“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light…”
Sweet – what’s a yoke?
And why does Jesus have one?
Well, at its most basic level, a yoke is a, a thing that you lay over the neck and
shoulders, and maybe even the head, of animals that are suited to
ploughing. Sometimes just one animal,
but frequently two animals. And the yoke
helps direct the animal to do what it’s supposed to do – it keeps it focused in
the proper direction, helps it turn if it needs to turn – especially if you’re
working with two animals, you need to make sure that they’re moving in the same
direction at the same time. And the yoke
– yoke – not yolk like an egg yolk – the yoke, is a harness, basically, that is
shaped to fit the particular animal, so that the farmer can direct it
properly.
Now, we live in a culture today that is not too far removed
from the rural setting – a few of you still farm, and a good number of you grew
up farming, even if that’s no longer your profession. We’re not unfamiliar with farming…but for
most of us, farming that involves a yoke is really not something we’ve had much
to do with. Many farmers today are
chilling out in air-conditioned tractors watching satellite tv with one foot on
the gas, while the GPS system takes care of the rest. Who needs a yoke when outer space tells you
when and where to turn, right?
But even if we here in the civilized, modernized, western
world have moved beyond yokes and animals for our farming, many, perhaps most,
people throughout the world have not. Yokes
– and the animals that are guided by them – are common in many parts of the
world, especially those places that are much more impoverished than we
are. And now, personally, I always
thought that a yoke was about oxen, and not really much else. Oxen use a yoke, but horses or donkeys, or
whatever, well, I don’t know… Maybe I’m
the only one who thought this, but…anyway...it turns out that yokes aren’t limited
to oxen – apparently, you can also yoke horses, mules, donkeys, and water
buffalo. Water buffalo!
Anybody out there familiar with Veggie Tales? I mean, really, it’s not really fair of me to
mention water buffalo if I’m not going to show this, yeah?
For any of you not familiar
with Veggie Tales, this is Larry the Cucumber, well, as it said, the part of
the show where Larry comes out and sings a silly song. And in this particular one, Larry is rebuked
by Archibald the Asparagus for singing that “everybody’s got a water buffalo”,
because everyone certainly does NOT have a water buffalo, and well, you saw
it.
So, whatever. It’s a
silly song. But the more I think about it, the more I think that maybe Larry is
right. Maybe everybody does have a water buffalo…at least, in
some sense. So, here’s a picture of a
water buffalo.
That doesn’t really look like something you want to tangle
with, does it? It’s…large…and it has…horns…and
it has just plopped its muddy self right down in the middle of an otherwise
perfectly useful river…This is a metaphor here, but, do you see what I’m
saying? Is there anything in your life
that feels like a water buffalo?
Something that is large and awkward and difficult to control – something
with pointy horns that has taken up residence in what was once a perfectly nice
area of your life?
For some of us, our water buffalo is our job, our employment. You don’t really like it all that much, or
maybe you actually hate it, or maybe you wish you just had one, period. Maybe your water buffalo is money – maybe no
matter how hard you try, you just can’t get finances under control, and you’re
always one step behind on bills…you feel like you’ll never get your head above
water…Some people’s water buffalo is their schedule – you’re jam-packed up to
here. You’re running basically a
professional taxicab service for your kids or grandkids, you’re working more jobs
than you can count, your own “extracurricular activities” are too numerous to
mention, and you can’t remember the last day you just did…nothing. Or what about a “health” water buffalo? Some of you have some pretty intense health
issues going on right now, that have just sort of taken over your lives…or even
if you’re not in the middle of a crisis, underlying chronic conditions just take
their toll, and take over all your daily decisions. Some of you have a water buffalo that is
related to aging…suddenly, it seems like old age – and the changes it brings – has
just deposited itself in your living room and there’s really nothing you can do
about it. You don’t like it, you don’t
know how to deal with it, but it’s clearly not going away. And for some of us, relationships are the
core of our water buffalo.
Relationships
with your kids, spouse, siblings, parents, or even friends. The constant fighting…or the cold shoulder…or
the walking on eggshells…the fact that whatever you wanted that relationship to
be, it’s changed, and that change feels like a giant water buffalo is sitting
on you all the time. Maybe your water
buffalo is all about pressure to succeed.
You need to be perfect at school and the MVP on all your sports teams and
never miss a beat at home and always get that next promotion at work…the
constant worry that you’re not good enough is a huge water buffalo…
Whatever your thing is, point being, Larry the Cucumber is
right: we all have a water buffalo. And
some of them start off oh so cute. Look
at this little baby water buffalo!
