Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

In the gospel lesson for today we get that great verse from Jesus where he is inviting the burdened, the weary to come to him and be given rest. “My yoke is easy. My burden is light.” Jesus tells us. As I was thinking about that image this week I began to ponder about a yoke or maybe yokes which are not his. The yoke Jesus speaks of is easy and light and that sure sounds to me like it is some sort of comparison to a yoke which is not easy and is not light. That made me wonder what that other yoke might be. 

The yoke is an interesting symbol to use when talking about resting. A yoke is for working. It is what is put around the neck of the animal in order for it to be able to pull, to haul the load which needs to be moved. A yoke is about working and not about resting, and here Jesus is talking about yokes and about rest, rest for your souls. Maybe that's the part we really need to think about. It is not just some idyllic day at the beach, not just some lounging in the hammock in the back yard, not just some nap time in the sun curled up with your favorite person or maybe favorite fur bearing member of the family. It is not out on the deck enjoying a good book and something to drink. 

What feeds your soul? What gives your soul rest? The second part of that question, given the reading for today needs to be what hard things have you been called to do which have given your soul rest? What work have you been called to do which has nurtured and fed and refreshed your soul? I really think that is what Jesus is talking about here. Again that image of the right yoke to put on, the one which Jesus offers as opposed to the wrong yoke to be wearing and pulling. 

I grew up on a farm and I admit I know nothing about yokes. We had tractors not yokes. I do know they are made of wood. There are generally, probably even mostly always, two animals which are yoked together. That's about it. So, I asked Google. A yoke of oxen are able to move more than two single animals would be able to pull. Working together has advantages. 

Which leads me back to wondering about yokes, the one Jesus offers and the one which we would be removing, laying down in order to take up the yoke which Jesus offers. Again, I don't think we should interpret this as meaning we get to just kick back and relax. We just had that chapter, 10, about the mission, about the work which is expected from those who follow Jesus. Earlier in chapter 11 there is the brief interlude regarding John the Baptist where Jesus talks about his greatness and also about how he was Elijah, obviously a worker in the kingdom, someone who wore the yoke well.

If you are signing up for the life of Christ you are not signing up for the life which has no expectations. Jesus is out to change the world. Jesus is out to deal with those who are hurting, those who are suffering, those who are dying. You remember back in chapter 9, the end of the chapter, just before Jesus sends out the disciples, where he sees the crowds and has compassion on them because they are like sheep without a shepherd. Our savior has a heart of compassion for those who suffer. Caring for sheep, gathering in those sheep who have no safe pasture, having compassion, that is our calling and that is our mission. That is the yoke Jesus is asking us to share. 

If you picture Jesus as the other in the yoke, the one pulling and working along side of you then you are going to be about the business, the work of Jesus. That's a given. How have you served? How have you cared for someone? How have you ministered to, blessed someone in need? When has compassion moved you? What was that like? Was it hard? What sort of struggles came along with it? How far out of your comfort zone were you? Where did Jesus lead you that you may not have wanted to go? Yeah, being yoked to Jesus and doing the ministry which he calls us to do, leads us to do can be very hard work indeed. I will never deny that truth. The other question though which needs to be asked is did it give you rest for your soul?

There are so many great figures who have blessed and ministered and cared for and worked on behalf of Jesus as a part of the body of Christ. And their souls were very well rested indeed. Father Greg Boyle in the barrios of LA or Mother Teresa in the slums of Calcutta are only a couple of what could be a very long list. There are so many quiet saints who lived out their lives of service caring for their communities in all sorts of ways, looking out for their neighbor whoever that might be, whatever the need might be. We all have our stories of those who knew and lived what it meant to be neighbor to someone, to show compassion. 

So what is that other yoke? I'm thinking Paul nails it. It is that sin which rules and reigns in me. Sin is to miss the mark, to go against the will of God. The thing is, so often the will of God is about my neighbor and how it is that I treat them. I will repeat one more time that definition of sin as curved inward on one's self. My concern is about me and not about you. My focus is me and not you. Others can really just be things that I don't have to worry about, the classic them and not me. The good that I would do, I do not. The evil that I would not, is the very thing I do. That can be a very hard yoke to bear. It is that sin of ignoring the other. I do things which injure my neighbor. I do not do the good which would benefit my neighbor. Sins of omission, sins of commission are the fancy terms for them. In any case either is sin, both are sin. The flutes play and there should be dancing and joining in the dancing but nothing happens. The mourning, the wails of mourning are happening and there is no joining in. 

That is one of the reasons I love Luther and what he does with the 10 Commandments in his Small Catechism. When he gets to those commands about how we are to live with each other he gives the two parts. Part one do not do this. Don't despise or anger parents or others in authority. Part two is this is what you should do. Honor, serve, obey, love and respect them. Do not endanger or harm the lives of your neighbors. Instead help and support them in all of life's needs. Do not take the neighbor's money or property or get them by way of shoddy merchandise or crooked deals. Instead help them to improve and protect their property and income. Do not tell lies about your neighbor or betray or slander them or destroy their reputation. Instead come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light. 

What to do, what not to do. The yoke to put off, which is only part of the deal. The yoke to put on which at its heart is about serving your neighbor in any way possible, doing the will of God. We are the church. We are the body of Christ here and now in this world in this life. We are the extension of the incarnation. Jesus sends us and goes with us to fulfill the mission to which we are called with which we have been entrusted. 

The virus, the unrest, the division in our nation, so many issues, so many hard things. It is a good thing we have a yoke. It is a very good thing we know who is pulling with us as serve, as we labor. Again it is hard work, work that can be and is so very hard. There are far too many who are far too willing to judge. John had a demon and Jesus was a drunkard. What might they say about you? Will that stop you from serving as you should, from taking up the yoke which Jesus would lay on you? Will that stop you from following our king, the triumphant one, the victorious one, the one who is humble and riding on a donkey? 

How will you follow? How will you serve the one who promises and gives rest for your soul? There is so very much work for the body of Christ to do. There is so very much work for the church to do. Let us follow. Let us love and serve.