Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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. ~ Matthew 11:28-30From the late nineteenth century until the early twentieth century, New York served as the immigration capital of the United States. Almost daily, hundreds, if not thousands, of immigrants from across the Atlantic Ocean would pour into the United Sates via massive cargo ships. The people on these vessels were leaving behind everything they knew--everything that was familiar to them--for a chance at something they had never experienced before. The lands they grew up in and came from were oppressive and stifling, and America provided promised something much better.
As they approached the New York harbor, they were greeted by a symbol of everything they were looking for: The Statue of Liberty. Standing 305 feet tall, this statue embodied all of the hope and promise of America--the hope of a better life, the promise of a new beginning. The Statue of Liberty signified for these new Americans everything that they had yearned for in their old country but had never received.
At the base of this statue stood an inscription that summed up the hope they were putting in America.
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!
"Yearning to breathe free." This is why the immigrants came, and this is what they hoped to receive in America. Freedom.
But freedom from what? An oppressive government, yes, but I would argue they were also looking for freedom from so much more. As they came to America, I think they were looking for freedom from all of the problems that plagued them in their homeland. They wanted freedom from their financial burdens…from martial problems…from sickness…from arguments…from you-name-it…
Lady Liberty, for them, signified this newfound freedom. They were leaving everything behind, and here, in America, everything would be better.
Not much has changed in the past 100 years. Although our destinations have changed, we Americans are also on a seemingly never ending quest for freedom from our troubles. Although we no longer (normally) change our addresses quite as drastically, we are constantly changing our circumstances to escape them.
Like the immigrants, we play the game of “if only.” “If only” this were to happen, that would be much better. “If only I were to get a new job,” “If only I were to get a promotion,” “If only I were to find the right girl,” “If only I were to get a divorce,” “If only I could move to this place,” THEN it would all be solved.
The Statue of Liberty provided a false promise to those immigrants. When they arrived in America, I’m sure they were disappointed that many of the same problems that faced them in their homeland followed them here—and that new ones continued to surface. While they might have, indeed, been more “free,” they were still burdened.
And no matter how much we believe the false promises that “if only” this were to happen, we, too, are faced with the same realization: wherever we go, whatever we do, we are never truly free of our problems.
So is that what life is, then? A series of burdens? A series obstacles that follow you around wherever you go and never get better? And eventually after battling these for 80, 90, 100 years, you just give up and die? Is that all there is?
When I read the Bible, and specifically the words of Jesus, I find a life that is being preached there that is in stark contrast to the lives I think that most of us people lead. While most of us humans are consumed by worry--worry about how we're going to support ourselves, our family, and "keep up with the Jones,'" Jesus tells us, quite simply, "do not worry" (Matthew 6:34).
I am in a job right now that has caused me a great deal of stress over the past year and a half. I have worked almost every day in the past year in this job. My attendance record said that I worked 41 weekends in 2005. That means I got a total of 11 weekends off the entire year--on top of being there pretty much every day during the regular work week. But "regular" work week it ain't. This isn't no 9-to-5 job. Sure, I usually do get in at 9:00, but when I hit five, I am just about halfway done with my job for the day. The average time I get out of my job is between 10 and 11 at night, but sometimes it can be much, MUCH later. The demands on my day are ridiculous, the turn-around-times on projects are absurd and the people I work with, well, see my previous post.“So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' for the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first is kingom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” ~ Matthew 6:31-34
The whole reason I took this job was because I was worried. I knew that God had called me to be a minister, and I felt as though (and still feel) like in order to be an effective one, I needed to go to seminary school. But seminary school is not free. In fact, it cost a great deal of money. And I was worried about how I was going to pay for seminary school, AND be able to pay for the basic necessities in life. And I felt like I had to take it upon myself to figure it all out. So I took the job out of college that would offer me the most money. And thus I have found myself in my current predicament.
