LIFE: According to Jesus
06/12/2011 - Life's a Yoke
In their excellent book on missional discipleship called Untamed Alan and Deb Hirsch tell this story.
One day long ago, over the hot sands of a Middle Eastern country, a white skylark flew in joyous loops about the sky. As she swooped down near the earth, she heard a merchant cry out, "Worms! Worms! Wormsfor feathers! Delicious worms!"
The skylark circled around the merchant, hungry at the mention of worms, but puzzled about what the merchant meant. Little did the skylark know that the merchant was the devil. And seeing that the skylark was interested, the devil motioned her nearer. "Come here, my little friend. Come! See the lovely worms I have!"
Cautiously, the skylark landed and cocked her head to the merchant. "Come! Taste the juicy worms!" The skylark became aware that she was, indeed, quite hungry. And these worms looked bigger and tastier than any she had ever dug out of the hard desert soil. The skylark hopped closer and put her beak up next to the worm. "Two worms for a feather, my friend. Two worms for merely one!"
The skylark was unable to resist. And she had, after all, so many feathers. So, with a swift motion she pulled out a feather - just a small one - from beneath her wing and gave it to the merchant.
"Take your pick, my little friend...any two, your heart's desire!" The skylark quickly snatched up two of the plumpest worms and swallowed her meal with delight. Never before had she tasted such wonderful worms. With a loud chirp, she jumped back into the air and resumed her joyful flight.
Day after day the skylark returned. And always the merchant had wonderful worms to offer: black ones and blue ones, red ones and green ones, all fat and shiny and irresistible. But one day, after eating her fill, the skylark jumped again into the air - only this time, to her horror, she fell to the ground with a thud. She was unable to fly!
All at once with a shock she realized what had happened. From eating the delicious worms she had grown fatter and fatter and over time she had plucked out her feathers one by one, first from her body, then from her tail, and finally her very wings had grown naked.
Horrified, she remembered how slowly, imperceptibly, day by day, it had been getting harder and harder to fly, and how she had told herself, "It wasn't a problem." She could always stop before it was too late.
Now suddenly here she was, trapped on the ground. She looked up and saw the merchant looking down at her with a small, sly grin spreading across his face. He reached down and grabbed the helpless bird, put her in a cage, and walked away laughing.
Hirsch then writes, "Tragically, like the once wild skylark, little by little we give up our freedoms in Christ, only to end up in a cage made up of a thousand little compromises that can destroy our lives.
When we try to take shortcuts to costly discipleship, we end up with a domesticated existence that is far from the liberated, untamed life Jesus calls us to."
Life. Untamed life. That's what Jesus came to give us. In John 10:10 he said,I have come that you may LIFE, and have it to the full.
This summer I want to talk about Life. LIFE according to Jesus.
In John 14:6 Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the LIFE. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is into life. Jesus did not come to this earth to start a new religion or a thing called Christianity. Jesus is much bigger than that. His goal was not to fill up our time with meetings and religious activity to keep us all out of trouble. Jesus' mission is much larger than that.
Jesus came to this earth to renew and redeem all things. He's out to reverse the curse and put an end to the death and destruction and all the pain that sin brings. He's out to establish his kingdom in this world and finally see God's will done on earth as it is heaven. His mission is universal and cosmic in scope. He wants to make all things new and that includes you and that includes me. And he's not going to stop until he gets it done. And he will get it done. You can count on that.
In Matthew 19:28-30 Jesus said to his disciples,Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
Following Jesus is not about religion. It's about reality. It's about lining ourselves up with the way things really are. Following Jesus is the best possible way to live. It's the greatest return on investment we can ever make with our lives. It's worth every minute of it and every sacrifice it demands.
And this summer we're going to see what life is intended to be according to Jesus. And to do that we're going to unpack the marks of a disciple and find out, from Jesus' own lips, what it means to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.
After all that's our mission as a church. Valley View Community Church exists to be a biblical community that helps people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ who make a difference in this world.
Jesus calls us to be disciples and to make disciples. The Greek word for disciple is mathetes. It's a rich word that comes from the Greek verb manthano which means "to learn." So mathetes literally means "learner, student, apprentice, one who follows and imitates a teacher."
Jesus invites us to be his apprentices, his followers, his imitators. He's the teacher. We're the students. He's the rabbi. We're the learners. And real life is found when we imitate and follow him because he is the way, the truth, and the LIFE.
Being a disciple of Jesus doesn't start with going out and saving the world, being a disciple of Jesus starts with coming to Jesus and listening to the rabbi. And the invitation to come to him is extended to us every single day.
So we start this series with Jesus' words inMatthew 11:28, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Does anyone here feel weary and burdened? Does anyone here need rest? Not more responsibility. Not more rules to follow. Not more rituals to keep. Not more reasons to feel guilty and bad and stressed out and like we can't measure up.
COME TO ME, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Jesus is always asking us to come to him. Even if we've responded before, we're invited to come again. Even if we're too tired to walk, we can crawl to Jesus on our hands and knees, exhausted and wounded and defeated and beaten down by the stress and the demands of life.
