14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Fr. Simham)

COME YOKE UP WITH ME

“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mt. 11.28) One of the most beautiful verses in the Bible. People of all ages found great comfort and consolation in these words. They are so comforting and soothing to your heart when you are specially carrying heavy loads and crosses in your life. But the lines following that make the whole passage ambiguous and unacceptable unless they are properly understood.

Let me explain. Jesus calls everyone who is carrying heavy loads to come to him saying he will give them rest. But immediately he says “take my yoke……………. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” It is something like this. Call a person who is carrying an ‘iron-bar’ and say ‘my dear man, you need not carry that heavy iron-bar it is too heavy for you. I am gentle and humble of heart. So you take up this wooden plank instead. It is much lighter.’

Most of the interpretations of this gospel I read, give the similar interpretation. Saying that it was an invitation given by Jesus to those Jews who were suffering under the burden of heavy Jewish laws as imposed by Pharisees and teachers of the law. Too many and too strict. Jesus despised them all. And summed up all these laws into two. Love of God above all and love of neighbour as oneself. Burden made light. Life made easy. So he invited them to take these up. It is like saying indirectly leave the Jewish religion which is too heavy and join this new religion I show (obviously Christianity) which is lighter and less demanding. This looks perfect and true way of interpreting it (in a way). But the danger is: Does establishing the kingdom of God means making religion light and easy? Is Messiah the one who makes religion comfortable and easy? If it is so; then immediately our younger generation will say “We need another Messiah today.?????

I am sure that Jesus is not proposing a lighter package of religion and alluring people to his religion in this passage. No. He clearly  said that he had not come to destroy the law and consequently Jewish religion but to fulfil it. So he, in all his goodness and mercy would not have worked against his own religion.

So, then what did he mean  when he said  “come and take his yoke.” What he meant was this: ‘all those who are carrying heavy burdens come “yoke up with me”. What does it mean? First let us know what is a yoke. ‘Yoke is a piece of wood that is fitted on the neck of two oxen for the purpose of binding together, so that together they might draw the plough, or cart etc.’ Remember ‘yoke’ is not the burden. But it is only an instrument which enables one oxen to take the help of the other to carry the burden. When they pull together the burden is made light and easy.

So when Jesus invites people to take his yoke what he meant is “come and be my yoke-mate” “come and be my partner.” “Come and enter into a relationship with God and Messiah. I am here to walk with you. If you are carrying the heavy loads of sin, shame, poverty, hunger, disease etc. Come to me. I am there to walk with you. Carry your burdens of life. Make them easy for you. In your good times and in bad, I am ready to walk with you.” This is what Christianity or religion means for me. Allowing Jesus my redeemer and my Lord to walk with me in my life.

I remember the wonderful story of the foot prints. This is a story of a man who had a dream. In the dream he was walking along a sandy beach with Jesus and they were replaying all the important moments of his life. The man noticed that for each scene there were two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him and the other to Jesus. But he also noticed that when they came to the most difficult and trying moments of his life there were only one set of footprints to be seen. The man could not understand this, so he asked Jesus: “Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the way. Why is it then that during the most difficult periods of my life when I needed you the most you would leave me?” Jesus replied. “My child, I love you and I would never leave you. During the most difficult moments of your life, when you see only one set of footprints, those were the times I carried you.”

Friends, allow God to walk with you. Yoke up with him in your life. Remember, When the pride of human intelligent and  science fail, it is he who is there to walk with us and show us the way because he is “the way, the truth and the life.” Amen.

Fr. Showreelu Simham