Now of course I don't know, and I can't tell anymore, but I feel like that if I had done what I believe was God's will, and gone to seminary school right after college, I feel like God would have provided. I feel like somehow, perhaps miraculously, He would have opened up doors and made it possible for me to go. At the very least, He would have told me to not worry about it, and would have made me understand that it was all in His control.
Why? Because God tells us that his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.
The yoke is a concept that is somewhat lost in our society, but the people of Jesus' time would have fully understood it. In a world without the benefit of our modern day trucks and other modes of transportation, the people of Jesus' time relied on animals to carry their loads from place to place, or to do agricultural work like farming. In order to get maximum efficiency out of these animals, they would attach a wooden crosspiece over a pair of the neck of these animals. They would then attach whatever load they needed to carry to this cross piece, and the animals would drag it behind them. This crosspiece was called the “yoke.”
Each of us has a yoke that we are carrying throughout life. Loaded up on this yoke is a series of burdens—the troubles and problems that plague our day. And as we go throughout each day, they get loaded with more and more stuff. It is these yokes that most of us spend our entire lives trying to get free of.
Jesus does not promise a yoke-free life. But He is telling us that the burdens that most of us have been loading onto our yoke are burdens that we were never intended to carry.
You see, we have it all backwards. Rather than try to figure out God's will and then follow it, and realize that in doing so He will meet our needs, we instead make a list of our needs and follow our will to try and meet those. And then we try to cram God into all of the empty spaces that are left over. In doing so, we are taking upon ourselves something that was not meant for us--it was meant for God to carry. And so we worry and stress and feel burdened throughout life because we are trying to tackle monumental things that we have very little control over. We become weary with life and cease to have the freedom we all truly desire.
Allow me, if you will, this analogy: I am surprised that as many people feel comfortable using an airplane for transportation as they do. When you think of it, a plane is an extremely complex piece of equipment. And in order for it to get to your destination, literally millions of things have to go right. If any one them went wrong, the airplane could crash to the ground instantly.
And yet every day millions of people fly in relative comfort (well, in first class at least). Why is that? I would argue that if you wanted to be worried about flying, you have every right to be. You would be completely justified in opening up the cockpit and demand to fly the plane. After all, the pilots have your life in their hands. Can you really trust them to take care of it? How often do you really let that happen?
But you don't barge in there because you realize you would be wholly inadequate to successfully manage such a task. And you realize that there are a hundred people who are hopefully fairly adequate in their jobs making sure that your plane reaches its destination safely. You know that before you took off grounds crews checked over every part of that plane to make sure it was operational. You know that while you taking off, two pilots who are extremely skilled in the process of flying a plane were in control. And while you're in the air, you have dozens of air traffic controllers who are monitoring the skies to make sure that everything is going as planned. In short, you have a ton of "experts" who are hopefully taking care of all aspects of that flight.
And unless you are trained in flying, you wouldn't dare go into that cockpit and demand to fly the plane. It wouldn't make sense. You are not trained in that. You would only mess it up--big time.
The task of flying a plane is a burden that you were never intended to carry—and thankfully no one asks you to. Imagine the weight on your shoulders if every time you boarded a plane there was the possibility that you would be asked to take the wheel!
Jesus calls us to come to Him, so we can be free of what has been on our shoulders for our whole lives. He wants to take the yoke that we've been carrying—that desire to figure all things out--and put it on his. He's the expert at those things. He's got it all in His control. And He never asked us to carry it in the first place! We're only working to mess it up. In its place, he's going to give you rest for your weary soul. While He fights your battles, you get to carry the yoke that you were intended to carry.
When people first come into Christianity, there is no statue that greets us. For that, I am eternally grateful. It is useless to put your hope in something that cannot move--no matter how big it might be.
Instead of a monumental structure, then, Christians are greeted with a living, breathing Savior. And He doesn't have an etching at His cold, unmoving base. Rather, He has words on His living, breathing lips. And these words aren't full of empty promises of so-called “Freedom.” They are, instead, words that are so true that they bring tears of joy to those who hear them--those who have finally been set free.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.” ~ Matthew 11:28-30
