Thorburn-Sutherland's River Pastoral Charge

If you have read any of the writings of the Latin poet Ovid, you would probably find it hard to see any resemblance between his writing and that of the Apostle Paul. But among his many works, Ovid also wrote, “Desire persuades me one way, reason another, I see the better and approve it, but I follow the worse.”

Here’s how Paul said it, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.”

Do you see the similarity between Ovid and Paul?

Does this idea, this tension between right and wrong – the conflict that arises when all we do is exercise free will and freedom of action – seem familiar? Don’t we all do the same as did Paul and Ovid, or at least think like this some time or another?

Well, whether we recognize it or not, in Paul’s time, he could be sure that both the Romans and the Jews could identify with what he was saying.

You see, as a conscientious Jew, Paul (when he was still Saul of Tarsus), believed that wisdom and reason and faithfulness to the law could defeat evil impulses. Then he saw how duty to the law, the way the Pharisees and community leaders of the day taught, was the right and only way to be right with God.

But his experience on the Damascus Road with the living Christ changed all that. With that very personal – and frightening experience, Saul (now Paul), discovered that legalism binds – but the Spirit of Christ frees. And he began to understand in a new way that people like him stumbled under the burden of trying to do the right thing through their own achievements – and failed miserably time and time again. Only through Jesus Christ, Paul eventually concluded, could we hope to defeat the evil impulses we carry – only with God’s help could the burden of failure be lifted.

Can you imagine how very welcome, therefore, were the words he heard – that we read in the Gospel reading today? – that gracious invitation from Jesus, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Folks, this gentle invitation from a compassionate Jesus contains in capsule form the heart of the Christian good news – the Gospel. It is the warm assurance that we can cast all our burdens and problems and weariness on Jesus, and there find healing and comfort for our troubled souls. And only then shall we find rest from all our striving and our fears and our doubts.

Folks, I think that even now, in this very modern day and time, we need to hear that invitation again – and make it our own. For we all have problems, tensions, anxieties of some kind or another from which we would like to find relief. When all our relations with others are harmonious, we still worry about what the future holds for those closest to us.

Add to that our search for personal security in this restless world, and our occasional pondering over the purpose of our lives – especially as the years mount up. In a world such as ours, there are times when we all labour and are heavy-laden. So when Jesus promises us rest from our labours and relief from our burdens, we hear his words gladly. It becomes clear why the words of our text speak so immediately to our hearts.

The difficulty with this promise of Jesus is, however, that it is attached to a condition. Jesus does indeed promise rest for our weary and troubled souls, but he does so only on the condition that we are willing to accept another burden – to take his yoke upon us.

Such is the paradox of this gentle invitation: that we who are weary can be refreshed only by an additional responsibility – that we who are burdened can have our load lightened only by carrying another added weight.

That’s enough to take all the joy out of the text and to make us wilt, is it not? Well maybe – unless we understand exactly what it is that Jesus is saying to us; how his words help us to interpret Paul’s expression about being incapable of acting for good all the time and in our own strength.

Jesus is in fact bringing us good news with his words. “Well,” you say, “he always brings us good news”. This true. But here, I think he tells us that that lives filled with peace and security and meaning and love for which we all long, can be had only when we submit ourselves to his direction and place ourselves under his command.

The image he uses is very clear – we are to wear a yoke. That crossbar which was laid across the shoulders of a draft animal and which had an encircling piece that went around the animal’s neck. It was designed to keep the animal in line so it could pull a plough for the farmer. But it is also understood as a means to share the burdens of everyday life.

When we are “unyoked” from Christ, we are far more likely to be influenced by, and to follow, the demands of the world rather than those of Christ. We trample over the

feelings and rights of others when we give free reign to our feelings. When we put doing our own thing first, we become slaves to our selfish instincts. We might even become quite beastly towards one another, and much less like the loving human beings our Creator intended us to be.

This was surely Paul’s lament in the verses from Romans when he recognized that his hope laid not in his efforts to do better, to try harder or to be more obedient. Every attempt on his part to bridge the gap between himself and God only widened it. He did not need to be more diligent – only freed from this apparently interminable conflict.

So – how do we picture Paul at the finish of this reading? Probably on his knees as he asks, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” And then he cries out, with a victorious shout, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Folks, do you think our shout can be anything other than this? Our only answer to the problem that arises when the more we strive to do the right thing, the more we realize how difficult that is – not only to do, but even to understand what `the right thing’ is.

That’s when we need to hear Jesus’ words again – “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.”

If this was only a command that Jesus gave us, then the gospel could not be good news. Rather, it would be more like law putting us under a crushing burden of obligation we could not possibly fulfill.

With this simple promise, Jesus does more than that. He gives us the power to obey. He not only places a yoke on us, but he helps us carry it too. Friends, the good news from this small portion of the Gospel is that Jesus helps us to carry the yoke that represents our troubled lives. He floods our hearts with his Spirit of love and gives us the power to care, so that we love other people in spite of our troubles and find that we can be more compassionate.

This is when we come to realize, like Paul, that it is not we who live, but Christ who lives in us.

So – let us all hear Jesus’ words addressed to us here today. “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.”

When we put on the yoke of Christ and truly seek to learn from him, we realize that he is not only our Lord, but our burden-bearer, our friend…the one who holds us together with his love.

May God be praised! AMEN