My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
These words of Jesus conclude the passage from Matthew we just heard, and to my mind they embody a spiritual puzzle, or perhaps a sacred riddle. Many years ago I used to practice a form of meditation from Zen Buddhism, I encountered some of that tradition’s spiritual puzzles, called koans. One koan has entered our popular culture: what is the sound of one hand clapping?
As a Christian practicing Zen meditation, I soon discovered Christian koans, spiritual puzzles embedded right within the texts of the Old and New Testaments.There’s a beautiful phrase from Psalm 85 which combines polar opposites: Mercy and truth have met together — justice and peace have kissed each other.
How can we show mercy if we’re intent on telling the truth of the human condition?
When we execute justice, it more often leads to privation than to peace. And yet: Mercy and truth have met together — justice and peace have kissed each other. Both have to be held in tension for authentic spiritual life in this world.
For two thousand years, Christians have been working out these tensions found in Jesus’s teachings, which are both puzzling and at the same time comforting. There is a yoke, and yet it’s easy. We carry a burden, and yet it is light.
We sometimes forget that Jesus was an observant Jew, and as such, he knew about how that tradition understood “burden.” I did a brief search and found three complementary views of the Jewish approach to carrying a burden.
The first is quite literal — the duty of the Levites to carry the parts of the Tabernacle placed on their shoulders. That physical act then served as a metaphor for the responsibilities that the Chosen People should be carrying.
The second is more cosmic, called “the Yoke of Heaven.” Each community member has a duty of perform the work of God in the present world. That work is both a honor and a challenge to perform. One Rabbi expressed it this way: “You are not required to do all of the work, but neither can you ignore it.”
And the third view of burden is personal and unique — that every person carries a hidden set of struggles within, with emotional and spiritual challenges. These include one’s regrets, memories of failure, doubts and one’s unmet goals.
One rabbi summed it up this way: “Be kind! Everyone carries a great burden.”
My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
This word yoke — our minds understand it, but frankly we don’t see yokes daily unless you include the advertisement for the Wells Fargo wagon team. The function of a yoke is to harness divergent energies toward a single goal, and all human beings are living with multiple and overlapping duties.
All of us are members of several family systems, not the least of which is this church. We are living in the midst of tensions that sometimes threaten to tear us up. How do we say “no” to the earnest demands of people who have a claim on us, on our time, on our money, on our attention? because saying a “Yes” to something means saying many “No’s” to a lot of other people and possibilities.
Here’s how I work out this Christian meditation puzzle: say Yes to God first. Everything else — families of origin, families of choice, job tasks, and the rest: all these are secondary to our relationship with God, above all and within all.
All persons have burdens and yokes. Everyone is carrying a great unseen burden. But the burden of a Christian becomes easier the longer you carry it — just like dedicated athletes competing in their sport. Do they whine about pain? Instead of finding excuses, they’re relishing the competition and the goal.
St. Francis carried his burden in public, embracing Lady Poverty, and living simply. His Canticle of the Sun celebrated the beauty of all earth’s creatures, and he took seriously the lives of all God’s creatures around him. The discoveries of a person like Jane Goodall would not be news to him. It’s a joy to celebrate his feast day every year and share his vision of this world.
My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
