St. John’s United Church of Christ

July 6, 2008

A Sermon by the Rev. John Krueger

The Easy Yoke                                            Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

I am interested in the commercials that seek to recruit people into the U.S. Marine Corp.  Visually, the uniforms look neat and enticing and the men and women look proud and strong, but the words talk about a tough, demanding way of serving.  There is little sugar-coating about the demands, and I would suppose that weeds out some but attracts others to signing up as a Marine.

The remembered words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel carry much the same unvarnished reality:

“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.”

Most of us don’t know very much about yokes.  Our fore parents gave up oxen and yokes a long time ago, first for horses and then for tractors.  Yokes belong in museums, places for old-fashioned, antiquated farm equipment.

Jesus grew up in a carpenter’s home, perhaps with the working shop incorporated into the house.  Most boys learned the trade of their fathers so it follows that Jesus made his share of yokes.  He knew the difference between a yoke that fits correctly and one that does not.  Yokes are heavy, clumsy devices and only those that fit, carefully, individually fitted to that particular animal, would ease the burden on the animal.

The context of this saying of Jesus is instructive.  The conversation has been about John the Baptist, that austere, fiery preacher of repentance who paved the way for Jesus and his ministry.  Many people thought John was too extreme, too stark, too different from most of the people and so they criticized him and his message.

Jesus was not as austere, for he mingled with the people, even ate and drank with them, and many criticized him as well.  Jesus throws up his hands, saying that some people can never be pleased.  Some people will always find fault and will criticize the messenger so they can ignore the message.

But there were some, a minority, to be sure, who listened eagerly to the Good News Jesus taught, hung on his every word and found comfort and strength in this traveling teacher.  They tended to be the poor and the disadvantaged, the ones who labored in the shadows, or the outcasts, like prostitutes and tax collectors.  They were not the kind of people we would solicit for membership in an up and coming church, for sure.  To them, the few who would follow him, Jesus offered a yoke, a life of duty and obligation but also a life of reward and fulfillment. 

Yes, this would be a demanding life if you followed Jesus.  By the time Matthew wrote his Gospel the church has experienced its first persecutions.  By then Christians were different enough that they stood out, different from those who worshipped Roman gods or fertility cults, and different enough even from the Jews with whom they were often confused.

A Roman, reluctantly perhaps, remarked, “Look at those Christians, how they love one another!’  Other Roman officials were impressed by the ways in which those early Christian communities cared for widows and orphans and others forgotten by the society at large.  They stood out because of the ways in which they applied the teachings of Jesus about love, forgiveness and caring.  They actually followed through and did those things.  Religious talk is cheap, but acting on religious principles was quite something else.

Jesus talked about The Easy Yoke and that seems to be a contradiction in terms.  What I take from this is that by coming to know Jesus of Nazareth we are expected to carry on his teachings and they will not always fit with the world in which we live.  Jesus was very convinced that all people were equally precious in God’s eyes.  The culture around him saw things differently.  They divided people up into sub-groups, hierarchies of importance.  A few at the top were the privileged and the many at the bottom made that system possible.

A number of times the Apostle Paul reinforced this new sense of gracious equality he found in the teachings of Jesus, saying:

            “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”  Galatians 3:28-29

This same principle is reflected in the Declaration of Independence:

            “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

In 1776, that bold statement of equality in the colonies referred mainly to males who owned property.  This did not include slaves or the poor or even women in many ways.  In this sense we are still seeking to make this “a more perfect union” 230 years later.

All this, I believe, was based on the words and actions of Jesus who extended a gracious welcome to all.  The yoke Jesus asks us to carry, in part, is actually following through on this concept of the equality and value of every human being.  If you do that, life will be more challenging, more difficult, than if you followed the prevailing practice of dividing the human family into levels of importance.

We may try to deny this is the reality here in the USA, that while India may still have the remnants of a caste system, and the English seem to be comfortable with royalty and commoners, we Americans view every one as equal.  But the yoke we carry as Christians is pointing out the practices that do not measure up to Christ’s teachings.

Is our justice system likely to be blind to wealth and status?  I don’t think so.  Are some racial groups treated differently from others?  I believe that to be so.  Do women play on a level playing field?  Not yet.  Do some of us have an advantage over others of us based on ethnicity, appearance, or gender?  For sure.

The yoke we carry is knowing that each is a child of God.  If we didn’t know that, if we thought some ought to be lorded over by others, then such practices wouldn’t bother us.  But we know better.  Jesus has told us so, and Jesus lived that way.  And so we are stuck with either seeking to treat everyone we meet as equally a child of God, knowing that there are some substantial differences in the way our society treats people, bearing that as our yoke, or being a phony.  The burden is ours, because we know the difference.  The words of Jesus and the way he lived continue to instruct us and challenge us.

But Jesus says the yoke is easy, and the burden light.  Can this be?  I know I have been challenged and even attacked because I have made the case for the equality of women, because I have advocated for the acceptance of gay and lesbian people, because I seek the fair treatment of persons of color, and because I want the new immigrants to be treated with respect.  If that is a yoke, then it is an easy yoke, for I truly believe such attitudes are consistent with Jesus and what I know about his life and ministry.

WWJD jewelry may still be a fad with some people, wearing the question, What Would Jesus Do?  The jewelry may be a fad, but the question is absolutely appropriate.  Is following Jesus the central objective of our lives or just a Sunday morning sentiment?  Are we willing to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, and be as consistent as we can with embodying the love and forgiveness we find in Jesus?  Is the obligation that we have, because we have come to know Jesus, a burden but an acceptable burden?  Is the yoke easy, knowing we are living in the footsteps of Jesus, and the burden light, because we feel this high and holy calling?

May God bless you as you assume this life of promise, and as you seek to follow Jesus, the Christ.