It doesn't matter how long you've been away. He says, "Come to me." It doesn't matter if you've never come before. He says, "Come to me." It's an open invitation to be understood and embraced by Jesus.
Come to me, ALL you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. It doesn't matter who you are...your age, your gender, your race, your past, your income, your sexual orientation, your religion. It doesn't matter if your Protestant or Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist or agnostic. The invitation is open to all who are humble enough to admit they need Jesus.
But Jesus says more than just "come to me," as wonderful as that is. He says something else, something so comforting, so compelling that we just want to collapse in his strong arms.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I WILL GIVE YOU REST.
The Greek word for rest literally means "rest, refreshment." It's what I hope Jennifer and my kids give to me next Sunday on Father's Day when I come home from here and walk through the door. "Dad, just sit down in the recliner, put your feet up, turn on the Phillies game, and rest." Ah, that's a wonderful image for me!
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I WILL GIVE YOU REST. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find REST FOR YOUR SOULS.
It's one thing to find rest for our bodies. That's important. It's great when we can take a midday nap or sit in a Jacuzzi or get a solid night's sleep. But even more important than to have rest for our bodies is to have rest for our souls because it's the inner struggle, the inner turmoil, the fear and the anxiety that life creates that can wear our souls out much more quickly than the fatigue in our bodies.
Rest for our souls. Rest from the pressures of our job, our families, our finances, our relationships, our commitments, our responsibilities. Rest ... like no other rest we've ever experienced. That's what Jesus offers us. Sounds great doesn't it? Who wouldn't want that rest?
But here's the twist. With Jesus there's always a twist. He says,
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29TAKE MY YOKE upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30FOR MY YOKE is easy and my burden is light.
We find rest for our souls when we yoke up with Jesus. And as they say, "That's no yoke!" What's a yoke? Well, when we think of a yoke we probably think of an egg yolk, the yellow part of an egg that feeds the embryo and is surrounded by the egg white. But that yoke is spelled yolk.
That's not the yoke Jesus is talking about here. The yoke Jesus is talking about is awooden beam that was used to connect two oxen together because in Jesus' day, in the land of Israel at least, that's how farming was done. Two oxen were paired together for maximum effectiveness.
A young, wild, inexperienced ox was linked to an older more seasoned, mature ox to be trained how to pull a plough or how to tread out the grain. The experienced ox would know where to walk and how fast to go and how to relate to the farmer and how to get the job done. Kind of like a personal trainer.
But the younger, wilder ox didn't know how to do those things. And so at first it would strain at the yoke and try to go its own way. Or it might try to rush ahead or lag behind the lead ox. And before long it would be exhausted and have a very sore neck!
But eventually the younger ox would learn the ways of the leader and be much more productive and have much less pain. Take my yoke upon you, Jesus says, and LEARN FROM ME. That word for "learn" is the Greek word mathete. It's the word for disciple. Jesus is saying, Take my yoke upon you and be discipled by me and you will find rest for your souls.
We can't go out and make disciples of others if we're not allowing Jesus to make disciples of us. And that starts when we yoke ourselves to Jesus and his teaching.
In fact, in Jesus' day a rabbi's teaching was called his yoke. Different rabbis had different ways of interpreting the Jewish law. And when you followed a rabbi that you believed was interpreting the Scriptures correctly you were taking up that rabbi's yoke. You were linking yourself to him and his teaching.
Life according to Jesus is a yoke! Not a joke. A yoke! And the truth is we are all yoked to somebody or something. And that yoke will either bring us rest or get us stressed. That yoke will either bring us life or bring us death. Life is going to be hard whether we're yoked to Jesus or not because we live in a broken world. Life was hard for Jesus, but in the midst of it all we can find rest for our souls as he did.
The choice is ours. Jesus is asking us to come to him. To link up with him. To learn from him. To be discipled by him. The creator of the universe. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the all knowing, all powerful, almighty, all loving God who describes himself as gentle and humble in heart. And that's what he wants to teach us to be as well. Gentle and humble in heart. Are you ready to discover that life this summer? I am.
A number of years ago Don Francisco composed a song from Matthew 11:28-30 called "Give Your Heart a Home." He wrote it as it were being sung by Jesus to people who are burned out and weighed down by life...maybe the way you're feeling right now. The lyrics go like this...
I hear your hollow laughter, your sighs of secret pain. Pretending and inventing, just to hide your shame. Plastic smiles and faces, blinking back the tears, Empty friends and places, all magnify the fears.
If you池e tired and weary, weak and heavy-laden, I can understand how, it feels to be alone. I will take your burden, if you値l let me love you. I値l wrap my arms around you and give your heart a home.
It hurts to watch you struggle, and try so hard to win, You trade your precious birthright, for candy-coated sin. Wasting precious moments, restless and confused, Building up defenses, for fear that you値l be used.
Take my yoke upon you, walk here by my side. Let me heal your heartaches, dry the tears you致e cried. Never will I leave you, never turn away. I値l keep you through the darkness, lead you through the day.
If you池e tired and weary, weak and heavy-laden, I can understand how, it feels to be alone. I will take your burden, if you値l let me love you. I値l wrap my arms around you and give your heart a home.