Yoke-Mates

July 6, 2008, 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Zechariah 9:9-10 Romans 8:9, 11-13 Matthew 11:25-30

To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a church not built by human hands[2]

Second reading

Brothers and sisters: You are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you. Consequently, brothers and sisters, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Rom 8:9, 11-13)

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Glory to you, Lord.

At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him.”All you who work so hard under a heavy yoke come to me, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy to bear, my burden is light. (Mt 11:25-30)

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction
A yoke

Yoke comes from the Latin jungere which means to join. A yoke of oxen are two oxen joined together to pull a heavy load. The yoke itself is a wooden crosspiece bound to the necks of a pair of oxen by a U-shaped piece called the oxbow. It is carefully shaped so that it does not chafe the oxen which have a great reputation for being humble, gentle and patient. The yoke is a wonderful artifact; it enables a very heavy load to be pulled by the combined strength of two oxen.

The yoke of the scribes & Pharisees

Yoke, however, can also have a negative meaning like servitude, bondage, or burden. When the Protestant theologian Paul Tillich was preparing for Confirmation, all in the class had to choose a meaningful text of Scripture. Tillich chose, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy to bear, my burden is light. (Mt 11: 25-30) When asked about his choice, he was a bit lost for words, for as a young kid he was fairly happy and free of problems. Later he wrote that those words of the gospel resonate in the hearts of all ages, young and old, for everyone labors, and everyone is heavily burdened one way or the other.

The yoke of religion

Years later Tillich wrote an essay on his Confirmation text, and entitled it, The Yoke of Religion. In it he claimed that the yoke Jesus came to lift from the people’s backs was the onerous religion of His day and culture! (Tillich’s words scandalized pious ears or at least perked them up.) That religion was the creation and accretion of the Scribes and Pharisee, the religious leaders of His day. They turned the Law of Moses into an accretion 613 major laws to be scrupulously observed by the faithful Jew. In the course of time, the rabbis wishing to ritualize God’s presence in the smallest details of daily life added to the 613 major laws a whole constellation of minor laws, rules and regulations, also to be scrupulously observed. All that rested heavily upon people’s backs, and Jesus encouraged them saying, “Come to me all you who are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest [from the 613 plus laws].”


When a dispute arose in the early church about whether Gentile converts to Christianity should be circumcised and forced to obey the 613 plus laws, the nascent church held its first council in Jerusalem (50 A.D.). Peter got up and announced that it is belief in Jesus that saves, not the observance of the Law of Moses. Then he made a very frank admission, “Why place on the backs of Gentile converts a yoke which neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were able to carry?” (Acts 15:10)

A yoke we could not bear

Some of us Catholics recall how heavily burdened we ourselves were right up to the very eve of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, October 11, 1962. We recall our own maze of 613 laws, plus countless rules and regulations. We remember how one piece of meat eaten on a Friday, how one sin hidden in Confession, how one sexual thought entertained with delight, how one gulp of water swallowed before Communion, how one Mass missed of a Sunday morning --- we remember how that all weighted us down in those days as we trod the path to salvation. Then Vatican II dawned upon us and lifted a heavy burden from our backs.

Our yen for yokes

Tillich presents an interesting psychological explanation of the nervous religious bent in us. He says we humans know how limited and finite, how transitory and precarious human life is. We know how dangerous and tragic human life can be. That fills us with anxiety and restlessness which we try to overcome by being religious. So we accept dogmas and religious practices which supposedly will free us from our anxiety and restlessness. Eventually they become yokes for us, and we cast them off.

But no one can live long in the emptiness of skepticism or unbelief, Tillich writes. So we do one of two things. We return to our old yokes and take them up again with a kind of vengeance and fanaticism, and we even seek to impose them upon others. Or we look for a new religious yoke to attach to our oxen necks -- one more to our liking but yoke nevertheless. (That rings a bell for those who have a loved one who has exchanged the “yoke of Christianity” for the yoke of Buddhism or Judaism or Islam.)

Tillich summarizes everything when he writes of “Christian people in Christian Churches toiling and laboring away under innumerable laws which they cannot fulfill, from which they flee, to which they return, or which they replace by other laws." (The Yoke of Religion)

The yoke of Jesus

Jesus did not come to help us carry the burden of religion; He came, instead, to lift it from our backs. All the other burdens of life Jesus does not lift from our backs but comes to help us carry them.

Sooner or later, we are all burdened one way or the other. The human journey is a burden even for the fortunate and blessed. Growing up with all the hits and misses, all the wrong turns and detours it takes before we find ourselves is a heavy burden. Submitting to the ordeal of getting an education in order to survive in a modern and technological age is a heavy burden. Making marriage work and raising kids we can be proud of in a world beset with so many distractions, addictions and temptations is a heavy burden. Saying painful goodbyes to people and places and moving on to the next stage of life is, indeed, a heavy burden. Disappointment, sickness, tragedy is a burden we all confront sooner or late. Jesus does not lift these burdens from our backs but comes to help us carry them.

Conclusion
Yoke-mates

A yoke is a team of two. Faith is the consoling conviction that God and we are yoked together. It is the quiet conviction that in pulling the heavy loads of life we are not alone; God is our yoke-mate. We rarely come to that conviction through a startling revelation from above. It comes mostly from below. It comes especially from the loving people around us who are yoke-mates helping us pull the heavy loads of life. At the end of the day, it is they who help us believe that God also is our yoke-mate.

[1]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24