14th Sunday Year A
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Take my yoke
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
As individuals, we all carry heavy burdens of sin, anxieties about the future, and weariness in the search for God, or any number of other problems we face day-to-day. Our burden could be the death of a loved one, a broken relationship, an addiction, an illness, problems at home or problems at work; for each of us, it is something different. Jesus said in Today’s Gospel ‘Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, Take my Yoke upon you and learn from me.”
A “yoke” is the wooden collar that fit around the neck of the oxen and connected them to the plough.
In Jesus’ time, carpenters handcrafted every yoke to fit the ox perfectly. It should fit well. The oxen could plough all day and pull up to five times their weight.
But if the yoke did not fit well, it would rub and chafe and cut into the flesh of the oxen until every step was sheer torture. You can see why a carpenter would be known by the quality of his yokes.
It was also common practice to have oxen in a double yoke. In other words, there were usually two oxen joined together by the yoke and together pulling the plough.
They would train a younger, weaker ox by pairing it with a stronger, more mature animal.
As a result, the stronger one ended up bearing the heavier portion of the load and would lead the younger less experience ox on.Keeping this image of a double yoke in mind, we can begin to unwrap precisely what Jesus means when he says “My yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
He is saying that when we are bearing the burdens of human life, we need to remember that (1) The yoke was made to fit me, (2) That we are in a double yoke, and (3) That we are not pulling the load alone.Far from it, Jesus himself is right there next to us, pulling the load with us. And, like the stronger and more mature ox, he is even bearing the heavier portion. Know that we are not pulling the yoke alone and by our power but together with Christ and by the strength that comes from him. Remember that Jesus is not just a teacher who gives you homework but also a friend who helps you do it. Jesus shows us how to do this by showing us how he did it.
To accept the double yoke that Jesus offers us, and to allow him to bear the burden with us, we need to do two things.First, we need to admit that alone we cannot handle the burdens in our life, so we have to admit our need of the Lord and his help. Somehow, that transformation must happen in the act of surrender, in the "giving over" of our own daily labors, burdens and crosses to the Lord. Admitting to ourselves that we cannot carry them on our own, allowing Jesus to shoulder them with us; letting go of control—in that simple, childlike surrender, we discover the rest Jesus promises.
Second, we need to turn to the Lord in prayer. We need to entrust ourselves to his power and strength.
If we do not pray, we are most likely trying to pull the load alone. Trying to pull it alone would surely overwhelm the less experienced ox and it will surely overwhelm us.
Christ doesn’t do things for you; He does things with you.
Much of the burden of our lives is that so often we don't seem to be going anywhere. We must do as Abraham did, leaving behind all the things which prevent us from moving and submitting our whole lives to him - following him into a land that he will show us. At the moment we decide to come to Jesus we see exactly how far we are from him. Jesus says: Come to ME …
Then Jesus says: SHOULDER my yoke ….
Not only must we carry only the burden Jesus asks us to carry, we must learn from him how to carry it. A burden half-heartedly carried is very difficult to bear. How often do we not just push it along or drag it behind us? The "yoke" of Christ will become gentle and light if accepted out of love and borne with faithful love.
Many of you will know “He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother” a song released by the Hollies in 1969. You know the story behind the song. It is actually the motto of Boystown, the orphanage for boys set up in America by Father Edward Joseph Flanagan in 1917 and made famous by Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney in the 1938 movie by the same name “He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother”. In 1921, there was a young boy at Boys Town who had difficulty walking due to leg braces. Other boys would take turns giving him a ride on their backs.
One hopes that the words in the song will be their experience and they will declare with joy from the deepest part of their being:
It's a long, long roadFrom which there is no returnWhile we're on the way to thereWhy not share.And the loadDoesn't weigh me down at allHe ain't heavy, he's my brother.
St. Paul teaches us in Gal. 6:2 “Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
As individuals, we all carry heavy burdens of sin, anxieties about the future, and weariness in the search for God, or any number of other problems we face day-to-day. Our burden could be the death of a loved one, a broken relationship, an addiction, an illness, problems at home or problems at work; for each of us, it is something different. Jesus said in Today’s Gospel ‘Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, Take my Yoke upon you and learn from me.”
A “yoke” is the wooden collar that fit around the neck of the oxen and connected them to the plough.
In Jesus’ time, carpenters handcrafted every yoke to fit the ox perfectly. It should fit well. The oxen could plough all day and pull up to five times their weight.
But if the yoke did not fit well, it would rub and chafe and cut into the flesh of the oxen until every step was sheer torture. You can see why a carpenter would be known by the quality of his yokes.
It was also common practice to have oxen in a double yoke. In other words, there were usually two oxen joined together by the yoke and together pulling the plough.
They would train a younger, weaker ox by pairing it with a stronger, more mature animal.
As a result, the stronger one ended up bearing the heavier portion of the load and would lead the younger less experience ox on.Keeping this image of a double yoke in mind, we can begin to unwrap precisely what Jesus means when he says “My yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
He is saying that when we are bearing the burdens of human life, we need to remember that (1) The yoke was made to fit me, (2) That we are in a double yoke, and (3) That we are not pulling the load alone.Far from it, Jesus himself is right there next to us, pulling the load with us. And, like the stronger and more mature ox, he is even bearing the heavier portion. Know that we are not pulling the yoke alone and by our power but together with Christ and by the strength that comes from him. Remember that Jesus is not just a teacher who gives you homework but also a friend who helps you do it. Jesus shows us how to do this by showing us how he did it.
To accept the double yoke that Jesus offers us, and to allow him to bear the burden with us, we need to do two things.First, we need to admit that alone we cannot handle the burdens in our life, so we have to admit our need of the Lord and his help. Somehow, that transformation must happen in the act of surrender, in the "giving over" of our own daily labors, burdens and crosses to the Lord. Admitting to ourselves that we cannot carry them on our own, allowing Jesus to shoulder them with us; letting go of control—in that simple, childlike surrender, we discover the rest Jesus promises.
Second, we need to turn to the Lord in prayer. We need to entrust ourselves to his power and strength.
If we do not pray, we are most likely trying to pull the load alone. Trying to pull it alone would surely overwhelm the less experienced ox and it will surely overwhelm us.
Christ doesn’t do things for you; He does things with you.
Much of the burden of our lives is that so often we don't seem to be going anywhere. We must do as Abraham did, leaving behind all the things which prevent us from moving and submitting our whole lives to him - following him into a land that he will show us. At the moment we decide to come to Jesus we see exactly how far we are from him. Jesus says: Come to ME …
Then Jesus says: SHOULDER my yoke ….
Not only must we carry only the burden Jesus asks us to carry, we must learn from him how to carry it. A burden half-heartedly carried is very difficult to bear. How often do we not just push it along or drag it behind us? The "yoke" of Christ will become gentle and light if accepted out of love and borne with faithful love.
Many of you will know “He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother” a song released by the Hollies in 1969. You know the story behind the song. It is actually the motto of Boystown, the orphanage for boys set up in America by Father Edward Joseph Flanagan in 1917 and made famous by Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney in the 1938 movie by the same name “He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother”. In 1921, there was a young boy at Boys Town who had difficulty walking due to leg braces. Other boys would take turns giving him a ride on their backs.
One hopes that the words in the song will be their experience and they will declare with joy from the deepest part of their being:
It's a long, long roadFrom which there is no returnWhile we're on the way to thereWhy not share.And the loadDoesn't weigh me down at allHe ain't heavy, he's my brother.
St. Paul teaches us in Gal. 6:2 “Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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