His Yoke is Easy
Posted by Fr.Stace on July 6th, 2008 filed in The Rector's RuminationsProper 9
Matthew 11/Romans 7
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Jesus said to the crowd, “To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
`We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, `He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, `Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
At that time Jesus said, “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; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 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.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
I hope all of you had a wonderful 4th of July. We have several kinds of reflections today as we have another baptism and we have all just celebrated our freedom in our great land.
Our readings today point us to a specific place–the place of rest and refreshment. Certainly Jesus’ words today begin in a difficult place, but they end with rest and what he calls an ‘easy yoke.’
In this passage, Jesus is talking about certain expectations that people had of the messiah. Even John the Baptist wondered if he got it right with Jesus and he sends an envoy to ask Jesus if he indeed is the messiah.
The expectation of those who were waiting for the messiah were ones of a powerful political ruler, someone who took charge and kicked Roman butt.
But Jesus had a different vision for what his kingdom would look like. As a review, his kingdom was for the poor in spirit, for the meek, for the peacemakers. His Torah was a Torah of loving one’s enemy and one’s neighbor. His kingdom was a kingdom of healing and purity of heart.
Jesus critique for the people was that they did not know what they were looking for, they were unable to see the kingdom if it bit them on the arm. They were those who sang children’s songs and who claimed that John the Baptist was evil and that Jesus was a glutton. They were childish not childlike which he commends. Those who are small and childlike, they could perceive what no one else could perceive.
Jesus rails on the towns he has performed miracles in because they should be able to get it. They have Moses, they have been instructed, yet they cannot see. ‘Woe to you Bethsaida, Woe to you Chorazim…’ ‘If the miracles you have seen were performed in Sodom, they would have repented!’
They were unable to see what was right there in front of them. They were unable to see Jesus who was and is God in the flesh for no one else had or has the relationship to the Father that he has. They needed a new way of seeing.
In many ways, what we reenact in baptism is what takes place in a very real way, that as we have a relationship with God in Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to us, fills us, cleanses us, gives us eyes to see what previously we could not see.
In Matthew Jesus describes discipleship, one, by following him, carrying one’s cross, being willing to die. Making the ultimate sacrifice.
But here, Jesus describes discipleship also as a yoke. A yoke was something that was placed around two oxen to help them bear a load together. It was so they would not bear a burden alone.
Jesus says to all who are weary and heavy laden that he will give them rest. How many of you are in that category today?
The irony of what Jesus says is that the rest comes not because of inactivity or ‘chillin’ out’ or being ‘free’ to do just whatever the heck we want, but rest comes because of being ‘yoked’ to him.
As author Christopher Lasch says, ‘The contemporary climate is therapeutic, not religious. People today hunger not for personal salvation, let alone for the restoration of an earlier golden age, but for the feeling, the momentary illusion, of personal well-being, health, and psychic security.’
The fourth of July is a great reminder of the blessings we have to live in the greatest country on earth. We have more freedoms than any civilization in the world. But it is true that we have lost our moral compass. One can be free, pursuing personal well being and psychic security and still not be truly free.
In order for us to be truly free, we must realize that we are only free in Jesus Christ. Ironically, we are only free when we place ourselves under his yoke.
But his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
As we approach our Christian life, as we approach baptism, the question we need to ask ourselves is, if we are weary, if we are burdened, if we are exhausted from being exhausted, where are we yoked? What do we carry with us, or what carries us to bear our load?
Those in the first century waiting for a political messiah were yoked to their own agendas as to how and where God would and should act. Are you yoked to an agenda? Are you yoked to seeing God a certain way, whether he likes it or not?
Are you yoked to material possessions? Could you live without them? Are you yoked to your income or lack thereof? Are you yoked to prosperity?
Are you yoked to fear and anxiety that if you really laid it all down, God would force you to do something you don’t want to do? Fr. Daniel gave me much to think about last week, but what was the most powerful thing to me was that he admitted that fear could be an idol for him. To minister to the Darfurians, the same people who killed his family and friends–he could be afraid, but he laid that aside for the yoke of Christ.
The first vow of the baptismal covenant is to renounce–in essence it is to break the yoke. We break the yoke of our own selfishness and take on the yoke of Jesus. We break the yoke of our own sinful desires for the yoke of Christ. We break the yoke of the Torah of me for the yoke of Christ.
The greatest thing about our faith is the ability to start over, to say that we have failed to live as we ought and to receive the mercy of God, it is the ability to admit that we, no matter how many years of going to church, are really beginners.
Thomas Merton, the great Trappist monk of last century says this, “One cannot begin to face the real difficulties of the life of prayer…unless one is first perfectly content to be a beginner and really experiences oneself as one who knows little or nothing, and has a desperate need to learn the bare rudiments. Those who think they ‘know’ from the beginning, never, in fact come to know anything…We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life.” What Merton said of prayer is true of all of the Christian life.
Another yoke that is more subtle but equally as damaging as anything else is the yoke of religious duty, doing ministry without being yoked to Jesus. When we are yoked to Jesus, the burdens of ministry are in his power and in his strength. He carries us. When we do ministry, or come to church, or pray, or do whatever disconnected to Jesus–and yes that happens–just ask the Pharisees, then we burn out and burn up. It is possible to do Christian duty without Christ.
Look at how the apostle Paul explains his struggle from Romans 7. ‘What I do I do not want to do…I am in bondage to sin..’
When he does things out of duty it is not enough or it is not effective. But Jesus offers strength.
“Thanks be to God for our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Are you tired? I can’t do it without Christ, but with Christ the yoke is easy and the burden is light.