Season 1 Podcast 20 "My Burden is Light"

A New Voice of Freedom

Season 1 Podcast 20, “My Burden is Light.”

The text today is taken from Matthew Chapter 11, verses 28-30:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The last three verses of Matthew Chapter 11 are extremely moving. They are deceptively succinct yet contain an encyclopedia of knowledge. One feels almost as if he were sitting at the Savior’s feet looking into his majesty.

The three verses contain eleven primary propositions. If we take each assertion one at a time, we can see that Christ is clearly at the center:

· “come unto me”

· “I will give you rest”

· “Take my yoke upon you”

· “Learn of me”

· “I am meek”

· “I am lowly in heart”

· “My yoke is easy”

· “My burden is light”

Christ also clearly defines his audience.

· “All ye that labour”

· “All ye that are heavy laden”

To labor generally refers to hard physical labor at a difficult task. To be heavy laden generally refers to an emotional, physical, or spiritual burden that one wants to get rid of. Though we all share the human experience, we are all different in how we respond to burdens. Addictions, financial crisis, illness, guilt, death of a loved one—the list is too long. Christ, getting at the very heart of the suffering of all mankind, promises:

“Ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

The soul of man is comprised of both the body and the spirit.

· “Labour” refers to the body.

· “Heavy laden” refers to the spirit.

If we come unto Christ, Christ promises that both the body and the spirit will find eternal rest.

Each of us, of course, must read the verses in our own way, yet they can never be read the same way twice. They expand into the experience of the moment. Scripture is a healing liquid that fills the seams and cracks of our lives and bonds them together, making us whole.

While John the Baptist is in prison awaiting execution, Christ receives a message from two of John’s disciples. John, just before he is beheaded for serving Christ, asks,

“Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?”

The Savior’s answer demonstrates the art of a master teacher. Rather than simply saying yes, Christ speaks to John in John’s own language. John, the foreordained forerunner of Christ, clearly knows all the scriptures referring to the Messiah. Jesus reminds him of those scriptures.

“Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

That was all that John needed. He died with the final witness of Christ’s divinity. Jesus, knowing that John was going to die, said of John.