Again, kind of an odd little episode in the life of Jesus. To what shall I compare this generation. Then he tells a weird little story about children playing in the marketplace, and doesn't really explain it, which leaves room for us to play and figure it out. Here's the gist: the people have become impossible to satisfy. John is too serious. Jesus is too joyful. John is too conservative. Jesus is too liberal. John is too strict. Jesus is too open. Neither of them can win, if winning was the point. So the issue isn't John. And it's not Jesus. The issue is the human heart. It seems that there is a kind of heart that becomes committed to dissatisfaction, a heart that always has to have a reason, always has an objection, a criticism, a complaint. We've all been there. It's so easy to become cynical. No one has to teach us. It comes naturally. Especially after heartbreak, after we've been let down, after things don't go the way we hoped. Many of us have been let down by the state of the world for so long that it feels like we've been carrying an extra burden for, like, ever. So we stop trusting. We stop hoping. And Jesus comes to us, with compassion, I think, and says, "Are you okay? Seems like something has happened in your hearts." Then Jesus shifts. Extends an invitation, "Come to me, you who are weary and burdened." We know what it's like to be weary and burdened. So when Jesus says, "Come to me, I'll give you rest," we think, "Yes, please." Then he says the thing about his yoke being easy and his burden light. Here we have to talk about yokes - the kind we put on animals, and the kind that rabbis had. The yokes the typical rabbis had were heavy and burdensome. Their yoke was their understanding of Torah, which told you how to live every moment of your lives. They were filled with all kinds of rules and regulations you felt you had to memorize. Jesus' yoke, his teaching, or his interpretation of Torah, was easy. He got it down to one law. Love God, love people. He offers a whole different way of life that doesn't include all the right things to believe and behaviors to adhere to. We don't have to have that anxiety hanging around our shoulders. We don't have to live with the burden of proving ourselves, the burden of being successful, the burden of pleasing other people, the burden of saving or fixing the world. We can't solve all the world's problems. What we do have is the yoke of Jesus, to ask ourselves the question, "What does love require of me?" wherever we are, whenever we are there. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Matthew 11:16-19; 25-30 https://www.bible.com/events/49629944
