Readings
Zechariah 9:9-12
Psalm 145:8-15
Romans 7:15-25a
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Today’s gospel concludes with one of Jesus’ quintessential sayings, “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.”
Now that’s a wonderful idea and a moving sentiment, but the truth is that for many of us being a Christian is anything but light and easy. I’ve experienced in myself and in my ministry the sometimes-overwhelming sense of burden that comes with being a follower of Jesus. As a priest, I have had many many people express weariness and worry about living up to the demands of being a Christian. Why is that?
Well, for many of us, being a follower of Jesus is about meeting the moral, ethical, and social expectations of our religion. We are called to be good, nice, wholesome, compassionate, caring, understanding people who actively seek to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before God. We’re expected to bring others into this fellowship we call the church while actively supporting that fellowship both materially and financially. And beyond that we’re called to love our enemies and pray for those who would do us harm.
That’s no small list of expectations, and none of us can live up to all of that all of the time. But that’s not the only thing that adds to our burden. No, in addition to that, many of us, consciously or unconsciously, also believe in a God who, based on our behavior, either rewards us or punishes us. We have suffered with this thinking for thousands of years. And for the past few centuries we have had the Protestant work ethic as an example of it. This line of thinking teaches that to the degree that we are good and righteous, God will reward us with prosperity. And to the degree that we are not, God will punish us accordingly.
With all of that, it’s no wonder we find the easy yoke of Jesus not so easy and his burden not so light. Who of us hasn’t failed in some way to be the model Christian? Who of us has not found ourselves lacking in all the ways that we are called to live?
But that’s the very thing which Jesus is addressing in today’s Gospel. He is offering us an alternative to a religion of expectation, and an understanding of God beyond rewards and punishments.
You see throughout the scriptures, from Genesis through the Book of Revelation, we are told again and again that our God is a God of steadfast love and faithfulness. Even as far back as the story of Lot and his family we see that God’s nature is to forgive even in the most dire of situations. God is one who loves humanity and wants nothing but the wellbeing of all people.
By the time of Jesus, however, Judaism had succumbed to this notion of rewards and punishments and saw perfect submission to the law as being the only solution. This is what led to the understanding that illness was a sign of sin in the life of a person, or worse inherited sin from one’s parents or grandparents. Such thinking led to the creation of an onerous and demanding religion that most, if not all, were unable to practice. And that was especially true for the poor and the marginalized.
It is into this environment that Jesus comes and offers an alternative approach. And what is that alternative? It is to reclaim and recognize the true nature of God, namely that our God is a god of steadfast love and faithfulness. It is to recognize that it is God’s nature to forgive rather than punish. It is the recognition that God blesses all of creation rather than only rewarding the worthy.
Jesus again and again tells those who sin, no matter how notorious, that their sins are forgiven. He welcomes those who are on the margins and offers them acceptance and inclusion. Jesus, without exception, preaches the overwhelming love of God.
Now, to be clear, that doesn’t mean he condones broken or sinful behavior, but what he does do is acknowledge that in the midst of our brokenness God still loves us and forgives us. He offers us a religious practice that calls us to the fullness of our humanity without expecting perfection. He recognizes that when we live in the love of God we ourselves are transformed into one who is motivated to love.
Now turning to our present reality, I ask you, how much has our practice of Christianity become like the Judaism to which Jesus spoke? How much have we, wittingly or unwittingly, come to think of God in terms of rewards and punishment? How much do we practice a faith that requires of us nothing less than an attempted perfection?
It’s no wonder that so many of us find the perceived yoke of Jesus to be so burdensome. But as we have seen, the true yoke of Jesus is anything but a burden. To take on the yoke of Jesus is to accept that God loves you. It is to commit to consciously living in the presence of that love. It is a willingness to become that love for the world around us. And as for all those expectations? Yes, much of what we have turned into expectation is a part of living in that love. But rather than being expectations, they’re simply the natural consequences of a life lived in the love we are being called to accept.
How many of us truly believe that we are adored by God? Imagine with me for a moment what it feels like to be unconditionally and overwhelmingly loved by God. If you’re having trouble imagining that, then take a moment when you have felt truly loved by someone and magnify that tenfold. In contrast, think of the thing you are most ashamed. Let the feeling associated with that thing be something you are really feeling.
Now let that love you just felt pour over you. Imagine that God meets your shame with nothing but forgiveness and acceptance. Think about it … the thing you are most ashamed of is nothing compared to the love and acceptance of God. What does that do to you? I know what it does to me. It’s nothing less than transformation. But, if you’re like me, it doesn’t take long before I slip back into old thinking. It won’t be long before I take my shame and use it as a barrier to God.
The yoke that Jesus offers is the discipline of going back to the love of God again and again. It is the practice of recognizing that we are completely and totally adored by God. It is the willing acceptance that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. It is a commitment on our part to live in that love and to love everyone and everything in same way.
Imagine what our world would be like, imagine what our lives would be like, if everyone accepted that reality. If we all looked at each other the way God looks at us … with absolute love and compassion. If we all looked at the world around us like God looks at the world, without a single ounce of judgment and with deepest and most unimaginable depth of love. Perhaps then we would find rest for our souls and we would find our burdens light.