Jesus, in our gospel lesson (Matthew 11:25), praises God for having hidden truth from the “wise” and revealed it to infants. Last Sunday we attended a family gathering. I watched our granddaughter, not quite three years of age, hitting the veggie tray and picking out the cherry tomatoes by the handful, but instead of eating them she went round and handed one to each of the grownups so that we would each have one. In God’s estimation what does our granddaughter know that I don’t, or perhaps more accurately what does she know that we grownups have forgotten?
Now, don’t misunderstand, our granddaughter is a typical two-year old, for whom “no” is a favorite word, but in that moment she displayed a gentle, generous spirit of caring for those around her. In truth, this where we all started. As we grew, however, we learned other lessons about acquiring our share of what the world has to offer — sometimes at the expense of others –, about protecting what we have gotten, about self-preservation. Much of what we learn as we grow does not always lead to gentleness and generosity of spirit, but to competition and struggle. This, in turn, becomes a never ending cycle: the more we have, the more we want to acquire, the more we compete: the more competitors we perceive; the more we struggle the more we are drawn into further struggles.
Against such a world Jesus offers and alternative:
Come to me, all you are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yolk upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30 NEV)
And, yes, before you ask, this is the same Jesus who challenges his followers to take up their crosses and follow him. “Hey, Lord, you can’t have it both ways; are we to take up our crosses or take up the yoke that is easy and the burden which is light”? Perhaps the reality of our lives is that cross to be carried and the easy yoke are, in fact, to side of the same coin. Allow me to explain.
When our Lord invites us to take up our crosses and follow him he is in fact inviting us to accept our vocation, given to us at our baptism to live our lives, wholly and unreservedly to God. His cross took him to Golgotha, ours may not; his invitation is not to a “feel good” experience, but to a participation fully in daily living with its joys and vicissitudes. Even when we are beset by the storm tossed waves of trouble, we can find solid footing on the ground of God’s love, thereby lightening our load and finding rest for our souls. Finally, we are reminded that we do not go it alone in life when we are yoked with Christ who shares the load with us making even the heaviest burden easier because the one who will neither fail us nor forsake us is at our side.
What our granddaughter and all other two year olds know instinctively is that they are surrounded by love; they can live fully in the moment when wailing buckets of tears or handing out veggies to the grownups knowing that there are arms to hold her and kisses to make all of life’s boo-boos better. Let us today take up the yoke that is easy, the burden that is light that we may experience afresh the yoked companionship of Christ and have of life’s inevitable boo-boos healed.
