Matthew 11:28-30

Dear Readers,

In Matthew 11:28-30, Christ says,

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

For a long time I thought this scripture was about the Atonement.  I thought that Christ was saying, "If you are suffering under the weight of sin or trials, give them to me.  Tell me all about it, and the miracle of my Atonement will make you feel better right now."  And I thought that when Christ said that his burden was light, he was kind of lying.  I thought he was just telling us that to make us feel better, even though it really wasn't true, like when somebody says, "Oh don't worry about it, I can deliver these flowers for you.  I'm not busy at all." Or if you call someone late at night and ask for a favor, they sometime tell a white lie and say, "Oh, no, you didn't wake me up."

I mean, how was Christ's yoke light?  He went through all that suffering.  He was persecuted, mocked scourged, defamed, lied about, betrayed, and crucified. 

My former interpretation of Matthew 11:28-30 was good, but now I think that the "yoke" Christ is referring to isn't his own personal difficulties, rather it refers to the Christian life.  Putting on the yoke of Christ is living the life of a Christian.  And living the Christian life is easy.  I don't mean easy in the usual, modern sense, like a 25-piece puzzle is easy.  Sometimes the Christian life is difficult.  Standing up for what's right even when its not popular, enduring persecution, doing missionary work and just getting through the day-to-day toil of honestly earning a living: these things are not easy.  I know from experience.  Not that I'm an expert on living the Christian life.  Although I admire it and aspire to it, many times I am far from it.  I am far, far from having the trials of the early Christians that Paul talks about in Hebrews 11-35-38:

Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Notwithstanding all these outward sufferings, living the Christian life, or in other words, taking the yoke of Christ upon you, is easy.  The yoke of Christ gives you an inward peace.

I could write more about this, but really I'm just stealing the ideas I got from this interesting sermon that I randomly found when I googled, "What is Christ's yoke?" I didn't read the whole thing, but what I read was great.

Lately I've been down about the direction of the nation.  As a society, we're abandoning our Judeo-Christian morals.  But I find solace in the words of Christ. 

I haven't written much on this blog lately just because I've been busy, but I hope to write more often. 

I don't know.  I hope you enjoy this blog.  If not, well, at least I enjoy it.

OK, well, Merry Christmas everyone.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa  

P.S. 

Q: How does Jesus like his fried eggs?
A: Over Easy.  Remember?  He said his yolk was easy.