Matthew 11 - Woe to the unbelief & the impenitent
John the baptist was in prison when he wanted to know if Jesus Christ was the one to come, meaning the Messiah, it might be that he was in doubt or just wanted to confirm that He truly is the Messiah because of what he heard about the miracles. John the baptise was most probably fluent in the old testament & he recognized some of the prophecy in Isa 35:4-6, 61:1, so Jesus Christ told them to go and tell John what they have seen and heard & encouraged him not to take offense. It’s also one of the prophecy that whatever the people did to the prophets by falsely accusing them or persecuting them happened to John & will happen to Jesus Christ as well.
After the rebuilding of the temple in the Persian era during the day of Cyprus, there was a lot of violence because each leaders of each nations wanted to conquer more land to gain more wealth, power & influences. At the time of war of the Jews recorded by Josephus & the apocrypha, they have resorted to violence due to heavy oppression & they wanted to restore the worship of the Lord. There was then a group of Essenes that live in the wilderness, which rumoured that John the baptist was part of, this was to avoid being assimilated by the Hellenistic culture. From the days of John the Baptist until now, which is the days of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence because of unbelief and unrepentant hearts. Then He proceed to say the obvious truth which is that this generation cannot be pleased at all. No matter what God do, signs or wonders, power or authority, they all have excuses to deny it, justify themselves with their own reasons, they would not believe at all even after all the miracles & teachings. So Jesus Christ condemned them to a judgement that shall be worse than Tyre and Sodom.
Jesus Christ gave thanks to the Father, Lord of heaven and earth for hiding the mystery of the kingdom of heaven from the wise & intelligent but have revealed to them to infants, it’s a contrast for childlike faith to believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah with the unbeliefs that kept on trying to get more proof, the worse is that when they were shown the proof, they deny with more excuses. However Jesus Christ did not take offence, as one would normally be after all the effort, still they did not believe. The yoke represents putting down striving against unbelief, to learn from Jesus Christ the Messiah, with the key words of gentle & humble heart. Gentleness means willing to yield, it is firm and not weak, humility is to view the truth as truth; not more nor less. When one is willing to follow Jesus Christ’s ways, by reading His teachings, the word of God, the Holy Bible, then we know His ways; we can focus on that and stop striving against unbelief or doubt. The world is full of deceptions now that it has become harder and harder to know what is truth or lies, who is right or wrong, but the word of God will always give us light to know the truth. It’s not to say that skills, knowledge, history or wisdom isn’t useful, it is only to bring out the fact that the familiarity with the truth will help in discernment by the power & help of the Holy Spirit.
It’s an exhortation from our Lord Jesus Christ to continue to trust in Him & be gentle, be humble for His yoke is easy & His burden is light. When we put down the striving & follow His steps instead, we shall be free from carrying heavy burdens, it doesn’t mean there’s no burden, but only that it will be light & find rests in our souls.