Christian Life

Today I begin a series from Matthew’s Gospel, which will take us through three months together.  Although each address will inevitably build upon the other, I hope that each will be able to stand on its own.  As in all the other gospels, the author fades into the background as he is captivated by Jesus Christ.

Matthew’s Gospel has its own distinctive characteristics.  The thought that Matthew the Tax Collector wrote the gospel is unlikely, but it is clear that whoever wrote it had a great understanding Judaism and its foundation for the Christian way.

You are immediately struck in Matthew by its ‘Jewishness’.  So many of the quotations clearly emphasise the fact that Jesus Christ is to be seen as the fulfilment of scriptural prophecy and it is intended that the reader, the hearer or the early Christian community recognise that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Old Testament revelation of God.

In his commentary, Michael Green described the Gospel of Matthew as “perhaps the most important single document in the New Testament, for in it we have the fullest and most systematic account of the birth, life, teaching, death and resurrection of the founder of Christianity, Jesus the Messiah.”  It may well be true, but this is not to say it does not present us with difficulties.

It seems to me that we can establish at least five major themes in the gospel that are distinctive:

• Jesus is seen to be the Messiah, which had been prophesied in the Old Testament.  From the outset of the gospel there is a genealogy to link Jesus to David and Jesus is seen as the fulfilment of the hopes of the nation, as One who will come to redeem his people.
  
• Jesus is revealed as a Teacher.  Each gospel has its emphases and Matthew certainly gives us the most comprehensive rendering of the teaching of Jesus.  We clearly acknowledge the Sermon on the Mount (Chapters 5-7) and Matthew contains five more chapters of the parables and teachings of Jesus than any other gospel.  It is also worth noting that this gospel is very orderly and it has a pattern of large blocks of teaching or discourse, which help to give the whole gospel its unique shape.
  
• A unique interest in the Final Coming of Jesus.  You cannot avoid the fact that Matthew has more to say about the judgement, second coming of Jesus Christ, and so on.  It is in Matthew alone that we read of the Parable of the Talents, the Wise and Foolish Virgins and the Sheep and Goats in what has been called ‘an apocalyptic chapter’ – that is Matthew 25.
  
• Matthew has a concern for the church.  It is only in Matthew’s Gospel that we find the word ‘church’ … the word ekklesia which means ‘the gathered and called out people of God’.  One can argue Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi is a foundational moment (16: 13-23); and it has unique teaching on settling disputes in the church (18:17).
  
• The great theme of the Kingdom of God.  From the very beginning of the gospel, Matthew paints the theme of the kingdom of God.  It is wise men or magi who seek him and, at the end of the gospel, we find that the risen and exalted Christ receives all authority.  It is worth noting, however, that this does not make the gospel exclusive, for it is in Matthew that the message is for all nations (28: 16-20).

We turn to Matthew 11, which comes in a section of two chapters which seek to establish Jesus’ authority.  Jesus invites people who are burdened by the excessive demands of religious leaders who claimed to interpret God’s law.

Rabbis freely spoke about the yoke of the law which would feel unbearable for people to take upon themselves.  So as we come to our text we recognise that Jesus offers another kind of yoke which produces a different response in the active discipleship of people who bear it upon their lives.

Our gospel contains two passages which might on the very surface appear to have little relationship.  The passages put discipleship in the context of revelation and grace and, as you read this section, you can be drawn into the thought that it might feel more at home in John’s Gospel, because of its emphasis upon ‘wisdom’.  George MacDonald went as far as to write, “It looks as though it has crept out of the fourth gospel …” 

The first cameo is about children who cannot agree on the games they play – and the gospel itself helps us to understand that this has to do with the reception given to both John and Jesus.  One is accused of being too austere – and the other a glutton.  So when truth is presented, both in one form or another, it is rejected (11: 16-19).

As we come to our particular focus, which is the second distinct passage, we must put the words into a context – Jesus is making an invitation to the tired and disillusioned to come to him.  He has just spoken about those towns that rejected his miracles and did not repent (11: 20-24).  Now the whole section comes to a climax as we read –

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. (11:28-30)

We will only begin to understand this when we grasp the fact that Jesus is inviting those people who are weighed down by onerous rules and regulations that religion placed upon them.  In such a context, many would give up on religion and what Jesus is offering is something new.  It has a clear echo in Ecclesiasticus 51: 25-27, of which Fred B Craddock says, “Wisdom calls out to an Israel bent low beneath the heavy yoke of the law.”

David Hill, in his commentary, refers to the “yoke of the Law” and tells us that it is a common expression in rabbinic teaching.  What Jesus adds to the common thought is that there is an offer of refreshment and release.