Isn’t it adorable? I
bet when you took that job, or went into debt to buy the car or the furniture
or whatever, when you said “I do” or signed on to the team, this was the
picture in your mind. But now this sweet
little thing has turned into this:
Yeah…And sometimes, it’s actually our whole lives – not just
our lives, but our actual selves, us as individuals, that seem to have turned
into a giant water buffalo. Listen again
to the reading from St. Paul’s letter to the church in Rome: “I do not understand what I do. For what I
want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I
agree that the law is good. As
it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not
dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but
I cannot carry it out. For I
do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep
on doing. Now if I do what I
do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that
does it.”
Do you ever have this feeling? Like, “GAH!
What is going on? With me? And my whole life? And why is everything screwed up, and why do I screw everything up??? Everybody’s got a water buffalo? I AM the danged water buffalo!”
Yeah.
See, the thing about water buffalo is that, if they’re not…controlled,
managed, yoked, and so on, they end up trampling all over the natural
vegetation, disturbing bird nests and other small animal habitats, and even
spreading poisonous weeds all over… but when someone who knows what they’re
doing controls the water buffalo, and yokes them, and put them to a decent use…they
look like this:
So today, in the gospel reading, Jesus is addressing those
of us who are weary, and heavy-laden. I’m
pretty sure that’s all of us. There’s a lot of water buffalo in our lives, and
we keep trying to yoke them ourselves, and that gets pretty tiring after a
while. We’re like this guy:
What we need – every one of us – is somebody who knows how
to yoke a water buffalo. Somebody who
can take all the large, awkward, pointy horned, vegetation trampling, weed
spreading, mud sitting water buffalo that is, well, each one of us, and turn us
into this:
Trying to yoke ourselves, trying to get ourselves and our problems yoked, organized, moving in the right direction, fixed, solved, always on top of everything, doing what we’re supposed to, have it all under control, all of that is exhausting. It’s utterly, completely exhausting. And we find, with Paul, that the stuff we want to do we don’t do, and the stuff we don’t want to do, we do, and it’s all so frustrating and aggravating and hard, just plain hard, and eventually, I think, we all reach a point where we just want to give up. We might not admit that to anyone, but who hasn’t, in the deepest part of your soul, wished for it all just to go away for a minute, an hour, a day. If you could only have some space, to think, and be still, and just hit the reset button and start over… Do you ever just want to sit down, right in the middle of the river there and just cry, until someone comes to rescue you?
As Paul says, “WHO WILL DELIVER ME FROM THIS BODY OF
DEATH?!?!?!”
Over here, in Matthew’s gospel, we’ve got Jesus raising His
hand – “Ooh, call on me! I will! I will!
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.
My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
The irony here, is that when you yoke an animal, it’s
because you’re putting it to work. But
Jesus is talking about rest – rest for your soul. When you wear His yoke, it’s not so He can
put you to work, it’s so you can find rest – deliverance from all the weary,
heavy-laden-ness of your life.
Yes, His yoke is easy…but sometimes the process of “taking
it on”, is not so much. Because to take on
Christ’s yoke, we have to let go of our own…and more than that, we have to let
go of our illusion that we can do it ourselves (!!) if only we just try
harder. See, I think that on a fairly
regular basis, when we confront the water buffalo in our life, or when we
realize that we are the water
buffalo, we go to Jesus and we ask Him to show us how to do a better job of
yoking ourselves, or maybe we say, “Hey, a little help here, Jesus?” And we
expect him to help us nudge the water buffalo into submission. Altogether too frequently, we don’t so much
look to Christ for His yoke, but for
an instruction manual on our own
yokes.
But that’s not what’s on offer here. In fact, Jesus says that the Father hides
things from those of us who think we’re wise and learned, who just want the
correct answers. Jesus doesn’t want you
to fix your own yoke, or do a better job of controlling it. He doesn’t want to give you advice for how to
live your best life now.
He wants you to
take His yoke, He wants you to see
that He is your best life now!
He’s not simply here to teach you how to operate your own
yoke, how to manage yourself or your water buffalo. He’s here to actually give you His yoke, so that He can handle the water buffalo.
The reason that the “right answers” are hidden from you, are precisely so
that you will turn to Christ. Christ is
the ultimate “right answer”, and He is so much more than the right answer…if all that He did was give us 7 Steps
to Godly Weight Loss or 3 Keys For Successful Leadership, we’d still be relying
on ourselves, and missing out on His resurrection and redemption! So that’s no good. Not at all.
No, no.
Go all the way. Everybody’s
got a water buffalo, but it’s time to let go of yours. Throw the whole messy muddy thing at God - it doesn't have to be organized when you give it to Him. Let him deliver you from this body of death, and take His yoke upon you. Let Him place
it on you, in fact. His yoke is
easy, and the burden is light. He is
gentle, and humble in heart, and there – in Him – you will find rest for your
souls. What more could we ask for, than for
someone to deliver us?
In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit –
Amen.
