Pastor Tom Johnson, July 9, 2023
What we have in our reading is a battle of the yokes. On the one hand, you have the Pharisees, the experts of the Law of Moses arguing for a strict interpretation of the commandment “remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” On the other hand you have Jesus who teaches the spirit of the Law—finding rest for our souls. Jesus has a more compassionate understanding of Sabbath rest. We remember God, his Word, and his redemptive work by resting on the sixth day. The Pharisees had intellectualized religion. They made it into a black-and-white—win-lose—you’re in or you’re out—transactional religion. If you follow all their rules to the letter, then you will not anger God. You will earn your rest.
Sadly, we still intellectualize religion. We still make our relationship with God transactional. We still add our rules thinking that God will be more pleased with us if we more strictly adhere to the letter of the law. Several years ago a woman came to me with a question after I did her brother’s funeral: “Is this church Missouri Synod?” “Yes, it’s Missouri Synod.” She said, “No. That’s not what we call it. It’s misery synod because they won’t let us dance.” “They would not let us play cards or women wear pants. So we called you kind of Lutherans misery synod.” Her sense of humor reminds us fifty years later that some of the rules we create are ridiculous. It truly will make people miserable if we tell them God will be angry with them if they go to the school dance, wear pantaloons, or want to play a game of Euchre. This is not helpful. It is destructive when we add to God’s word and put a heavy yoke of rules and intellectualized religion on other people like the Pharisees do.
Jesus says God reveals himself to infants—not those who are wise and intelligent in their own eyes. Spiritual infants know how much we have to learn. Spiritual infants know we cannot come to Jesus by our own wisdom and strength. “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Jesus invites us to bring all our spiritual fatigue and anxiety and unload it upon him. “Take my yoke upon you,” Jesus says. A yoke makes it possible to carrying heavy things more efficiently by distributing the weight along the arms and shoulders. Jesus invites us to exchange whatever yoke we are carrying for Jesus’ yoke. That is the irony of it all. He says, “Take my yoke upon you and you will find rest for your souls.” Jesus’ burden is our burden. He puts his yoke on our shoulders. He puts his head underneath our armpit and weaves his arm underneath us. He carries both the yoke and us. We walk—not by our strength—but his strength and grace.
A friend of mine is in trouble with some neighboring pastors because he has been giving Communion to a baptized college student who is learning about Christianity from a Lutheran perspective but is not yet confirmed. The other Pharisees’—I mean, pastors’ categories are so rigid that they cannot see the good. They cannot celebrate a person being drawn to Christ outside of their man-made rules. As Jesus says, “We played the flute and you would not dance.”
In our striving at being correct and right all the time—in our work to create rules to protect God—which is silly—in our corruption of religion by making it transactional—we are wearying our souls and the souls of people around us. This is no way to live. We remember the story of the German monk and reformer Martin Luther. He was weary, trying to carry the heavy burden of human-made rules. He was exhausted by transactional religion. If he just said more prayers—if he just gave more alms—if only he was perfectly obedient—then God would accept him. Then he could find his rest from his work of striving and doing to get God’s love and acceptance. Luther finally found his rest in simple, childlike faith in Christ—the only one who perfectly obeyed—the only one who could bear our burdens and accomplish the work of our redemption.
Jesus says, “Come to me.” Don’t go to human-made religion. Don’t intellectualize me. Don’t make it transactional. Just come. We can freely draw near Christ. He does not call us to a religion, a denomination, or even a local church. Of course, all those things can be good. But there is only one Mediator between us and God. He calls us to simply come to him—especially if we are weary souls—especially if we are spiritually exhausted—especially if we are tired, tired, tired of running on the treadmill of self-righteousness—self-improvement—self-holiness.
I will call her Kathleen. Kathleen grew up in the congregation I was serving. She married a non-Christian and embraced her husband’s religion. Kathleen tragically became addicted to alcohol and cocaine and lost her marriage. Some of her adult children wanted nothing to do with her. She came to me several times to tell me her story and share her weariness and heavy burdens. And then she vanished…for several years. And then one Sunday she showed up. During Communion, she got up out of the pew, walked down to the Altar, and held out her hands to me like a hungry beggar begging for bread. She later told me that this was the moment as a prodigal child. Her coming up to the Altar was her coming back to the Father through Christ’s Body and Blood.
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto Me and rest;
lay down, O weary one, lay down
Your head upon My breast!”
I came to Jesus as I was,
so weary worn and sad;
I found in Him a resting-place,
and He has made me glad.
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