Matthew 11

  11:2.  John sent two disciples (Luke 7).

     11:4-6.  The manhood and humility of Jesus obscured the Divine (Is.53:2), but the works of power he did, revealed his divinity (John 10:36-38).  Luke 7 tells us that Jesus had just raised the son of the widow of Nain from the dead.

     11:11  John was the last and greatest of the old covenant prophets.  He could point to Jesus in the flesh and say,  “Behold the Lamb of God.”  Yet he did not live to see the resurrection, or the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost.  Those who did are in that sense greater than he.  In his doubts, he could never shout, “Rabboni!” and grab hold of a resurrected Christ as Mary Magdalene had done (and as we can do),  John 20:16.  And see Mt. 13:16-17.

     11:12.  Taking the kingdom by force sounds a bit like Joshua invading Canaan, or Jacob wrestling a blessing from the Angel, but in the context of John’s imprisonment, and the looming cross, it probably means trying to force God to obey men, or trying to take his kingdom from him.  Or perhaps enter the kingdom by worldly means, and without repentance.  See Mt.17:12 and John 6:15.

     11:12-15.  In Elijah’s day, it was Ahab and Jezebel.  Now in John’s day, it’s Herod and Herodias taking the kingdom by force.    

     11:16-19.  John lived under a Nazirite vow.  Jesus did not.  Neither pleased.  “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds”.  (Or “by all her children,” as Luke 7:35 has it).  In other words, you shall know them by their fruits (see v.4).

     11:25.  There is a big difference between childish men, vv.16-17, and the newborns of v.25.  Cf. Mark 10:15.  The kingdom is not taken by the elite, but by any who come as a little child.

     11:27-30.  Jesus claims the absolute authority of God in v.27, and the humility of the meek servant in v.29.  As C. S. Lewis says, he is either who he says he is, or a mad man, and you must make your choice.  What you cannot do is write him off as just a great moral teacher.  He does not leave that as an option.  Jesus is our Sabbath (v.28), and we must rest in him from our own works. His yoke is easy when he is our yoke partner.

     The gracious offer of rest in v.28 are words the Jews had heard long before. This is the Lord’s call for them to walk in the good way, “and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.'”  Jer.6:16.  Would they respond better this time?