i will give you rest

Who of us aren’t carrying any heavy burdens in our lives?  Especially here in D.C. where there’s such a high level of competition in the work environment, where everything is so expensive, where there’s such an expectation to fit in to a certain lifestyle, it’s easy to have so many burdens in our lives.
 
Aside from D.C., some other burdens that weigh us down could be personal health issues, bad relationships, family problems, feeling used or under appreciated.  And all these can lead to shame, guilt, and a lack of self-worth.  We all have burdens, and when we come to Mass we bring these burdens with us.  We pray to God to help us, to help us with whatever we’re going through. 
 
Today, we hear those very comforting words from Jesus, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Who doesn’t find those words comforting and attractive?  Jesus wants to give us rest from our burdens.  How could anyone not be attracted to what Jesus wants to give?  But we have to be careful with how we interpret these words.  Jesus wants to give us rest, but it’s not simply by wiping out whatever fears or anxieties we have in our lives, by getting rid of whatever struggles we have with sin, or just automatically fixing whatever problem we have.
 
Faith is not magic.  We don’t go to God with the expectation that He’ll just remove our burdens from our lives.  Look at Jesus’ own life.  His life wasn’t painless or without any burdens.  There was a lot of pain in his life, and he carried the heaviest burden of all – the weight of the cross and to die on it for our salvation.
 
And so, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest.”  Jesus wants to give us rest, and the way he offers it is by what he says next.  “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, and you will find rest for yourselves.”  We have to put on the yoke of Jesus if we want to know this rest.
 
A yoke is actually a beautiful image that Jesus uses.  What is a yoke?  It’s mainly used for farming purposes, and it’s used on animals.  It’s a wooden beam used to keep two oxen together so that the two of them can pull some heavy load.  It’s interesting that Jesus uses the image of a yoke.  A yoke always implies two things carrying some load. 
 
And so, if Jesus is insisting that we put on his yoke, he’s also saying, don’t put on some other yoke.  Never do we go through some burden alone, we want help, we want to feel some consolation and strength.  But what are those things?  What other yoke do we put on? Maybe it’s those things that we escape to where we just want to feel better and forget for a moment - indulging in food or drink, misuse of the internet, wasted hours in front of the tv - putting on that yoke to think that it will help lighten that burden, but we know it doesn’t.  Maybe another yoke that we put on is self-pity, feeling sorry for ourselves, and the reason why we put on that yoke is because we want people to know how miserable we are, and perhaps the sympathy we get can try to give some relief.
 
Jesus is saying if you really want rest, put on his yoke.  In other words, let Jesus be your strength.  He wants to help carry our burdens.  He wants us to find strength from him.  It’s the realization that when we turn to God, we don’t expect Jesus to do things for us, but that Jesus does things with us.  
 
Faith is not magic.  Faith gives us a perspective that no matter how hard or difficult things can get, we can still find peace and rest, but only with Jesus.  He doesn’t promise a life without burdens.  He doesn’t show us the easy way out of problems, but if we’re truly yoked to him, we will know that rest.