Sermon: Lord of
the Dance
Text: Matthew
11: 16-19, 25-30
Date:
Children singing to each other and calling to each
other to join in games is normally a picture of childhood innocence and joyful
playfulness. In today’s lesson from
Matthew, the picture of children playing carries a much more serious
intention. Jesus has given this image a
different slant. The children’s calling
to each other here takes on an edge.
They seem to be saying, “We are trying to tell you something, but you
continuously ignore us. We call, and
call, and you turn your backs to us.”
Who do you suppose Jesus was thinking about as he put forth this image
of children in the marketplace?
Jesus and John the Baptist had been working in the
marketplace of spiritual renewal.
Perhaps Jesus was feeling like the despised children in this short
parable.
His cousin, John the Baptist had been preaching a
message of repentance and drawing great crowds to the wilderness. Now John was in prison facing an execution by
beheading. Earlier in this same passage in verses, not
read this morning by Shandli, Jesus says, “The
In Jesus’ culture, dancing was a part of the ritual at
both weddings and funerals. Funeral’s
were the ultimate rite of sadness and in this short parable John with his
sobering if not mournful message is the dancer calling other to dance the dance
of repentance.
Weddings on the other hand were the ultimate
celebrations of joy, renewal, life, and happiness. Jesus presents himself here as the Lord of
the dance at the ceremony of life and spirit.
His dance involved eating, drinking, conversing with and living with all
sorts of people – including many people who were not acceptable to others or in
the religious in crowd. For his joyous
living in the presence and power of God, Jesus is accused of being a glutton
and a drunkard. That particular
accusation was a popular one in Jesus day for character assassinators to throw
at persons who they couldn’t undermine otherwise. Neither John, with his austere aestheticism
nor Jesus with his vast collection of diverse friends and acquaintances could
win apparently. Their message of the
nearness of the Kingdom was one that people just didn’t get.
Jesus and John were inviting others to dance a new
dance. A couple weeks ago at a wedding
reception Cheryl and I enjoyed a couple dances.
It was the first time we had been on the dance floor for a long
time. Dancing is a little like riding a
bicycle. Years might go by since the
last time you rode a bike but your body doesn’t forget how to ride. Hop on a bike, shove off and it all comes
back real fast, in fact amazingly fast.
The rhythms of bike riding and dancing are something
that get inside of you, and once inside have an impact on your outer, physical
life. Such is it with the dance of the spirit that Jesus invites us to
join. This is what he means by saying
take my yoke upon you for it is easy.
Jesus was a carpenter and as a worker of wood had probably made many
yokes in his first career. Without a
doubt he had made some yokes for oxen and knew how carefully each yoke was
individually crafted for the animal who would wear it. Maybe he had made some shoulder yokes used by
men and women, usually women, to carry heavy loads like water from the
well. He knew that yokes made work
easier. Yokes also made it possible for
an animal or a person to carry much more than they could possible carry all by
themselves. Such is the spiritual yoke
about which he speaks.
Jesus did see the religious traditions and customs
that had grown up over the centuries around simple obedience to the core Mosaic
laws as a great burden.
His yoke was easier.
As we consider Jesus’ yoke we should not forget the cross. Jesus offers us his yoke and his yoke is the
cross. Often when this passage is
considered it is taken to mean how Jesus came into this world to make all the
hardships of life easier for us. Life
has hardships and some are almost unbearable.
Faith does have a mysterious way of strengthening us to endure the
hardships. There is a little more to Jesus’ yoke.
Jesus’ is inviting us in this passage into a new dance
of the spirit. In the process, we are
invited to stop dancing to the tune of a religion of rules, rigid definitions
of what is sacred and what is holy, and rituals of respect and
respectability. One can be very
religious and have no dance at all - no spirit, no music at all. Jesus invites us to dance. The music of this dance is the closeness of
God and God’s reign. That was the source
of Jesus’ continuous joy and that joy was what sustained him even unto the
cross. The reign of God is so close that
it is present in the dance itself. In
dancing we are called to be witnesses to the joyous closeness of God.
Imagine yourself walking down a street, through a
public courtyard, or through the mall. A
dance group is kicking up in a lively spirit.
The music is catchy and joyous.
People are gathering around to watch, to smile and to enjoy. Jesus, the Lord of the dance, invites us to
live our lives in that same spirit that others in seeing us will see the same
joy in the presence of God that Jesus danced to every day.