The Best Fit

There's all kinds of stuff in these passages that could preoccupy us.
I want to stick to our theme - a life with the best fit possible.
Jesus describes two examples of a life that rubs raw, that doesn't wear well but instead wears out; two groups of people he saw that were running themselves ragged, and weighing down the lives of others.

The first is described in v.25 - the life of the affluent and the educated who thought they had life all figured out. Without going into a lengthy background explanation let me simply say that Jesus isn't trying to slam those of you with your PhD. He's talking about people who think that with their logic, their learning, their managerial skills and their personal charm they can sort life out, keep a strong handle on what's going on, control their future and guide their destiny. They can control their place on earth, and keep their relations with heaven tuned up.
"No way," says Jesus. "It won't work."
You can try to tailor your own life, make things fit, create your boxes and cram your agenda and plans in those boxes. You can try to impress others, and try to impress God with your abilities. But eventually it will all fall apart. It'll unravel. The glue of self-control will eventually let go.

The other group of people that Jesus has a real problem with are those that try to control the lives of others. The example He uses is a religious one. Synagogue leaders who got all preoccupied with rules, expanding on those rules, and keeping them. Even at the expense of human life and healing. They had laid down 39 laws about what constituted work on the Sabbath. Huge expectations for their followers. Incredible burdens.

We don't have to stretch real far to identify with either situation.
Take the first one - trying to control life, planning, cramming the agenda full, impressing the boss or the shareholders, jumping through the hoops in the academic world. Ah - the stories you can tell each other. The blisters you've endured. Sometimes it really hurts, doesn't it?
Reported earnings a little lower than expected and investors drop your shares like a hot potato.
Fail to put out full time in overdrive and you can forget the promotion.
You manage well at work and feel like finally security is around the corner, when the email pops up -- a reorg with significant downsizing is on the way.
Or you go to the gym to keep in shape...... and then the shadow shows up on the xray.

Or the second situation, where others dump expectations on us. We've seen, ad nauseam, news reports of religious situations where people have been chewed up and spit out. From the deadly David Caresh and Jim Jones horrors, to the life-crippling pains of boarding schools and betrayed trusts. Some of you have experienced sectarian religious groups that tightly managed the lives of their members, haunted by the crippling fear that someone, somewhere in their community, might be happy - demanding certain behaviours, and ostracizing those who dare to question.
Ill-fitting life situations. Heavy yokes.

They are but two examples.
There are other yokes, other life situations we try to wear, that really don't wear well. That will blister our souls, break our minds, damage our hearts and relationships, jeopardize our eternal futures.

Canadian society today wears the yoke of relativism. That's the attitude which says, "What works for you - good. But that may be not good for me. It may be true for you and false for me. You may remain a virgin till marriage. But not me. And both are OK What's true is only what's true for you. Nothing more." Which seems to work OK for a while until you run smack into something you wish wasn't true.... but was. Like STDs and AIDS in the face of those who argue against the one man - one woman - for a lifetime creed. Or selfish people who find themselves getting took rather than taking.
There is the yoke of entertainment. Some years ago Neal Postman wrote the book, Amusing Ourselves To Death. Our number one concern, says Postman, is being entertained. Good looks, celebrities, commercials, big sporting events - these are the centre of our lives. If you doubt that, remember what was the big front page picture on Thursday's Citizen? Shania - her tickets were the hottest items in town this week. Even when rating would have us believe that Young Country makes most people gag. And what happens when Brydon even hints at moving the Sens out of town?
But eventually the thrill wears off, the money runs out, the body just can't do it anymore......... and then what? What has a life of chasing good feelings, good times, and quick thrills left you?

What's been rubbing you raw?

Jesus says, quite simply - "Come to me."

He's not wanting us to try and impress Him with how well we can handle the challenges of life, or how many religious hoops we can jump through.
He just wants us to come - the way we are.

Instead of getting sidetracked into the deadly thinking that ultimately there are no right's and wrong's, he says "Let me show you the eternal rock-solid bottom line of the Universe -- what's been around for eons, and will be for ever - real, depend on it, solid truth."

Instead of trying to fill our lives with feel-good hoopla, a fix today that wears off and demands an even bigger fix next week, Jesus just says, "Come, let me satisfy you."

If you take a moment to look at the stuff that wears us out, that threatens to break us, most of the time it is stuff revolving around doing, getting, trying, building, impressing, producing, controlling.
How much of that stuff really fits well? In a way that lasts? That you can keep up with for the long haul?
How much of that will still be there when you're 80 years old?
How much of that matters when they're wheeling you into the operating room?
Or when you're taking your newborn home from hospital?
Or when you're standing beside an open grave?
 

Oh - don't get me wrong. There is doing, going, producing, getting, giving that has a real and proper place in life. But only in the right place. And in the right amount.
But first things first. You gotta get the basics right.
Like in dressmaking - if the fabric is no good, and the basic cut is off, or if you use the wrong pattern, it doesn't matter what accessories you plop onto the outfit. It will still be no good.

Jesus says - "Come to me and let me suit you up in the basics of a life that fits right. Let me strap you into a life that'll work - that'll hold together for the long haul -- right into eternity."

"For I am gentle and humble in heart."
He's not out to suck us dry, to get what He can from us and then drop us by the side of the road. He doesn't leave us on probation, ready to cut us out if we don't put out.
The Bible says that because He's lived the human life, Jesus knows what it's like to be in our shoes. Been there. Done that. Wearing the scars. Sitting now in heaven, in remarkable divine gentleness His greatest desire is to get us into contact with our Creator Father in Heaven, keep us in contact with Him, and one day draw us home to live with Him forever.

We have nothing to prove with Him.
And nothing to fear.
What He offers is not an enslaving shackle.

Rather - He offers a committed relationship with us.
Ancient Jews often spoke of yokes in the context of being committed to something. If you were committed to the ancient Jewish law code, people talked of you as carrying "the yoke of the Law."
The yoke Jesus offers is that of a committed relationship with us.

In other places in the Bible we hear Him say:
Surely, I am with you always.
I will never leave you or forsake you.
I will not leave you as orphans.
That's commitment.

It's the commitment we see in this season of Lent as we remember, front and centre, the suffering of Jesus on the Cross. His commitment to going all the way to death in order to remove the huge roadblock of human sin - the roadblock that stood in the way of our getting into the Family of God, becoming children of the Heavenly Father.

One more thing about a yoke. I've seen two kinds of yokes. One is the single yoke. One animal in front, doing all the pulling, while the owner stands behind with one hand on the reins, other on a whip.
The other kind of yoke fits two animals. Side by side pulling the load. That's the sort of yoke I want you to think of when you read this passage.

Jesus isn't going to stand back, whip in hand, to see how you perform. Rather, the one who is gentle and humble, who says "Surely I am with you always" straps himself in the same yoke that He calls you to put on. He walks right beside you. Helps bear the strain. Takes over when you can't do it and need a bit of a break.
Remember the "Footprints" poem?