' We can see the difference between Jesus’ burdens and the burdens of oppression other powers would lay upon us. Jesus says to his disciples, ‘Come to me; take my yoke upon you.’ He is honest that there is a yoke which tethers the disciple to him. Compare and contrast that with the lies of the powers who promise total freedom but which produce only servitude.'
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
St
Stephen is part of a mission district of the North American Lutheran Church
which includes not only urban and suburban Pittsburgh but stretches east and
south into rural Appalachia as well as north into Western New York. As such, there
are fellow believers not that far from us who can understand the paradox of
this passage much more easily than we can.
Jesus
compares himself to the gentle farmer who cares for his animals, not laying
yokes upon them which are too hard to bear, which will wear them out and wreck
them. This is a beautiful image, but we twenty-first century people may wonder
why he uses this metaphor at all.
But
these understandings which are warp and woof of the culture in which we’ve been
raised deserve closer examination. We are intelligent beings, yes, but are we
free, and what does freedom mean? Yes, we are in a society dedicated to liberty
and we have more political and personal liberties than many others. Indeed, it may
be because of these political and personal liberties we enjoy that we assume
too much that we can be completely free and independent.
The
Bible disabuses us of the notion that we can be self-sufficient. Not only is the
universe not of our own making, but every moment it is sustained by the power
of God. We are placed in the only place in the universe accessible to us that
harbors life. We are part of a biodiverse planet of plants and animals, not
only evidence of God’s creativity but also his means of sustaining a habitat
for all creatures. We are dependent upon other human beings for nourishment,
shelter, safety, and many other things. Martin Luther says that when we pray in
the Lord’s Prayer for daily bread, we are to remember that the daily bread that
God gives includes:
Everything
our bodies need such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, fields,
livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children, upright
members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good
weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and
the like.
The
table grace in Luther’s catechism begins with a verse from Psalm 145, a verse
which we stopped just short of reading today: The eyes of all look to you, O
Lord, and you give them their food in due season. You open wide your hand, and
satisfy the needs of every living thing.
Perhaps
one way we may take the yoke of Jesus is in cultivating a spirit of
thanksgiving in our hearts and of petition for our daily needs. For those who
ask and thank of necessity believe that they are not self-sufficient. They
understand that the world and other human beings are not inert resources to be
utilized but living gifts to be received from a loving God.
But
the Scriptures also teach us that beyond our need for God’s creating and
sustaining care, we also are in need of his help and salvation from powers that
would drive us and lay burdens too great to bear upon us. Our conceits of
personal freedom and self-sufficiency ought to founder upon our inability to
disentangle ourselves from the sin which clings so closely and the powers of
evil, however conceived, that drive us to anger, fear, desire to dominate
others, envy and jealousy, self-indulgence, bitterness, hatred, and the like.
These yokes are forced upon us, when we believe the false promises that we will
actually have more freedom when we lie, cheat, steal, and do violence against
others. Far from it, for we cannot free ourselves from the vicious cycles which
are created when we live lives apart from God.
The
apostle Paul was flabbergasted when he understood that despite his sincere
desire to please God, he was so enmeshed in the ways of sin that would rise up
unbidden in his life that he began to conceive of that sinful self as another
self that lived within him and which he could not get rid of. Though he
believed God had set him free, there were clearly times he experienced his
life as one in bondage.
It
is here that we can understand Jesus’ call to take his yoke upon us and learn
from him – if we believe that if we are not yoked to him, far from being free,
we will be yoked to some other power which desires to subjugate us. The powers
of sin, death and evil are active in the world and wish to dominate our lives.
If even a spiritual athlete like the apostle Paul cried out for rescue, what
hope do we have?
Jesus
calls the disciples to exchange freely the false freedom offered by the powers
in order to walk with him. While the powers demand we wear their yoke,
Jesus invites. He will not force us to gladly hear and learn the Word,
to receive the Sacraments, to ask him for what we need and thank him when we
receive it. But if we take his yoke upon us, paradoxically, we will be freer
than we ever have been, and given rest in his presence, we will cling to the
hope of complete freedom from sin, death, and evil in the kingdom of God.
May we, whatever burdens we carry, exchange them for the peace and rest we find in bearing the gentle yoke of Jesus Christ. Let us learn from him in whose service is perfect freedom, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