Jesus knew all about yokes 

If we acknowledge that Jesus knew the carpenter’s shop, then yokes would be his business.  In the agricultural world of Israel/Palestine, ox-yokes were made of wood and the oxen would be brought to the carpenter’s shop, the measurements would be taken and the yoke made appropriate to the beasts.  Just like having a suit made, the oxen would be brought back when the yoke was finished to ensure that it did not cause unnecessary discomfort to the animals concerned.  This is not just a pastoral concern for oxen.  It is to ensure that good business can be promoted through the oxen working efficiently.

As you walk around any shopping centre, the businesses promote those things in which they excel.  There may well have been shops that promoted themselves with the words, “We make well-fitted yokes”.  Now we begin to understand what the text is really saying.

There is a decision to take a yoke upon ourselves. 

Jesus is inviting us to take his yoke upon our lives.  This is the yoke of the kingdom of God and, as with all invitations, we can accept it … or we can refuse it.

God will not force a person against their will to follow, to serve or to decide.  It has to come from within the follower, servant or disciple.  The double thought is of ‘come’ which is to do with our faith – and ‘take my yoke’ which is to do with practical obedience.

When we take the yoke of Christ upon ourselves, it is an acceptance on our part that we take –

• His will or purpose for our lives.
  
• His rule or kingdom to be our guide.
  
• His direction and leadership.

A yoke demands that we move in the same direction.

Just as two oxen pulling in different directions is not helpful, so we must acknowledge that the demands of Christ upon our lives ask that we do not pull in an opposite direction.

Ralph Earle writes, “To take Christ’s yoke is to submit fully to his authority.”  The Methodist Covenant Service picks up the same thought: 

“Beloved in Christ,
 let us again claim for ourselves
 this covenant which God has made with his people,
 and take upon us the yoke of Christ.”

The Covenant example is a good one, because it emphasises that we willingly take upon ourselves the demands of Jesus Christ.

Life is so much ‘easier’ when we move in the same direction as Jesus Christ.  I have often thought when visiting a supermarket that I wish I could reinvent the supermarket trolley.  If I did I would ensure it moved in the same direction as the person pushing it.  You may not have this experience, but every time I go to do the shopping my trolley always moves in the wrong direction.  Still, I suppose it keeps the physiotherapists, osteopaths and chiropractors in business!!

This thought of being yoked is not strange, because we are all yoked to ideas and to lifestyles:

• Throughout our lives, we learn how to live and how to make our choices.
  
• Such choices will impact upon all our behaviour, our priorities and the outcomes of our lives.
  
• To choose the way of Jesus Christ is to make a choice that will result in God’s glory.

An ill-fitting yoke will prevent us from effective service

Jesus knows how important it is that the yokes of our lives fit well.  The yokes are those things to which we attach our lives.  Many things other than Jesus Christ and his kingdom can gain our allegiance. 

Today we are in danger of becoming enslaved by the very tools that were meant to make life more convenient and easier to manage.  Notebook computers, cellular phones and Ipaqs all threaten to take us hostage.  We are not our own.  However, we can rise above the addictive control of these things and be yoked to One who is life and health.

A Jewish way of using the phrase meaning to be ‘yoked to’ relates to ‘entering into submission to’.  They spoke of the yoke of the Law which would inevitably relate to commandments and so on.  If, because of our human nature, we are constantly breaking those commandments, then you can see how in the end the law that is God’s Law becomes burdensome and heavy upon our lives. 

There is a fundamental difference in the way that Jesus deals with this particular concept compared to the methods of the Jewish leaders.  They would see it as all about learning the Law, whereas Jesus says his yoke begins when we ‘Come to him’.

It will require handing over the priority of our lives to him.

Jesus will never grasp hold of a person’s life without the consent of the individual concerned.  We are not forced into being yoked to Christ; we willingly choose to give ourselves to him.  We choose to be ‘learners’ in the ways of the kingdom of God.

There is a story told of a man who challenged another to one of those competitions that we are familiar with here in Australia.  It was a wood-chopping contest.  The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break.  The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks throughout the day.  At the conclusion, the challenger was surprised, indeed annoyed, to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had. 

“I don’t get it,” he said.  “Every time I checked, you were taking a rest, yet you end up chopping more wood than I did.”
“But you didn’t notice,” said the winning woodsman, “that I was sharpening my axe when I sat down to rest.”

By handing ourselves over to God, we allow him to equip us, strengthen us and make us ready for the many challenges that life brings.

This handing over requires the consent of the heart.

