Easy Burden

Have you ever found yourself struggling spiritually? Ever been tempted and with full knowledge, wilfully given into it? Ever had doubts, worries, and concerns? Ever felt like chucking it all in, giving up, and living like everyone else, not a care in the world? Of course you have!

Everyone, no matter how spiritual, struggles with temptation, finds life difficult, questions God’s sovereignty, especially with events like the holocaust, 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, Trump or Hillary. Or maybe you just question God’s plan with all the suffering and unrest in the world. Why does God allow suffering, especially in his people, those who are Christian?

Wherever you are in your spiritual life right now, whether you are on a mountaintop, or in the darkest valley—struggling, wandering, waiting, wherever, Jesus comes to you and says simply, come to me. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavily burdened and I will give you rest.

Everyone needs what Jesus offers. Life is tough all over. It doesn’t matter where you are. If you’re flush with money, there’s a tonne of pressure on you to do something with it, invest, get rid of debt, donate, buy, spend, needs, wants, desires, must haves. Opinions inundate us from all over the place. Church, society, family, there’s pressure everywhere.

Jesus cuts through all the noise, all the blather, all the opinions, and all the stuff and says, come to me. Come to me, you who are weary and heavily burdened and I will give you rest.

Now, as we think about that, we notice something. Jesus says you who are heavily burdened. Do you feel burdened? No? Think about it for a second. Think about all the things you have to do. Think of your expectations for yourself, the expectations of school, teacher—those on summer holiday, I think of Calvin’s comment to Hobbes in the comic strip, “Summer is almost over and I haven’t done all the goofing off I planned to do,” we even burden our holidays. There are the expectations at work, employer, spouse, parent, children, government, and society. Or maybe it’s something else. Perhaps a loved one is suffering. Maybe you’re worried about a job decision. Maybe you’re fearful for the economy, or terrorism, or war, or the collapse of western civilisation. If you put your mind to it, there’s a lot to think about, isn’t there!

So really, when Jesus says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened,” he’s speaking to everyone. Everyone on the planet is weary and burdened. Whether it is the simple fact of original sin, which inclines us to do the opposite of what God created us to do, which produces condemnation, guilt, etc. in our consciences. Or whether people are burdened by false religions, or burdened by unhelpful rules and regulations within Christianity, or burdened by a sense of just not being totally sure about anything, to all, to everyone, to us this morning, Jesus says, “come to me.”

When we celebrate communion we remember and proclaim Jesus’ death until he comes again. We remember that Jesus did it all. Jesus lived it all, perfectly. Jesus bore all God’s wrath against sin. Jesus offers complete forgiveness. Jesus offers his righteousness, his power, his ability, his Spirit.

This morning, we have already come to Christ. We did it by walking in the doors of this building. We did it when we started to participate in the service. We have already received everything we need from him. He has already removed every bit of condemnation from us. No one can accuse us. They might call us hypocrites, but before the true Judge, in Christ, we’re clean, righteous, for we bear the name of Christ, we are Christians.

This is factual truth. In Christ, we are burden free. Whatever doubts we have, whatever cares or concerns, Christ has removed them from us. So, why don’t we feel it sometimes? Why do we still feel the burden, the temptation, the desire, the falling into sin, or the pain of sorrow, the fear, loneliness? Why do we sometimes feel like skipping church altogether, just going with the flow, chucking it all in, if Christ has already taken everything away? Why does Jesus promise rest, but sometimes we just don’t feel it?

The answer is this. We just don’t trust. We don’t believe that he’s actually removed it. We hand it over only to take it up again, sometimes right after our prayers are over. We don’t actually believe that Jesus loves us so much as to die to save us from our sins. We want to hold onto who we were, or we want to hold onto what we had, we want to keep something of our old identity even if it is utterly incongruent with Christ. We still want to rebel. We still want to hold something back from God. So, one moment we’ll truly honestly mean it when we say, “I surrender all.” Or we present ourselves a living sacrifice. But then, a moment later, we actually take some of it back.

For, if, after finding rest for our souls, we go about our merry way, thinking we have it all figured out at last, we’ll find ourselves in the same spiral, the same cycle of being on the mountain top, then sliding down the mountain, into the valley, then back up the mountain and back down and up and down up and down, tossed to and fro by every wind and wave.

And all the while, we know, this isn’t it. This isn’t what it’s all about; this isn’t what Christ promises. This is not rest; this is not satisfying; this is not pasture life. This is wilderness living.

What then is the answer? What then is the solution? What can keep us where we need to be? What can save us from a mediocre Christian life? We need to yoke ourselves to Christ.

It isn’t enough simply to come to him. It isn’t enough simply to receive the grace given in communion. The gift we receive on Sunday has to remain with us into Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. For that to remain, we need to remain in Christ. We have to yoke ourselves to Christ and learn from him.

In the days before tractors, or where people can’t afford tractors, but where they had oxen, that’s more than one ox. They would pair an old ox with a young one. The old ox actually did all the work. The young one was there just learning how to be yoked, how to be in front of the equipment, how to obey the commands, left, right, stop, speed up, slow down.

This process took a long time. Yoking with Christ is a life-long process. Being yoked with Christ happens on Sundays, that’s why we come to church, it reminds us of who we are and with whom we’re yoked. Make no mistake, Satan, our sinful natures, the flesh, the world, all want us to yoke to anything and everything but Christ. But when you do that, you find that Satan, yourself, others place the entire burden, all the weight of the work on your shoulders, and it is terrible!

Not so with Christ. When we’re yoked with him, all he requires is for us to walk alongside him. All he requires is that we let him bear our burdens, for he already has and already is! Let him do all the work; let him work through you! That’s what he promises when he says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Why? Because he’s the older, experienced ox! He’s actually doing all the work.

But this is what happens. I know it happens for me, and I’m sure it happens for you. You come to church on Sunday and everything is good. You’re all fired up about your faith, through the singing, the praying, and the preaching. But then Sunday afternoon comes, and the television commercials distract, the TV shows turn attention, the busyness of life sets in, and the responsibilities of tomorrow come to the forefront of your mind. And before you know it, you feel far away from Christ, far from his yoke.

In fact, you’ve gone from being a tame ox to a rodeo steer. And as the pressures build it is as though someone or something, or your own self is slowly, inevitably tightening a flank strap. The strap they use on steers to make them buck. You get more and more out of control. There are moments when you can rein yourself in, but the pressure, just keeps piling on, or the temptation, or the desires, or whatever. And you cry out to God, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord” (&25)!

And you remember these words of Christ, and you go down on your knees and you confess, and pray, and you move yourself to Christ, and you put yourself in his yoke, and you look at him, and you feel him remove all the burdens from you. You feel his rest fill you. And you look at him, and then you look in front of you where he’s leading. And you see just the next thing, the present moment. The future is hidden, it is inconsequential, it is unimportant, for just now, just today is what matters. Standing with Christ, you realise that there are blinders on, that you can’t see the past. All the wrong things you’ve done are gone, wiped clean. All you can see is just the present, walking beside Jesus, feeling him do all the work, calmly, patiently, and reassuringly learning the way from him.

To be yoked with Christ means to offer your body, which includes your mind, your heart, your life, your work, your passion, your desires, and your addictions, everything to Christ and allow him to have dominion over everything. Don’t just say it, do it. Don’t wait until later, do it now. Come to Christ; experience the burden lifting, the weariness falling away. Then step next to him, put your shoulder to the yoke. Discover its easiness and lightness. Why is it easy and light? It is because Christ is the one doing all the work in you! Trust him, walk with him, each moment of every day! Amen.