I awake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. How could I have been so stupid? I have committed a huge blunder! I have set in motion a train wreck, a catastrophe of epic proportions for which I can never, ever be forgiven! There’s nothing I can do to stop the disaster – and it’s all my fault! I wake up, realize I am not headed for some terrible calamity, calm down, and go back to sleep. It was a false alarm, a bad dream I have now and then.
A month ago the nightmare came true. I scheduled the sanctuary for a two hour violin recital. Right smack in the middle of the violin recital I scheduled a wedding in this same sanctuary. Space and time may be relative, but you can’t have a violin recital and a wedding in the same space at the same time. I discovered my error with less than a week to go, to late to reschedule or move either event. Train wreck!
Most of us have stressful times on the job and off the clock. It might be caring for an aging parent or demanding child, dealing with a health crisis or Beltway traffic snarls. We all need some down time, some breaks from the stresses, strains, and high pressure demands of modern life. When you do you might want to use that time to make back flips while strapped to a snow board, scale sheer cliffs without a safety rope, hurdle down mountains on a mostly airborne bicycle, and scuba dive among sharks. At least that’s what I see on TV. Those of us who contemplate less strenuous leisure time do not belong to the age demographic advertisers covet. In short, we are tottering old fogies. Whatever became of the concept of “rest”?
Jesus knows about stress. If he’d been an austere ascetic he would have fared no better than John the Baptist. Instead Jesus chooses to enter into the lives of common, ordinary people and is accused of being a glutton and drunkard. In the end there’ll be the train wreck of the cross.
Yet Jesus still invites to himself “all who are weary and heavy laden” with the promise of rest. It was a common phrase in those days. Jesus wasn’t the first teacher or sage to use it. In a time when people were beasts of burden as often as animals, the image had real power. In an age with no concept of “the weekend”, much less a holiday weekend, the traditional Jewish Sabbath of one day of rest in seven was exceedingly inviting. In a culture swarming with meddlesome, unpredictable gods, the notion of a safe and secure “rest” was almost beyond comprehension. What Jesus had to offer the worn down, washed up common people of his time was – himself – a glimpse into the realm where yokes are easy and burdens grow weightless.
What does our culture offer all who are “weary and heavy laden”? Well, we’ve got E-bay, Amazon.com, and a steady stream of junk mail. With enough labor saving devices life will be easy. If that doesn’t work we can always buy a temporary version such as a new video game or the latest DVD. Then there are always those adventure vacations. They take our mind off whatever we would be stewing about if we weren’t terrified out of our wits swimming with sharks or some other adrenaline-pumping, death-defying stunt.
Call me a tottering old fogy, but do any of these really offer rest? Acquire enough geegaws and you’ll lie awake at night worrying about how you’ll pay for them all. Once you get that solved you’ll lie awake worrying about how to store them all. How long can you surf the Internet before the websites all begin to look the same? All the temporary diversions are – temporary. Fear is an extremely effective distraction, but it is hardly restful. Perhaps Jesus can provide the soul rest all of us need.
Jesus offers an “easy” yoke. Yokes were made of wood. Each was custom carved to fit a specific individual. When one fit perfectly, spreading the load with no painful pressure points, it was said to be an “easy“ yoke.
Could it be that we wear ourselves down trying to carry loads that don’t fit? How many people give up dreams of becoming artists or poets because conventional wisdom says you can’t make a living at such pursuits? They go on to be successful carpenters, engineers, and accountants and are worn down in the process. Our society tells us how much we should weigh, what we must wear, which beer we must drink, what car we should drive, and which celebrities to imitate in order to fit in, be accepted and loved. Most of us carry around an internal critic that finds fault with just about everything we do. Rarely does anyone call me “stupid”, but a week doesn’t go by that I don’t call myself that and worse.
The good news is that in the presence of Jesus we’re allowed to be the people we are with all our gifts and talents and foibles and flaws. Christ receives us exactly as we are, demanding nothing more and nothing less. Just as we are, we belong, are accepted and loved. Jesus doesn’t call us names. Jesus calls us “friend.” Who are we to second guess Jesus? His yoke is easy; it fits. Put another way, what doesn’t fit isn’t Jesus’ yoke for us.
It is also possible we wear ourselves down trying to carry burdens that aren’t rightfully ours. We may wish another person didn’t get angry. When we suppose we can keep that person calm we take on a burden that’s not ours to carry. We may want other people to be happy. When we imagine we are responsible for other people’s happiness we take on a burden that doesn’t belong to us. I scheduled a wedding and a recital for the same space at the same time. It was a train wreck, a catastrophe of epic proportions for which I can never, ever be forgiven! But the musicians got to play, and the wedding went off without a hitch. Believing we can – and ought to – get through life without mistakes and wrongs is the bad dream. Believing nothing less than perfection is acceptable is the real nightmare.
The good news is in Christ our burden is light. We are responsible for what we can control which, God knows, does not include other people, places, and things. Jesus was a friend of tax collectors and sinners. His truth is revealed to “little ones.” When we realize perfection is not within our reach we are within the reach of Jesus. We are embraced, forgiven, and loved.
Life has always been difficult. The market place offers diversions. Jesus offers rest for our weary souls. His yoke fits, and his burden is light. In that we can rest – assured.
Amen.