FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME A

[cappie]

For most of the last few weeks, Jesus has been talking about the cost of discipleship – the certainty of persecution, conflict, suffering and painful division for those who choose to follow him. Today his tone changes, and Jesus is promising rest and comfort, light burdens and easy yokes. 

 Jesus is talking quite specifically to and about those who are seeking God, and relationship with God. He is calling to himself  those who, like Paul said, have tried all of the usual ways of finding some peace with the divine and have achieved only frustration.

The real clue to this is the fact that a yoke was the common symbol for the Law of Moses, especially for the details of the law and the minute, ever-expanding demands of the legalism of the Pharisees.  We need to remember here that here Matthew is presenting an exaggerated picture of the Pharisees, and there were enough jerks to justify this caricature.

This is why Jesus says that the wise and intelligent  – that is, the religious leaders – have missed the point. He then adds that only the Son – not those leaders, and not you, and not anyone else, only the Son – knows the Father.

The yoke of the Pharisees, their demands that you have to do this and this and this exactly right in order to matter to God, in order to be a decent person, in order to be loved or counted significant – that yoke Jesus rejects, even though it was the yoke of the wise and intelligent.

That yoke, of seeking God by keeping the rules, by trying to get it right all the time and so living constantly in fear of getting it wrong, that yoke leads those who wear it to “Labor and be heavy laden.”  It leads to a religion and a life of fearful obedience  where the spirit is deadened, and where some measure of success is more likely to lead you into self-righteousness than into the heart of God. God’s presence with us and God’s love for us are never the results of our actions. He is in charge; we are not.

In response to all of this, Jesus says, “Come to me.”

In essence, Jesus is saying, “If you seek God; if you seek his love; if you seek a life that makes some sense;  if you want to be who you are created to be – if you want this, then come to me.”

It’s a call to relationship – to relationship with Jesus and to relationship with the community that continues Jesus’ life and ministry.

The alternatives, then and now, will fail. He will not. Remember   we are reminded that God has taught us that all the commandments are kept by loving God and our neighbour. Such is the yoke of Christ. And since this yoke has to do with these commandments to love, the people who seriously take that yoke upon themselves usually find that it is shaped very much like a cross.

One more thing: In many translations, Jesus calls his yoke “easy.” Now, that’s an unfortunate English word; it makes it sound like  very little effort or energy is required to do it.  The New English Bible’s translation is better: It reads, “My yoke is good to bear.”

The point is not that this yoke, the Lord’s call to relationship, makes no difference or asks nothing of us – quite the contrary. The point is that it fits, it’s the right size,  it leads to God, and it brings with it wholeness and a peace that can be found nowhere else.

To come to him is to discover that  life with God is, not an earned reward, but a free gift.  To come to him is to discover that the task of getting it all correct is replaced by the absolute gift of God’s grace, and our grateful response to that gift.

All the strong stuff we’ve been hearing the past few weeks about the cost of discipleship is still very much there. But the yoke is good to bear. It leads to life. To put it on is to be embraced by God’s mercy – to carry it is to fulfill both God’s will and our own deepest humanity.

We are called to this new yoke, not to a set of rules, but to a person and a community built around that person. And in this the religious quest – the greatest journey of human existence – can find its richest fulfillment, and its deepest satisfaction.

Jesus said, “Come to me if you seek God, if you seek life, I will give you rest.”