At
that time Jesus exclaimed …"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."
Excerpt from
Matthew 11:25-30
This
is not a message we hear a lot. Jesus’s
yoke is easy?
Human
beings have a tendency to focus on the negative and the difficult. We also have a tendency to chafe at
unfairness and inequity. These were all
good survival mechanisms in the primordial world in which our brains
evolved. And they remain valuable - urging us to discern what’s not right and
encouraging us to improve it. All of us,
whether people of faith or secular, feel these impulses if we have a healthy
psychology. The moral code of people of
faith and that of secular people are not very different at all and we risk making
faith irrelevant if we claim the minor differences are the heart of faith.
But
it is also important to note that the Christian message is fundamentally Good News.
It is not principally an imperative or a
scold. It is a message that the Divine
has regard for us, treats us as family, and will overlook all of our
shortcomings. This is a message that
should permeate us with great peace.
