Burden or Relief?
Matt. 11:25-30
Isn’t a yoke on a beast of burden a sign of bondage and subservience?
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.” - Matt. 11:25-30
Jesus is the master at flipping metaphors to serve multiple purposes.
Yes, a yoke is how one turns a farm animal into a powerful beast of burden, using oxen to plow the field.
But here, Jesus uses the metaphor to show how he can turn our individual burdens into shared ones, with him helping to carry the load.
I try to imagine what life for humanity would have been like without Jesus coming to share its burdens.
We are alone most of the time. Yes, there are people in our lives, but they don’t know us the way we know ourselves, and even that knowledge is limited.
Only God truly knows us, and in coming to be one with us, living among us, God in Jesus, gave us His hand to hold us up and keep us steady through it all.
Jesus tells us that only the Father knows him, and we get that. We don’t even know ourselves fully, so knowing Jesus the way the Father does is impossible today, in this form.
We struggle under our burdens because we don’t feel the presence of God lifting us up. But that hand is there. Jesus is the one at our side, sharing the load.
This should bring us peace in our times of loss and pain, but it doesn’t always do that. Why?
It is because we like to think we are alone in our suffering. It is our ego fooling us into thinking we can’t trust anyone else to help us.
People say that is the devil’s work, but as Pogo pointed out, the enemy is us. We are the resistance to our own salvation at times.
Let it go, Jesus tells us. Let me help.
Can we?
More to come...