The Yoke of Jesus Is Easy and His Burden Is Light

 Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV) ²⁸  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Age has made me look back on the things I have done; the things I have preached, too. I have so often preached how hard it is to live the Christian life but Jesus says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. How could I have been wrong for so many years?

The truly difficult journey in the Christian life is a daily picking up the cross. It is dying to self each day so that you can live for the Lord. When that dying is complete, the burden that we take from Jesus becomes easy and light. Trying to take on what Jesus wants to give us is impossible while carrying the desires of the world. Saying that you are doing both at the same time is deceiving yourself. There is a war that goes on that only makes you weary and burdened.

James 4:1 (NIV) ¹  What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 

The Christian who has truthfully trusted in Christ and seeks to serve Him will constantly battle with his own desires if he does not take up his cross daily. The problem is, we preachers haven't told him that this is possible because we preachers aren't taking up our crosses daily either. 

That isn't to say that we don't occasionally take up our crosses and follow Jesus. It just isn't a daily thing for most of us. We fail to realize that the reason that Jesus could take up His cross when He was crucified was because He had taken His cross daily.

Most of the movies I have seen about Jesus never have Him laugh. He seems to carry the burdens of the world all the time. I have had people quote Isaiah 53:3 to me when I have said I believe Jesus laughed.

Isaiah 53:3 (NIV) ³  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

While this may be the overall characteristic of Jesus, it is hard for me to see Him as one who constantly frowned and gathered people around Himself. It is hard for me to understand why anyone would say, "Hey, you are sad. I'd like to be like you." I don't think it was all laughter but I simply can't understand how it could be all tears either. 

Honestly, would you call Peter the one who denied Jesus or the one who proclaimed Jesus? Of course, he had done both but he was characterized as one who would preach the gospel message for the rest of his life. So, would you call Jesus all sorrow?

So, today, I need to take up my cross and accept the yoke and burden that Jesus places upon me. They are easy and light.