6/12/22 Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 “Your Load Is Easy and Your Burden Is Light!”

10 Jun 6/12/22 Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 “Your Load Is Easy and Your Burden Is Light!”

6/12/22   Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30      “Your Load Is Easy and Your Burden Is Light!”

Sometimes when we look at folks it is hard to imagine that the people we are looking at are actually grown-ups.  I have heard of churches that have split apart because someone in the church has gotten hurt feelings over the smallest of things. We could chuckle if it wasn’t so sad.  But I think that this type of behavior is so widespread that it is hard to find adults in many areas.  I find that many men are what I call the 35-year-old adolescent.  In business, people get rewarded for this type of behavior.  If we can legally steal from people, then we had better do it as this is considered good business.  If we look at our government, we see classic examples all the time.  As a whole I think that Democrats and Republicans can only claim to have the mental development of a 6-year-old and I don’t mean to belittle any 6-year-old. They are always fighting over the smallest things and they never get anything done, no matter what they try to tell us.  They never compromise unless they can line their own wallets.  It really gets quite old.  But the saddest place that this happens is in our denominations where some people decide that they know what the Bible says and everyone had better follow what they say or else.  The UMC is doing this right now and they have been lying and cheating to get their own way for years!  I’m not exaggerating about this either.  I’m afraid that you could come up with many more examples of grown people acting like little children.  Sometimes it is almost as if people get stuck in certain behaviors and they can’t get out of them.  Today, we are going to look at this same problem in the time of Jesus.  One of the beautiful things of studying the Bible and Jesus is that He has a way out of anything that we do.  Let’s see if we can see things in ourselves that shouldn’t be there and then how to let Jesus help us out.

Tommy Burrus tells the story of some children playing when they were young.  The dad was out back when he heard a terrible ruckus in the front yard.  He came around the house and saw that his children and their friends were in a terribly heated argument.  As soon as they saw him, they quit.  The dad started to lecture them that this was not acceptable behavior.  He just got started when his daughter stopped him and said, “But Daddy, we weren’t fighting.  We were just playing church.”  I hope that we don’t have that problem here but we have to be ever vigilant because things like this do spring up.

Today’s reading holds a whole spectrum of emotions.  We begin with Jesus talking about the children and comparing them to the people who will not listen to His message.  He is telling them that they are like children who play nice music but others won’t dance.  Just as a little sidebar, for years the Methodist church was absolutely against dancing and yet here we again find that it is not only ok, but people are encouraged to dance.  It is funny how we liked to change things around in the past and in the present to fit our own needs.  The UMC has been falsifying the Word of God for years and no one dares to speak up about it.  Anyway, these people are listening to great music and they won’t dance.  Or it is like going to a funeral and not mourning for the deceased.  These things are just natural and we need to be open to them.

If there is one thing that I have noticed about you folks in the little time I have known you, it is that you like your music.  When you do anything special you always know the kind of music to play.  I have also found that people outside of the church like their music but it may be a different kind of music.  So, everybody who has ever tapped their feet to the beat of a song or had a favorite song knows what we are talking about here.  I have also never been to a funeral in this area where the people didn’t mourn.  This is something that is just natural.  We don’t have to be taught these things; they just happen.

The same thing can be said of knowing Jesus Christ.  Knowing Jesus Christ is as natural as breathing.  I doubt if there is a person in the world who at one point in their lives didn’t want to do what was good and right.  Then we have circumstances that knock us out of the saddle.  We become our own worst enemy as we let things like pride; greed and lust take over our lives.  And even then, a 40-year-old man like me was still looking for Jesus.  We may not know it but we are looking.  This is important to know because once again we have Satan lurking on the sidelines telling the sideliners that all Christians are wrong and evil.

The sideliners of Jesus day were saying that because John the Baptist didn’t drink or eat to excess, he was possessed by a demon.  Can you imagine this?  Here was someone who led a pretty good life and he was pegged as a demon because the leaders didn’t agree with him.  This is how the UMC treats its conservative pastors.  Then they turn around and say that Jesus came eating and drinking therefore He is a glutton, a drunk and a friend of tax collectors and sinners.  There is one thing for certain from this.  No one could please sideliners in ancient times and we cannot today either.

I think one of our biggest problems today is that we only think of ourselves first.  We are always looking out for number one.  This attitude gets us into all kinds of problems.  Not only do we think of ourselves first and foremost, but we also think that whatever we think is right.  We like to form opinions that cannot be swayed by facts.  This is really shown to us in social media and this is what happened in our reading.  This happens all the time in our world.  We even have religions that behave like this and I think that this is terribly wrong.

We have denominations who feel that people have to be baptized in a certain way or at a certain age.  This type of thinking is definitely not Biblical but people hang on to this idea with tenacity.  The same thing can be said about taking the elements for communion.  If you aren’t a member of certain church, you cannot take communion.  I would like just one person to show me where this is in the Bible.  We like to grab onto church traditions that aren’t Biblical and there is no way any one can change our minds.  This is not how Jesus operated.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there.  I used to work with a fellow who was just the nicest man you would ever want to meet.  He didn’t drink or smoke or do drugs or do much of anything wrong.  I’m sure he had faults but one didn’t notice them because he was such a nice guy.  Guess what?  The other people we worked with didn’t like him because he was too nice.  They had to resort to making up lies about him so that they could bring him down to their moral level.  They didn’t want to be around someone who was morally superior to them so they tried to make him into a bad man.  This kind of sounds like John the Baptist.

