I'm gonna lay down my burdens down by the riverside, somewhere, down by the riverside! This Christian hymn is a favorite when we do our sing-a-longs in prison. It's a reminder to the men to take a break, rest awhile. You know this past weekend many of my friends headed off to Orange Beach or Destin or Fort Walton. They were taking a break. Just this past Friday night in my hometown of Abita Springs the park was packed with families relaxing to good music, old-fashioned fun and the spectacular fireworks.
Most of us here have probably been told you work too hard, or slow down you are always on the run. We indeed are a busy people and we probably do need to take a breath and relax. Even our children lead busier than ever lives with school, summer camp, and extra-curricular activities that take up most evenings and the weekends too!
As people of faith, we need time to relax and we can relax in the promises of Jesus!
We return to Matthew’s Gospel today as we resume Sundays in ordinary time. Jesus tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden light. For those of us who do not follow along in the missalette Jesus is not referring to eggs and the yolk is not on us! The yoke that Jesus refers to is that device used to hold two oxen together as they labored for their master. The yoke would help the oxen to work more efficiently as they could exert their energy in tandem.
We certainly can understand Jesus telling us His burden is light; but why is his yoke easy? Jesus uses the symbol of the yoke to encourage us to become His disciple and to live in community. He promises us that discipleship, with Jesus at the head, will be like those oxen yoked together. It will be tough and will require effort, but His yoke will keep us together and work more efficiently. And relying on His yoke, we remain together, in tandem if you will, to give Him the worship and praise.
Jesus also tells us that His burden is light. When we first hear this we may recall His public ministry, His Passion and Death, and we may say how is that easy? But Jesus is telling us that His burden is easy because He offers Himself, all of Him, for us. That same public ministry and His Passion and Death, along with His glorious Resurrection and Ascension is for us. Jesus was able to do all of this by faithfully following the will of the Father. His burden is light because He could trust in the will of the Father. And we are called to trust in His promise. Jesus is not telling us that life won’t be hard, filled with struggles and pain; not at all. He is telling us that no matter what the burden, no matter what the pain, no matter what the difficulty; give it to Him. Trust in him. And if we do, Jesus promises we will find rest, our burdens may be a bit easier; our load a little lighter.
We must acknowledge that it is indeed hard, given our independent nature and our own hard headedness, to give it over. It’s truly that old saying: Let go and let God, which Jesus calls us to do. When we do, completely, we will find rest.
Like those folks I mentioned headed off for vacation, we all can focus in the week ahead in rest; that perfect rest we have in Jesus. It may be a great week to take an activity inventory and gauge just how busy we are how much of our life is lived in a hurry. And while we do this, can we look to see all the times and ways we could increase quality time spent with God, spent in prayer, and spent with our loved ones. This week, can we schedule a Jesus event in our family calendar? Pray with the Gospel and see what Jesus is asking of each of us, for ourselves and our families.
May I suggest we look at time spent in front of the TV, the computer, chasing after this meeting or that activity? How busy are our children? Do we allow enough time for school work and even CCD activities? How crazy are our Sundays? Even God rested on the 7th day. Do we have a day of rest? And if we do, how much of that day is spent in thanksgiving to God?
Orange Beach, Destin and Ft. Walton are all great relaxation destinations. But we always need to lay down our burdens, down by the riverside. In the end though, we will never find true rest and lay down those burdens until we rely on our greatest destination: rest in Jesus, our Lord. Because His yoke indeed is easy and His burden indeed is light!
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