LIGHT
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 (Matthew 11:28-30).
How can the burden of Jesus be light? Easily carried? Easy to bear?
Isn’t the burden of Jesus to love God and love our neighbors, love this hurting world wholeheartedly, love one another, love ourselves? How can that responsibility ever be easy? How can that burden ever be light?
It feels heavy to me. Incredibly heavy. So heavy that I sometimes despair at the thought of continuing, day after day, to actually care deeply, to keep on allowing myself to be vulnerable to the suffering of others, to be moved by compassion.
I’m reminded of the Real Hero StoryPeople print by Brian Andreas: Anyone can slay a dragon, she told me, but try waking up every morning & loving the world all over again. That’s what takes a real hero.
[view Real Hero here: https://cdn.shopify.com]
Loving the world day in and day out is a heavy burden. It’s an impossible burden made possible—even made light—by Christ.
Yoked with Christ—united with him in baptism—there is no burden we carry that isn’t shared by him. The full weight is never ours to bear alone. And when I picture being yoked with Jesus, I actually imagine an endless yoke circling around the world, all God’s people united by Christ–the church on earth and the church in heaven–carrying that burden of love for the world together.
We learn, together, from the one whose yoke we wear. Jesus is gentle and humble in heart. The Greek word translated here as humble describes one who depends on the Lord rather than self, one who is God-reliant rather than self-reliant.* We learn from Jesus how to entrust all our burdens to God.
On the cross, as Jesus bore the full weight of loving this world to the end, he cried out to God: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46). Jesus lived and died—loved and lost, wept and rejoiced—relying on God’s love for him and for the world.
Today, beloved one, your spirit is held in the hands of the one who created you, calls you, and empowers you to wake up and love the world over and over again. It’s a heavy burden made light by your Savior, Immanuel, God with us. Amen.
* https://biblehub.com/greek/5011.htm