Then we go to the other extreme.  We have the man who goes to a party and has a drink.  They are also feasting at this party.  I have also known people like this.  We have to knock them down because they are drunks and gluttons.  Show me in the Bible where we are not supposed to eat or drink.  It isn’t there.  It tells us not to do these things in excess but that is a whole different story.  The point is that we are not satisfied if we perceive that someone else has the upper hand morally.  We will always try to knock them down.  They did this in ancient times and we do this today.

But wisdom is proved right by her actions.  Think about this statement for a minute.  It is time to start to take the wisdom we have and turn it into action.  We know that there is nothing wrong with people like this.  They are probably doing more good than we ever will if we are on the sidelines.  It is time that we try to start to look at the inner person instead of the outer actions of a person.  What is in their hearts?  Do they love Jesus?  These are the important questions.  These are far more important than trying to judge people.  When we fall into this type of trap, it is just Satan trying to get us to judge others.  Save this for Jesus because I don’t think that there is anyone else who is qualified.

Then Jesus goes on to praise the Father for hiding the things of God from the wise and the learned but He has revealed them to the children.  I love how God loves the children.  I think that everyone should teach Sunday school or at least be around when children are taught things about God.  I have heard children say that they have seen and talked to Jesus and I believe them.  Children haven’t been in the world long enough to be able to make up a story like this and many of these stories are remarkably similar.  Jesus loves the children so we should pay attention to them as they try to tell us about Jesus.  Often times we should listen to the children, then pay less attention to the scholars.

I hope that you don’t get me wrong on this.  There is a place for wise people and scholars.  There are many wise people who teach us great things about God.  But once again we have to be able to look into their hearts to see if they are credible.  This is no different than what we just talked about.  Wise people with the heart of Jesus are great but beware of the false teachers who are trying to lead us astray.

As we move on here, I would like to remind you how Jesus likes to talk with truth and grace.  If the UMC had its way, they would not teach anything about the truth, only grace.  This is a classic example as He begins with a little truth about us and then He adds grace by telling everyone that He is God in verse 27.  The Father and the Son know each other and the Son allows people to know the Father.

I think that this is a great little reminder of who we are.  We are people whom Jesus has chosen.  Oh, yes, we have to make a decision at some point as to whether we will follow Jesus or not but it is Jesus who chooses us first to be able to make this decision.  I’m going to let this rest here because this could turn into a real theological discussion.  All we need to know is that God first chose us.

We need to remember that Jesus is speaking to the crowd of people.  These people loved Jesus.  It was the church that hated Him.  The crowd knows about all of His healings and things He has done.  They know and respect His power.  Then Jesus tells them that He and God the Father are basically the same.  These people don’t get upset because they know the power must come from some place.

In today’s world we get a little different reaction to this.  People don’t really care if I say Jesus is God or not.  That is because at least 75% of this country doesn’t know God in the first place.  They do not believe in the Bible but only little pieces here and there.  They think wrongly that they are able to pick and choose what to believe in the Bible.  It is sad to say that our mission field is just about everywhere in this country.

So, what does this mean that Jesus is God?  Now we come to one of the greatest passages in the Bible about comfort.  Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Jesus knows about this world.  He knows that we all have to struggle to get through it.  He knows that Satan is continually nipping at our heels.  We get weary from all the things of this world and He will give us rest.

He knows about broken homes which cause a whole bunch of problems from lost love.  He knows about being hungry as He spent 40 days without food.  He knows about the lack of money as He had none.  He knows about every kind of problem we can have.  The great news is that He is God and He can take care of us if we just ask.

So, whatever your problems are today, just give them to Jesus.  He tells us that He will be in the yoke with us.  A yoke is a device where two oxen or horses or whatever animal are put together to that they can pull a load equally.  Jesus will be yoked with you.  Not only that but His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  It has to be light.  If you are yoked with God, then the load has to be light because you are yoked together with the strongest force that the world has ever been known.

And no matter what happens, nothing will separate you from the love of God.  Nothing!  This is another little tidbit that we forget sometimes.  You might feel that you have been too bad to come to Jesus or you just might not feel worthy if someone is always picking you apart.  Or you might not feel very loved or appreciated.  All of these things are of great concern to Jesus.  He wants you to come to Him with anything and everything.  If you start to do this, I guarantee that you will begin to feel better, do better and just be better.  This is the promise here.  Love Jesus and He will love you back a thousand times more, a million times more!  I really don’t think that life could get any better than that.

The trouble in our world is that Satan is everywhere.  Sometimes I just get overwhelmed by the evil that is around us.  It is at these times that I have forgotten Jesus.  Just as evil is everywhere in the world, Jesus is more everywhere and far more powerful.  Satan cringes when we mention the name of Jesus.  If the second most powerful force in the universe runs and hides at the name of Jesus, then I know that I want to be yoked with Jesus in all that I do.  All you have to do is accept Jesus as your Savior and you can have this wonderful blessing.  It is that easy.

While this reading starts out with a little truth about ourselves, it ends with this tremendous blast of love.  This is the love that Jesus has for you.  Even if you don’t know Him, He knows you.  He wants you and He will never give up on you.  Come to Him in all times and share His yoke for it is easy and His load is light.  I praise Jesus for loving all of us and there are no exceptions.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.