Scripture for Tuesday, March 27th

This coming Tuesday, we'll be discussing Matthew 11. In it, we see John the Baptist (who recognized Jesus as the coming messiah, it seems, while both were still in-utero) seemingly doubting Jesus. I love that Jesus, rather than chastising John through his disciples, merely tells them to tell John what He's doing--that should be answer enough. Then Jesus goes on to say, "Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist..." It encourages me greatly to know that we serve a God who loves us even when we doubt.

Jesus goes on to criticize his generation and then to attack specific cities that He and his disciples have visited. It seems strange to me that he goes after entire cities when we, in all our modern individualism, tend to think only of individuals who may respond to God, or not, as they choose. Jesus here presents an idea that, while salvation is always an individual matter, one's community also plays a major role. This works at least two ways, as far as I can tell:
1) It's incredibly hard to be godly or raise a godly family in a corrupt community.
2) God's people should influence their communities in such a way that the whole community should be blessed, and more virtuous as a result.

For me, though, the real kicker comes at the end when Jesus offers rest for the weary. Allow me to pause and say that when I think of rest, I think of sitting by a pool or a fire, sipping a drink and maybe half-heartedly reading something of no consequence. Jesus' prescription for rest, however, is to "Take [His] yoke upon you and learn from [Him]." There seems to be a contradiction here. If I invited you for a weekend of rest, and then asked you to do my laundry and clean out my basement I think you'd be rightly vexed. The idea that it is restful to labor under Jesus, however, is an interesting one, and on that I'll be thinking more about in the coming days. Please share your thoughts on this--I'm looking forward to discussing it with you all on Tuesday.