Disciples of the Kingdom: Burden Bearing Disciples
Matthew 11:25-30
When asked about why he wrote "Waiting For the World To Change," John Mayer reportedly said that he wanted to explain why his generation seems so passive about what is going on in the world. The problem according to Mayer is that the younger generation has little power. They can't find a home in either of the major political parties. They don't have money or prestige to make changes. So they wait for the day when they will have the power to make a difference and then . . . then . . .everything will change. But until then they wait.
I suspect that the crowds who gathered to listen to Jesus speak understood completely the sentiments that John Mayer expresses so simply in his song. They knew exactly the feeling of waiting for the world to change because they had been doing it for years. Waiting . . . waiting for the Messiah who would come in glory and victory and change everything.
As the wise person once said, "the more things change, the more things stay the same." Generation X and Y are not the first generations to feel powerless in the face of a world that seems to be falling apart. They aren't the first to feel like they are burdened and weighed down by the unfair expectations of others. It is, sadly, the way of the world-part of living in a broken, sinful world.
But listen to the words of Jesus:
"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 infant; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27All 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."
Here is good news for those burdened and wearied by waiting for a better world! The Messiah has come and he is calling to us!
Us!?
Have you ever stopped to consider how remarkable it is that Jesus calls us-you and me-to be his disciples. Not the wise and intelligent. Not the powerful! Not those without sin or those who have it all together! Instead he calls us-infantile, weary, burdened, doubting, sinful, frightened-us!
He could have called great rabbis-men of great learning and influence-instead Jesus called fishermen. He could have called priests-men who were recognized as holy messengers of God-instead he called women and tax collectors. He could have called great holy men and women, instead he called ordinary, uneducated men and women. He called children to come to him. He reached out to the unclean and to gentiles. He could have called the wise, instead he called the foolish.
Of course, this is what God has always done. He has chosen the unexpected to change the world. In a world where the oldest son inherited power and prestige, God choose again and again to work through the younger son: Jacob, Joseph, Gideon, David, to name just a few. In a world where a woman's worth was determined by the number of children-especially sons-that she birthed, God worked through barren women: Sarah, Hannah and Elizabeth (once again to name just a few). In a world governed by great nation-states: Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome, God chose to work through a small nation with little or no wealth or military.
That's why I so love the invitation to communion: "Christ invites to his table ALL who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin, seek to be at peace with Christ and one another." Christ is calling us to his table where it is promised that God will be revealed to us. And Christ is calling us ALL despite the fact that we aren't worthy. We are infants in need of parenting. We are ignorant and in need of the true knowledge. We are sinners in need of redemption. We are broken human beings in need of healing and wholeness. We are weary, burdened, frightened and unsure. Still he calls!
Talk about good news!
Yet, I am constantly amazed by the number of people who shy away from the call of Christ because they believe they are unworthy. They don't have their act together. They have questions. Life has worn them down and they worry that perhaps it isn't possible for them to ever get their act together. They worry that they will be judged and found lacking-if not by Jesus then by Jesus' followers-and so they stay away.
However, the God of the Bible doesn't appear to be too impressed by people with extensive resumes. He doesn't seemed to be impressed by power or by those who think they have done everything that needs to be done in order to prove themselves worthy. In fact, just the opposite seems to be the case. Jesus is gentle with the woman caught in adultery. He sits down and eats with tax collectors and sinners. With only a few exceptions, the only people he judges harshly are those who think they are worthy-those who think they are above his judgment.
In fact, the only requirement for discipleship that I can see in all of scripture is a simple willingness to go, to follow and to learn. In essence, the only qualification to be a disciple of Christ appears to be the recognition that we need-that we yearn-to follow him.
I find it odd that this scripture seems to find its way into the lectionary readings on the Sunday nearest to the 4th of July. I find it odd for a couple of reasons. The first reason is the similarity of Jesus' words of invitation-"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."-and those we find inscribed below the Statue of Liberty.-"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"(The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus)
But perhaps the oddest thing about this coincidence is that on the weekend when we celebrate Independence Day, we are reminded by Jesus that true freedom comes not from independence from a higher power but from dependence on God. And true rest comes not from ceasing to work and waiting on God to change the world, but from joining God in his work.
28"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
You see Jesus is calling us-and he is calling us for a purpose! Two weeks ago, we talked about his call to take up our cross and follow him. Today, he calls us to take his yoke upon us and learn from him.
When you read through the gospels, I want you to notice something-Jesus rarely does anything for anyone without asking a response from them. His entire ministry has a pattern of call and response. When he heals, when he pronounces forgiveness, when he asks a question or tells a parable, he generally follows up with a command. "Go and sin no more." "Take up your pallet and walk." "Go and show the priests." "Go and tell what God has done." "Take up your cross and follow me." "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me."
