The yokes on you (part 1)

I hate the “bait-and-switch”.  You are promised one thing, and then when the time comes, what you get turns out to be nothing like what you were expecting.  Our family has seen this recently on college brochures.  A campus looks great – it’s open, well designed, looks appealing…and then you get there and realize that all their pictures were taken from the same location, just at different angles to make the campus look bigger than it is in real life.  Another example would be when the “small project” that was assigned to you at work turns into a massive undertaking because no one thought through the consequences of making that supposedly simple change. 

Where the “bait-and-switch” really bugs me is in the church.  You attend a worship service on Sunday morning, and eventually you feel pressured to be there on Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening, and for all special events.  You volunteer for one event, and suddenly you get invites from multiple church ministries to “join our team”, each with a different target audience and a special cry for help.  But the one that really gets to me is a phrase that is tossed out to non-Christians like it’s a fishing lure:

“God has a wonderful plan for your life.”

I’m not irritated by the statement itself, because it is true – God does have a wonderful plan for our lives.  But the issue I have is that the statement is usually presented with the impression that the Christian life is one of sunshine and roses.  Instead, once a person believes in Jesus for eternal life, what is often found in the church are a long list of “Thou shall’s” and “Thou shall not’s” – else your level of faith, or even salvation status, will be questioned.  That level of pressure and constantly wondering if God accepts you…that doesn’t strike me as a “wonderful plan for your life”.

Back in Jesus’ day, the Rabbi would pass along his teaching and understanding of the Jewish law to his students – this was referred to as the Rabbi’s yoke.  Their yoke consisted of the accumulated teaching he had received from his rabbi, and his rabbi’s rabbi, and on and on back in time to (supposedly) Moses himself.  Rabbinical teachings did not replace a previous rabbi’s instruction, instead it was cumulative, building upon the previous generations’ interpretations.  You can imagine how deep the traditions went back and how difficult it would be to keep track of everything that everyone had previously said.

The Pharisees then acted as the “religious police” enforcing their expectations for adherence to the Jewish law.  For your average, every-day person, the yoke imposed on them by the Pharisees was an extremely heavy burden.  Trying to keep track of their cultural responsibilities, managing their day-to-day tasks, and avoiding issues with their Roman rulers – all while wondering if God accepts them – wore them down.  In the midst of all this religious and guilted weight, Jesus offered the following:

Matthew 11:28-30
Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take up my yoke and learn from Me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

From the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary:
Jesus’ easy yoke is in stark contrast to the burden of Pharisaic Judaism.  The Pharisees spoke of 613 commandments, and their halakot (binding interpretations) produced an overwhelmingly complicated approach to life.  In our quest to know God’s Word it is good to remember that we can turn Jesus’ yoke into an equally unbearable burden unless we consciously recognize that discipleship to Jesus is not essentially a religious obligation.  Rather, ours is an intimate relationship with the One who calls, “Come to Me” and “Learn from Me”.  As complicated as life may become, discipleship at heart simply means walking with Jesus in the real world and having Him teach us moment by moment how to live life His way.

God does have a wonderful plan for your life – but it’s not to make your life perfectly comfortable or to pile on rules and obligations.  God’s wonderful plan is to make you like Jesus, to build you into the woman or man you were created to be.  The only way we get there is by coming to Jesus, accepting His rest, and learning from Him.  Jesus says it’s easier than you might think.

Keep Pressing,
Ken