Heart of Jesus: A Burdened Heart

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 4/22/18

Click here for audio

^NRS Matthew 11:28  "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, 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."

We are nearing the end of the Heart of Jesus series. Each week we have explored a personality or a dynamic of the heart of Jesus. All of this is simply another way of understanding the love and grace of God. We know that as Christians that God loves us so incredibly well that God sent us Jesus to show us how to love one another and be the disciples God has called us to be. Our church, Sydenstricker has taken a definitive resolve to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We know that Disciples are lifelong learners who influence others to serve and we are learning what all of that means. Today I want to talk to you about life and the struggles that we all face. Each of is in this place having gone through or going through some kind of burden, some kind of hurt, some kind of illness and more than ever we could use a lift up from where we are.

August 10, 1628, was a dark day in naval history. On that day, the royal warship Vasa set out on her maiden voyage. After taking 2 years to build, lavishly decorated and holding 64 cannons, the pride of the Swedish navy sank only one mile out to sea. What went wrong? The excessive load was too heavy to make her seaworthy. Excess weight pulled the Vasa to the bottom of the ocean.

Over 16.9 million people in this country are suffering from the effects of depression. That is over 6.9 % of the total world population. Our people today struggle with how to deal with the world around us in ever-increasing ways of anxiety. Never before in the history of the United States have some many people struggled so much with every day stuff, not to mention the political challenges, social challenges and fear for jobs and security. I see young people today who have such high level of anxiety in school and home that they have periods where they simply cannot function. We are a truly burdened society.

I remember a number of years ago, sitting in the cancer center. I was there with my mother as she was having some procedures to assist in her healing after a radical mastectomy. When you sit in that kind of emergency room, you cannot help but pay attention to the people around you. Some of them clearly were struggling, physically and mentally as they tried to deal with the illness that was knocking them down. Some of them came from the doctor’s room crying, some just empty while others had received good news and came with a smile, almost ashamed of it, but it was there none the less. Over the course of 16 years, I have talked with a number of people struggling with cancer and other serious life threatening illnesses. All of them carry that burden like the world lifted on their shoulders. However, some of them have a lighter outlook. What is the difference? The ones who know Jesus seem to have a better time of it.

Flora Wuellner writes of a story where the people in Hell to come to heaven once in eternity for the day. Upon arrival, many are soon uncomfortable in the joy and wonder that we understand heaven to be and begin to ask to go back to Hell. Why, the angels ask would you want to leave this for that. “Because, we do not deserve to be here,” was their reply, “we failed to measure up and carry the weight of those sins with us even now”. Notice what they said, they carry the weight of those sins even now. How many of us come to this place on this day carrying the weight of past sins on our shoulders and around our necks like the ball and chains of yesteryear? How many of us come to this place harboring the pain of past mistakes often from so many years ago that everyone but us has forgotten? I remember the old man crying in my arms asking for forgiveness for what he thought was a sin he had committed in Normandy beach sixty plus years ago. He was broken because of it. We are all broken because of our own mistakes, our iniquities if you remember that word and we refuse to let go of them. We make our lives a living monument to our mistakes by wearing them on our sleeves and in our faces and in our actions.

So here we are. We carry the burdens of our past, our own mistakes, our illnesses, our life decisions and even today, we carry the burden the world has placed on us just because we live in this place and this time. What if we could release that and let it go? What if we had the ability to find peace and comfort in our lives regardless of the issues we face?

Into this discussion comes Jesus. Now the scripture we heard today suggests that Jesus has no burdens or very few since His burden is light and easy. I am not sure that the understanding of the scripture leans in that direction for the truth is Jesus carries with Him the burdens of the world. I believe that Jesus understands those burdens in the scope of time and space. Our lifetime is such a small portion of the eternity that we will share with God and one another. So in fact, maybe our burdens are not that mountainous, as we believe. It might be our perspective after all.

Today is may be a bit difficult to understand the idea of yoking, especially if you have never been around farms where bulls are used to pull the plows that turn over the ground. However, in Jesus day, many would have understood His statement. You see a yoke is that thing placed around the head of the animal to connect him with the piece of equipment, trailer or plow that he is going to pull. Yokes typically are made of wood at least that was the choice du jour of Jesus day. Things made of wood tend to have splinters and burrs that can irritate or cut. So often the farmers would spend a great deal of time, sanding and working the inside the yoke so that it was smooth. When they get it just right they often say that the yoke is easy, meaning it is easy to wear without irritation or hurt. Young bulls are full of energy and they would often need to be tamed in order to become a good working animal. The method to do that was to yoke a young bull with an older bull in a double yoke. The young bull would tug and fight while the old bull would just move forward doing the job it was asked to do. Over time the young bull would relax and found that when it did the yoke was easy, not rubbing or chaffing as it was when the young bull was fighting against it.

Makes me wonder how many of us are young bulls? How many of us are fighting against the world? Maybe we are fighting because the world decided to throw a torrential downpour of frogs at us through no fault of our own. Maybe we are fighting because the rules we have to live by are difficult to master and we would rather be doing our own thing anyway. Maybe we are fighting out of shame of guilt for our actions. I do not know about you, but I find myself worn down when I am fighting the yoke of life. I find myself depressed and tired. Some days I think, why get out of bed; it is going to get worse from here. Have you felt that way?

Then I remember Jesus words. Come all of us who are struggling, depressed, burdened with illness, guilt, shame, anxiety or just life. Jesus is calling us to come to Him. Our young bull instincts yoked with His calm grace and view of eternity that we cannot see. I remember then that Jesus came into the world and lived life just as I am now. That He shared in the joys and sorrows of His family and friends. That He watched men and women falter under the oppression of Roman rule and heavy Roman and Jewish taxation. He watched as people struggled to make ends meet, just like today, and how they often lost everything. I think about how He watched those who would put Him to death and I cannot help but think that He did so with such agony and pain. Yet He did! Not only did He watch, He reached out to bring comfort and peace to many. Then He went to the cross so that you and I could find peace in the midst of agony, comfort in the midst of anxiety and life in the midst of death.

AS I ponder these things, a song often comes to my mind.

Do you still feel the nails
Every time I fail?
Have I crucified you, Jesus,
With my sin?

If you are here today and you are feeling the burdens of life, come on down to the altar. If you are here today and you feel an emptiness where peace and comfort should be, open your heart to Jesus.

If you are here, today and you know that there, is something bigger and better but cannot seem to find it, offer your heart to Jesus.

Jesus has a burdened heart carrying all our sorrows, all our anxieties, all our mistakes and iniquities, and all or illnesses and He is offering to carry the weight of that burden on His shoulders if you will let Him.

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, 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."