Whilst it is true that we must willingly hand over our lives to Christ, and do so not just in a moment but continually throughout our lives, it is also true that the decision is a choice made in the deep places of our lives.

To obey One who we love is the key to all.  I remain convinced that we must rediscover this joy of loving God.  Jeremy Taylor was a seventeenth century Christian leader who wrote poetically and also suffered imprisonment on a number of occasions.  His most celebrated work is The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living which became a manual for devotional living.

Taylor wrote, “Let my body be a servant of my spirit and both my body and my spirit be servants of Jesus, doing all things for God’s glory here.”

Oxen with an ill-fitting yoke would not be effective in the job they were being required to do.  It would chafe and burn too much.  In the same way, Jesus Christ offers us a new way, but it requires a well-fitting yoke.

We are given a task that is made to feel easy 

Here is one of the problems in the text.  The thought that ‘the yoke of Christ is easy and the burden is light’ does not mean that he is less exact in his call than the rabbis were.  You only have to study the Sermon on the Mount to see that his demands are stronger, but it does indicate something that is meaningful to all of us.

The word which we render as ‘easy’ in the original Greek carries the connotation of ‘suitable, appropriate and easy to wear’.  This is encouraging – for simply bearing the Law will leave us helpless, but Jesus offers us a kingdom which he longs to reproduce in our lives – and is appropriate to how we live.

It is true that we have to go back to the carpenter’s shop from time to time to have our yoke adjusted!  Even as we meet for worship, such an adjustment can take place.  However, we know Who adjusts it – not our own skill or achievements, but God’s gracious care for us. 

This yoke will not leave us feeling despondent

Continuing to pursue the Law without an understanding of the grace of God leaves people with a sense of emptiness and failure. 

Lives can feel as though they are gradually draining away … and attempting to carry the loads and burdens of religion, without the freedom of God’s grace, can feel irksome and crushing.  This may well have been the background to what the Apostle Paul referred to when he wrote to the Corinthians, “Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4: 16)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer referred to this when he wrote, “Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says, ‘My yoke is easy and my burden is light.’”

Scott H Bowerman in Dancing With God tells of how Leonard Sweet underwent what he described as “a deconversion” when he was nineteen.  He writes:

“What ignited my deconversion was the church’s funereal spirit, its fussy buttoned-up-ness.  Christians’ stay-at-home-and-pickle-in-their-own-juice personalities, their vinegary countenances, drained me emotionally, incapacitated me intellectually, and shut me down spiritually.  The best I could say was this:  by and large, Christians were kind people in a bad mood.”

Jesus offers a yoke that is appropriate to all our lives

There is nothing more important in life than to feel useful.  That is exactly what Jesus Christ brings to us.  It is essential to calling and purpose.  When our lives are filled with the love of God and we are living in the full light of God’s kingdom, then his burdens feel light.  Earle refers to a simple saying, “Love makes all burdens light.”

Barclay put it another way, “Jesus says, ‘My yoke fits well.’  What he means is: ‘The life I give you is not a burden to gall you; your task is made to measure to fit you.’  Whatever God sends us is made to fit our needs and our abilities exactly.”

The yoke of Christ will ‘fit well’ and we must not be misled by the word ‘easy’.  But his yoke does not rub up against us and cause us to develop sore spirits, as it is designed for two and we are yoked to Jesus Christ himself … not just an idea or a lifestyle – but a Saviour!

In the 1960s, The Hollies pop group recorded the song “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”.  It was not a unique thought to them, because it originates from an old Scottish story of a man who came upon a little boy carrying a still smaller boy on his back.  “That’s a heavy burden for you to carry,” said the man.  “That’s no’ a burden,” came the answer.  “That’s my wee brother.” 

When we take the load of Christ upon our shoulders it is not a soul-destroying burden, but a joy that cannot be experienced any other way.  In fact I think it is only understandable when you know Christ yourself.

Some of you will know that we have just returned from our ‘winter/summer’ holiday in the UK where our family live.  We spent some time in Yorkshire where my final story has its home.

Aelred was from a good family; the son of the ‘hereditary’ priest of Hexham and was born there in 1110.  After a good education, he was invited by the King of Scotland to his court and many things happened to him which drew him nearer to God in Christ.  He longed to devote his whole life entirely to God.  He went through what he called a crisis and eventually he left Scotland and embraced the more austere Cistercian life at Rievaulx in North Yorkshire, where a monastery had been founded.  It was here that he found a spiritual sense of purpose and where he could best express his love for God.

He was heard at this time to say, “This yoke which does not crush but liberates the soul; this burden has wings, not weight.”