What burdens you? – Matthew 11:25-30

A few years ago I cleared a section of land using an old-fashioned scythe.  Everyone who saw me told me there was a machine that could make the work easier and faster but I still used that scythe.  Perhaps I was just being stubborn but somehow it didn’t feel like a burden to use it.  Maybe that is because it was a new thing for me. Perhaps if I had been using it all my life and was given a power tool to do the same thing faster, I might have decided to use it instead.

All of us choose to do certain tasks in certain ways. Even when we choose a hard way and are shown an easier way, often we persist in our old ways.  Perhaps we believe that the old way is better, that it produces more character and endurance.  Perhaps we just find it familiar and are afraid to try a new way.  Our burden may be heavier than it needs to be but the thought of trading it in for a lighter one that is unfamiliar may unease us.

Now think for a moment about a yoke of oxen.  That yoke is designed to enable the oxen to handle the task that is required of them. The yoke helps the animals to be effective in the task that they are asked to fulfil. A lighter yoke of more modern materials may accomplish the same thing as the yokes of old and be a lighter burden for the animals. But when Jesus was speaking to the people in that time, they could only imagine the yoke of wood they knew and what that weight was.

Jesus was a master at taking everyday items and using them to teach people important lessons about life and about the expectations of God for their lives. In the beginning there were the ten commandments – fairly simple rules that could be easily remembered and followed. Jesus condensed those rules to two making it even easier to remember. The first commandments speak of our relationship with God and the rest of the commandments speak of our relationships with family and the wider community.

If we think of this as a yoke that would rest on our shoulders, then we can see these rules aiding and helping to keep us focused in living our lives as God’s people.  But imagine if you will that the original rules and laws that form the yoke keep getting added to with interpretations. The interpretations are seen as improvements, as a means of improving the relationship with God and community.  The Pharisees and Sadducees had meticulously crafted and then hoisted this yoke onto the shoulders of the people in an attempt to ensure  the people did everything right in the eyes of God.

Now there is nothing wrong with striving to do everything right in the eyes of God; and there is nothing wrong with trying to help people understand what God expects of them; but Jesus makes it clear that God never intended the yoke of obedience to become an unbearable burden. The joy of following God, of trusting in the Word of God is sucked away and replaced by such a strong sense of morality and duty as to suffocate our spirits and push us to rebel and turn away from God.

When we find ourselves in situations where too much is demanded of us, we want to just walk away.  Children can feel burdened by the expectations of parents; adults can feel burdened by the expectations of employers or spouses or friends.  In church, we can feel the burden of expectations upon us as professing Christians.  We expect ourselves to be perfect and others both within and outside the church expect that as well. Somehow our faith – a gift of God – is believed to overcome any weakness in our human condition.  Our imperfections become opportunities for others to reject faith in God or – at the very least – in the people of God.  And as much as we may tell them that we do not believe because we are perfect, the perception that the church has conveyed over the years is that we are the model citizens.  And so when the model citizens stumble, the rest lose hope and see no place for God in their lives.

As much as God throughout time has tried to impress upon us the lightness of his yoke, we continue to do our best to increase its weight.  As much as God throughout time has tried to reach out and take hold of us and assure us that he loves us and accepts us in all our imperfection, we have done our best to not believe that anything less than perfection will be acceptable to God. Many people are afraid to disappoint God and so either despair of pleasing him and turn away. Others work so hard to ensure they are leading the best life they can that they struggle to receive the gifts of forgiveness and grace.

I want us to consider carefully that much of the burden we may be feeling in our lives is not the burden that God has placed upon us but rather it is the burden that we have chosen to place on ourselves.

Perhaps that burden first came to us as children; perhaps it came as we became more committed in our faith. Jesus knows so well how we can burden ourselves unnecessarily.

Remember that one of the differences between the old and new testaments is this: God allows Himself to be sacrificed like a lamb for the eternal forgiveness of our sin that we might not feel the burden of our sin but know that we are loved unconditionally and acceptable and accepted by God. When we look at the lives of those God chose to be leaders and prophets, God never chose perfect people but he chose people willing to listen and follow.  Each of them made mistakes but God loved them and stayed with them to the end of their lives.  And the message given by God from the beginning of time has been a lot simpler than we often allow it to be.

The prophet Micah summed it up this way: God has showed you what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.  Our Lord Jesus Christ summed it up this way: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul and love your neighbour as yourself.  That is the yoke that Jesus seeks for us to bear.  That is the yoke that God always intended for us to bear.   That is the only yoke God prays we will bear.

I have found much strength for my faith in God through the example of the Celtic saints who lived their faith simply yet with great conviction. My morning ritual includes the following prayer which helps me to see the yoke Christ speaks of.  It goes like this:

My Father, I come to you at the beginning of this day to ask you to guide me and help me.  Give me courage to face the problems that lie ahead and give me a heart wide open to the joys you have prepared for me.  Forgive my many sins that I may start this day anew. And as you forgive me, may I learn to be forgiving and compassionate to others in return. My Father, I long to serve you aright. May all that I do and all that I say be pleasing in your sight. AMEN.