So let's talk for a moment about what it means to take up Jesus' yoke.
A yoke is a crossbar with two U-shape pieces that encircle the necks of two animals so that they work together. Growing up as a carpenter's child, Jesus would have been very familiar with how yokes were crafted. A good fitting yoke would rest comfortably on the neck of the animal. In other words, it would fit easy.
In Jesus' day, the word yoke was also commonly used to refer to the Torah-or the law of God. And it was considered a privilege to take on the yoke of God's law. But something sad had happened in the midst of waiting for the Messiah and the fulfillment of that law. It started out as a good thing really. Good faithful people awaiting the Messiah and wanting to be found worthy when he arrived had started adding to the Torah in order to ensure that they didn't accidently break the law. So where Torah said, "Thou shalt keep the Sabbath," they began to make rules about what that meant. What does it mean to work? How much work is okay? When exactly does Sabbath begin? What kind of work can you do in the case of an emergency? And bit by bit, they added to the Torah until God's good fitting yoke became harsh and burdensome.
I wish I could tell you that the legalism Jesus was warning against was only a problem for the Pharisees, but I'd be lying. The truth is that the tendency to reduce God's radical call to discipleship to a series of "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots" is just as much a temptation for us as it was for those who Jesus addressed.
For example, we acknowledge we aren't worthy to come to Christ's table for Holy Communion, but then we make a long list of folks we think are somehow less worthy: those who don't understand what it means, those of a certain age, those who have not been baptized, those whose sins are somehow deemed worse than our sins. And when we make these kinds of distinctions on Christ's behalf, we, like the Pharisees of old, place burden after burden on those who wish to respond to Christ's simple invitation to come, to learn, and to follow.
John Wesley used to refer to Holy Communion as a converting ordinance and by that he meant that some people come to the faith by participating in Holy Communion. And that makes sense to me because it is at the Lord's Table that today's scripture is enacted. At the Table, Christ is revealed to be alive and active in this world. It is at the Lord's Table that we learn that we are truly forgiven and reconciled to God. It is at the Lord's Table that we learn that we are called to be a part of a community that is united in the body of Christ as we share together in confessing sin, acknowledging our need for Christ, receiving the gift of Christ and together becoming the body of Christ in ministry to the world. At the table, we practice what it means to yoke ourselves to Christ and to one another.
Which leads to another important thing about yokes. Yokes were used not only for getting work done but they were also used to train new workers. Even today, in areas where they still use oxen to do farm work, you will see young, inexperienced oxen yoked with older, more experienced oxen. It actually looks a little funny because sometimes the older ox is carrying most if not all of the weight. But oxen are yoked together so that the younger ox can learn how to work from the older one. In the beginning the older ox takes on most of the weight and does most of the work, but as the younger ox grows and matures, he takes on more and more weight and together they accomplish more and more.
That's what happens to us as we yoke ourselves to Christ. At first, we don't accomplish much, but we learn from Jesus. We grow. We mature. And soon we too are accomplishing more than we ever dreamed. And we aren't just waiting for the world to change; we are active participants in the change God wants to make in the world!
So back to our video. It is very tempting to look at what we as individuals have to offer a very broken and sinful world and to just sit back and wait. To wait on a time when we feel we have more power. To wait for the perfect time to work for change. To wait for the time when we feel like we are more worthy, more capable for the job. To wait for the next life when all will be perfect. Or to wait for Jesus to return and change the world for us.
But Jesus is not calling us to wait-he is calling us to take his yoke, to learn from him, to follow and to take up a cross and join him in the hard, but exhilarating work of changing the world by living as if we truly believe in the Kingdom of God-where all are accepted, where the broken are healed, where the hungry are fed, the captives are released, and all know that they are beloved children of God.
At the beginning of our traditional worship service, we do something very strange. Two of our young people parade into the sanctuary carrying candle lighters with the lights shining and they light these candles on the altar. This strange action symbolizes the fact that light of Christ is with us in worship. And traditionally, at the end of the service, they relight their candleholders, snuff out the candles on the altar, and lead us out of worship and into the world. That action symbolizes what Eddie shows us in the video. The light of Christ goes before us out into the world and calls us to follow him and make a difference in the world that he so loves.
So let's quit waiting on the world to change. Let's yoke ourselves to Christ and get to work making a difference in the lives of people so that they can see a glimpse of the Kingdom of God in us and in themselves!
But first, let us practice as we come to Christ's table.
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