“Rest and Yoke of Jesus” – 14th Sunday OT (A) – 7.9.23
“Rest and Yoke of Jesus”
By: Fr. David Schmidt
St. Mark the Evangelist Parish - Holy Sepulcher Church - Butler, PA
Mass Readings- https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070923.cfm
In the Gospel for today we hear Jesus say these powerful and comforting words- “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” This is actually one of my favorite Gospels that we use for funerals. It is one of my favorites because I love reflecting on people’s lives here on earth and how they spent their life laboring and carrying various burdens, and now they can enter into eternal rest.
As we know, life is incredibly difficult, and many of us carry such great and heavy burdens. Many of us are in difficult situations where we are being asked to carry a heavy load. Maybe it’s with work and you have a lot of pressure on you. Or maybe you are dealing with a life-threatening illness. Maybe you’re a single mother or father trying to figure out how to care for your family.
Whatever it may be, our different burdens may leave us feeling tired and exhausted. We may feel worn out. Some of us may feel like we are simply surviving and trying to muster just enough energy so that we can make it to the finish line of this life.
Today, Jesus calls us to come to Him, so that we may find rest. He doesn’t want us to be weighed down by this life, He wants to lift our burdens and give us true rest.
Sometimes we have trouble believing that Jesus desires this for us. Maybe our experience of God or our perception of Him is one who is demanding. One who acts as a task master or slave driver who constantly drives us and pushes us. Someone who makes things harder for us with His impossible standards and expectations.
However, we know this is a lie. What does Jesus say about Himself in the Gospel? He says, “I am meek and humble of heart.” We see this even in the first reading from Zechariah when the Lord speaks of a king who will come and who is a just savior, and who is meek, as He rides on an ass.
It is only because Christ is meek and humble of heart that we are able to come near to Him and find rest. If He was that task master who constantly pushes us, we would not be able to come near to Him because He would be too intimidating, and we would not be able to find rest because we would be too afraid of Him.
Jesus invites us to take His yoke upon us for His yoke is easy, and His burden light. A yoke is the wooden harness that was used to harness oxen together in order to plow the fields. Typically, when a yoke is used, it is not just for one oxen, but for two oxen together. In other words, Jesus doesn’t have us carry the burdens of this life by ourselves, but He helps carry them with us.
An image to think of is Simon helping Jesus carry the Cross during His walk to the Calvary. Simon and Jesus carry the Cross together. This connects to last week where we talked about carrying our crosses and following Jesus to Calvary. Jesus helps us to carry our various crosses and burdens of this life. He doesn’t leave us by ourselves to carry them on our own. Jesus never asks us to carry something that He Himself will not help us carry. Because Jesus helps us carry our crosses, we discover that His yoke is easy and His burden light.[1]
Another burden that we carry is the burden of our sin. Jesus comes to us again and asks us to give Him this burden. He says to us, “Let me free you from this burden of sin, so that you may live freely as the person I have called you to be.” When we look at the Cross, we see how Jesus took the heavy burden of all our sins, and carried it to the Cross, so that we may experience true freedom.
Sometimes the Christian life can seem like a heavy burden. It’s demanding and hard. Especially when the world looks at us like we are crazy and offers us something so much easier. Jesus again says, “I will help you carry this burden. What I ask may be difficult, but it is difficult only because of your sin. Let me carry this burden with you, so that you may be freed from your sin, and experience the freedom of living as a child of God freed from sin.” The Christian journey is not meant to be a burden, but a life of freedom.
Another description to describe the yoke is that the yoke is the Holy Spirit or the grace of God. In the relationship between God the Father and God the Son it is the Holy Spirit that is the bond of love between them. Or in other words, the Holy Spirit acts as the yoke between the Father and Son.[2] The yoke, or the Holy Spirit, is what bonds us with Christ, and is the reason why Christ’s yoke becomes easy and His burden light. When we have the Holy Spirit, and the grace of God helping us to live the Christian life that we are called too, the Laws and Commandments of the faith no longer seem burdensome, but they are easy and light because we are living a life in the Spirit.
We see this in the 2nd reading, where St. Paul speaks about having the Holy Spirit within us, so that we may no longer live according to our flesh by not controlling our passions, which brings sin and death, but that we may live according to the Spirit, and follow God’s law, so as to experience abundant life.
God wants us to experience true rest. The type of rest where we have no more worries, doubts, fears, anxieties, and no more burdens to carry. He wants us to experience true peace in our heart. He wants us to experience true freedom.
If you feel tired, exhausted, or weary. Or if you feel great stress and anxiety because of the various burdens that you have to carry. Or if you feel worn down in your Christian journey because of your struggle with sin and vice. Jesus is inviting us today to come to Him and find rest in Him. Jesus walks side by side with us on our journey and will never leave our side. May we walk with Jesus this day, and allow Him to help us carry our burdens as we experience rest in His love. May we hear Jesus speaking into the depths of our heart this day, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Amen.
*Image by Maria Lang - http://marialang.net/maria-lang-art-2/
[1] Brant Pitre, The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A, Catholic Productions, https://catholicproductions.com/blogs/mass-readings-explained-year-a/the-fourteenth-sunday-of-ordinary-time-year-a
[2] Bishop Barron, “Enter the Inner Life of God,” Word on Fire. July 7, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv9xYsNmeg0
