Sunday 9 July, 2023

Reflection:    "How Heavy is a Yoke?

​Genesis 24:34-48,42-49,58-67

Psalm 45:10-17

Matthew 11:16-19,25-30

Romans 7:15-25a

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​Today’s reading from Matthew’s gospel is quite a contrast to what we’ve been hearing Jesus say in earlier passages.
He’s been talking about the cost of discipleship – the certainty of persecution, conflict, suffering and painful division for those who choose to follow him.
Things like “Leave it all behind, pick up your cross and give up your life for my sake” - strong stuff like that.
 
But today his tone changes.
Jesus is sounding all sweetness and light – promising rest and comfort, light burdens and easy yokes.
This is more like it - gentle masters are much more to our liking – if we must have masters at all.
 
But, as we’ve come to understand, the words of Jesus are usually a little more complex than they seem.
The primary thrust of what Jesus is saying here is not directed toward people who have just any kind of difficulty.
By saying “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,” or an older translation, “who labour and are heavy laden,” Jesus doesn’t primarily mean people with ordinary problems – such as too many bills, or being unemployed, or sick, or having ungrateful kids.
 
Jesus has all sorts of things to say about stuff like that, but that’s not what he’s talking about here.
Here, Jesus is talking quite specifically to, and about, those who are on a religious quest – those who are seeking God, and a relationship with God.
He’s calling the religiously exhausted to himself – those who’ve tried all of the usual ways of finding some peace with the divine and have achieved only frustration.
 
The clue to all of this is the fact that a yoke was not only a device for harnessing beasts of burden, but in early Jewish times, it was also the common symbol for the Laws of Abraham and Moses.  
It was used to cover the details of the “law” and the particular demands of the legalism of the Pharisees.
In fact, there were about 613 of these!
 
Also, we need to remember here that Matthew is presenting an exaggerated picture of the Pharisees – most of them were not nearly this extreme; many were not bad at all; but there were enough of them who were, to justify this caricature.
 
This is why Jesus says that the wise and intelligent – i.e. the religious leaders – have missed the point.
He then adds that only the Son – not those leaders, and not you, or me, or anyone else, only the Son – knows the Father - and we can only come to the Father through him.
 
The yoke of the Pharisees, their demands that you have to do this and this and this, exactly in the right order, to matter to God, in order to be a decent person, in order to be loved or counted significant – that yoke Jesus rejects, even though it was the yoke of the “wise and intelligent”.
 
That yoke leads us to seek God by keeping the rules, doing what somebody or anybody or everybody else says is the thing to do.  
Trying to get it right all the time and so living constantly in fear of getting it wrong - that yoke leads those who wear it to “labour and be heavy laden.”
It leads to living in what Paul just called “this body of death.”
It leads to a religion and a life of fearful obedience to a multitude of petty dictates where the spirit is deadened, and where some measure of success is more likely to lead you into self-righteousness than into the heart of God.
 
To say to your child, a friend, your spouse, or anyone else, “I’ll only love you if you do everything right”, is to ensure a sick and twisted relationship that hurts everybody involved.
 
To teach that this is what God says, is not only terrible theology, but it can also be devastating to those who hear it.
Yet the yoke of the Law, at its worst, did just that.
Those who, like Paul, struggled under such a yoke, discovered that it didn’t fit; that it didn’t bring them closer to God; that it didn’t enrich their lives - yokes like that never do.
 
To go scurrying about with the notion that if we could only figure out the right thing to do – the right way to act, the right words to say, the right way to do the rituals – then we’ll be all right.
But that is to skate on the edge of magic, as if we could conjure up God’s acceptance.
In the end, it’ll only ensure frustration and exhaustion.
God’s presence with us and God’s love for us are never the results of our actions.
He’s in charge; we’re not.
 
Even the Apostle Paul, when writing to the Jews in Rome, struggled with this.
He stated that if he tried to keep to the Jewish laws, he was, in fact, sinning, because he was only doing it (ie. keeping the laws) because he felt he had to.
 
Instead, Paul remembered the call of Jesus, who says, “Come to me.”
 
Not to a new law, not to a new teaching, not to a secret interpretation, or a hidden loophole, not to a book, not to a list; but “to me.”    Come to Jesus himself.
 
In essence, Jesus is saying, “If you seek God; if you seek his love; if you seek a life that makes some sense; if you want a way of understanding the world that allows you to deal honestly with what happens and not be destroyed; if you want to be who you are created to be – if you want this, then come to me.”
 
It’s a call to relationship – to relationship with Jesus and to relationship with the community that continues Jesus’ life and ministry – that is, the church.
 
The alternatives, then and now, will fail, but Jesus will not. We’re reminded that God has taught us that all the commandments can be kept by loving God and our neighbour. Such is the yoke of Christ.
 
In many translations, Jesus calls his yoke “easy”, but that’s an unfortunate translation into English, as it makes it sound like everything’s a doddle and that very little effort or energy is required to do it.
As anyone who’s tried to live the life of Jesus knows, that’s just not true.
I like the New English Bible’s translation which reads, “My yoke is good to bear.”
 
The point is not that this yoke, the Lord’s call to relationship, makes no difference, or asks nothing of us – quite the contrary. The point is that it fits - it’s the right size, so it works – it leads us to God, and brings with it wholeness and a peace that can’t be found anywhere else.
To come to him is to discover that, what can seem a frantic and desperate task – life with God – is, in fact, not an earned reward, but a free gift.
To come to him is to discover, as Paul discovered, that “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
To come to him is to discover that the task of getting it all correct is replaced by the absolute gift of God’s grace, and our grateful response to that gift.
 
All the strong stuff we’ve been hearing the past few weeks about the cost of discipleship is still very much there.
But the yoke is good to bear - it leads to life.
To put it on is to be embraced by God’s mercy – to carry it is to fulfil both God’s will and our own humanity.
We’re called to this yoke, not to a law, or set of rules, but to a person and a community built around that person.
And in this the religious quest – the greatest journey of human existence – can find its richest fulfilment, and its deepest satisfaction.
 
Jesus said, “Come to me if you seek God, if you seek life, I will give you rest.”
Are you ready to wear that yoke?    
To let Jesus carry you?                       
 
Pastor Rick