleship to which we are called by God in Christ is not a matter of further burdens of keeping the law or particular religious practice. Primarily it is a matter of relationship; a relationship based on love, God’s love for us as demonstrated in the great love of Jesus on the Cross. As we enter that relationship in faith and trust so we discover the gift of rest, the peace that passes all understanding, God’s great gift of amazing grace. Thanks be to God.   Amen

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