Year A Proper 9

As you all know, I spend a fair amount of time in my car during the week. And while I like all kinds of music—from country to classical to classic rock, blues and jazz—I usually listen to Christian Radio. I am careful these days as to what kind of stuff I am letting into my head, you know, garbage in, garbage out. Not that there’s anything wrong with a lot of the music out there, but I’m not comfortable filling my ears with some of the stuff presented in song. Like Paul said in Phillippians chapter 4, “6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” So I almost always have Contemporary Christian music playing on my car radio—and we are really blessed to have a couple good stations available in this area! In Pittsburgh I never found one.
So, I was driving earlier this week and heard the intro to a program where the speaker said: “After 29 years, I quit trying to be a Christian.” Hmm. Got my attention. I know in the past I’ve spent a lot of time trying to be a Christian—how about you? Do you find it hard to be a Christian, hard to keep from sinning, hard to keep on the straight and narrow, hard to be focused? Too many rules, too many commandments? I understand that—been there. And I think that’s what the guy on the radio was talking about—and what today’s lessons are about. The answer is, Quit Trying. That’s right, Quit Trying!!!!!!
In his letter to the Romans, Paul talks about his struggles to obey the law. Now there are lots of different perspectives on this, but I think he is talking about his life as a Pharisee, before his encounter with Christ. Paul begins by talking about the principle he discovered in his struggle, that when he wanted to do good, evil is close by. He continues by contrasting “God’s law with another ‘law,’ ‘the law of sin.’ For just as God in his law makes a claim on our lives, so sin, acting through our members, exerts its own claim on us. These two claims battle for our allegiance.” [1] God’s law could not save us from our sinful tendencies. The result, as Paul says, is that he is most wretched, looking for rescue from sin, for salvation. And this rescue is provided by Christ Jesus—thanks be to God!! “Having expressed the desire for rescue from the frustration of not being able to do God’s law that he felt as a Jew under the law, Paul the Christian cannot refrain from interjecting thanksgiving for the source of the deliverance he has experienced.”[2]
Paul continues by saying “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” In Christ, there is a new law, the law of the Spirit of life which overcomes the law of sin and death. “The Spirit exerts a liberating power through the work of Christ that takes us out of the realm of sin and the spiritual death to which sin inevitably leads.”[3] And this happens through Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is God’s intervention, doing what the law could not. Christ himself did not sin, and he was not subject to the law of sin, but he “became what we are so that we could become what he is.”[4] Through Christ, the righteous requirement of the law was fulfilled—on our behalf. We are no longer condemned. What the law required, Christ accomplished for those who walk in the Spirit, those who live in the realm of the Spirit, setting their minds on things of the Spirit. This is life and peace—not struggle, not trying, but life and peace. Freedom.
In Christ, the apostle Paul found life and peace. And so did Martin Luther, the great reformer. Luther was a faithful and obedient monk, righteous according to all the religious standards of his day just like Paul the Pharisee. But Luther was filled with doubt and despair, worrying over the littlest sins, afraid he’d die before his next confession—until he recognized that he was saved by faith alone, by God’s grace alone. It’s not about doing, struggling, trying and failing, but about living in Christ.

And that’s what Jesus is saying in the gospel, and especially in what we used to refer to as “the comfortable words” “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Jesus calls and says, “’Come to me,’ a tender call to mercy for those who are weary and burdened. ‘Weary evokes the image of persons exhausted from their work or journey, while ‘burdened’ indicates persons weighted down with heavy loads . . . harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”[5] In Christ, there is rest, rest that cannot be found in trying to live up to the legal requirements of the Pharisees, of the law.
Jesus said, “take my yoke upon you.” We need to remember that a yoke is a wooden frame which joined two animals together for pulling loads. In 1st century Judaism, they would have understood the yoke of the law, the yoke of studying the Torah, and also the yoke of foreign oppression. Jesus’ “yoke—a metaphor for discipleship to him—promises rest from the weariness and burden of religious regulation and human oppression, because it is none other than commitment to him.”[6] That’s all, just follow him, learn from him. The yoke of discipleship brings rest—because Jesus is gentle and humble in heart. Jesus came humbly, in human form, and gently, bringing the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven; bringing healing to a sin-sick world.
Discipleship is, however, still a yoke—a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light. “His discipleship is an easy or serviceable yoke because his teaching equips us most effectively to live out God’s will in the way life was meant to be lived. Furthermore, his discipleship is not the oppressive burden of Pharisaic legalism (23:4) but instead turns the load of life into one that is manageable.”[7] Life on earth is not always easy and pleasant, but Jesus will help us carry the load. Rest and peace. Quit trying.
By trying to live up to the demands of perceived religious expectations, we become weary and frustrated, burdened down by our inability to measure up. Jesus invites us to find rest in him, rest in his yoke of discipleship. This seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it, that we will find rest in him, rest in a discipleship that demands us to commit our very lives to him. But I have found it to be true, that when I finally realized that I couldn’t do it on my own, that I couldn’t measure up, and when I gave up and surrendered my life to Him, the struggle and worry about trying to be a Christian, to read and meditate and do all the right things—the struggle wasn’t there. For me, these became pleasure. I know that we think we find rest and comfort in all sorts of places and pleasures, things that dull the pain, but these leave us empty in the end. “Jesus offers us—true life (John 10:10), one that forms us from the inside out . . . and makes us into the kinds of people who love and serve God under his easy yoke of discipleship.”[8] A Christian author by the name of Douglas Webster wrote a book called The Easy Yoke, and he said,

Apart from the grace of Christ and the saving work of the Cross, it would be impossible to convince people that the easy yoke is doable, let alone easy. But for those who live under the yoke, there is absolutely no other way to live. Who in their right mind would go back to the gods of Self, Money, Lust and Power? Who would return on bended knee to the shrines of pious performance and judgmentalism? Is not love better than hate, purity better than lust, reconciliation better than retaliation? And is not “better” really “easier” when measured in character rather than convenience, rest for the soul rather than selfish pride?[9]

The freedom we have in Christ is so much better, so much easier. It is Life, peace, and rest. As Janice Joplin in the song, “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” When you have nothing left to lose, Quit trying. Jesus said come to me and you will find rest, an easier and lighter burden. Life and peace. Freedom. Amen.

[1] Moo, Douglas. The NIV Application Commentary: Romans, p. 238.
[2] Ibid, 239.
[3] Ibid, 249.
[4] Ibid, 249.
[5] Wilkins, Michael J. The NIV Application Commentary: Matthew. 422.
[6] Ibid, 424.
[7] Ibid, 424.
[8] Ibid, 433.
[9] Qtd. Wilkins 433-4.