Are you tired, worn out, ready to quit, void of energy and enthusiasm to continue tomorrow? If so, it’s time to unburden your mental back from the weights of the world, let the material concerns go, follow Christ, and be free!
It’s time to wear a lighter yoke!
I had a major epiphany this week when I heard the words of Jesus, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest….For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
“My burden is light!” Jesus said.
Oh, I couldn’t believe how the meaning of those words had eluded me for so many years. When I heard them this time, my thought flooded with their meaning like never before. I felt I knew exactly what Jesus was talking about.
I thought about the depressing and painful yokes of the world I had cast off over the decades and replaced with the yoke of Christ. Oh, what freedom, what freedom comes when you serve Christ rather than mammon!
For example, I thought back to life on the farm. Farming is a good life, but there were certain aspects of it that I dreaded. For instance, frost control.
We’d work all day, eat dinner late, go to bed for some hard earned rest, then be awakened by the frost alarm around 2 a.m. Out to the orchards we went to protect our crops. And there was no more rest until the next evening. And this could go on for two or three weeks in the spring. Then there was constant monitoring of the crops for weed control, analysis of the health of the plants, watering needs, fertilizer, workers to help, and the list goes on and on.
I put my Christian Science into practice everyday, and saw wonderful results. But eventually, I asked, “Why not forsake tilling the ground for supply entirely and harvest in the fields of Mind where there is no threat of frost, weeds or disease? Wouldn’t life be much easier?”
This was a sobering question to ponder. Was it doable? Was it possible?
The answer was a resounding YES! And I followed through, eventually transitioning off of the farm to practicing deeper reliance on turning to Mind for supply rather than the soil. And I’ve never lost a night of sleep to control frost ever since! My “yoke” got much easier.
And I think this is what Jesus Christ meant…
A yoke was a harness farmers locked on their oxen to control their movements as they plowed their fields. The yokes were unyielding. Oxen in a yoke were governed and directed by the master controlling that yoke.
Jesus “yoke,” or work, was very very light because he did not look to a material source for supply. He went directly to God, the beneficent giver of all good, help and healing.
People’s “yokes” are heavy when they look to a material source for their supply. Why? Because there is nothing reliable about material circumstances and conditions. They are fraught with flaws and uncertainty.
For instance, take the stock market, interest rates, the credit market, diet plans, medical theories, and more,…they all fluctuate and change. You can’t count on them. To trust them and look to them for well being is to place their “yoke” upon your shoulders and be driven by their ups and downs. It’s a heavy and difficult load to bear at times.
Jesus was telling us to quit serving mammon, to stop living for worldly goals and purposes. Cast that yoke of bondage off, and seek our good in God, he taught. Jesus’ yoke was to learn about God, live true to God, and rely upon God. This “yoke” is a very easy one to serve compared to the harness of material desires and wants that bind us to the limited beliefs of matter-earth existence and hold us back from reaching our spiritual potential.
“My burden is light!” Jesus exclaimed.
Wow. Do you get it! When you live to serve Christ, not mammon, life on earth gets much easier. It’s not a toil or drudgery anymore. It gets lighter, happier, and easier. The heaviness of materialism fades away. The pains and fears of sense diminish. Joy comes back into your step and smiles on your face. Life is enjoyable.
The metaphysical demands on the student of Christ grow and increase, but these tasks are a joy to fulfill and follow through with compared to tilling the soil of mortal mind. Growth in spiritual understanding is the most rewarding work one could ever engage. And it pays the bills when done selflessly and for the purpose of loving one’s neighbor as the Bible instructs.
“My burden is light!” I love it. “When working for God, my workload is light,” I use as a paraphrase.
Serving God is a joy. Serving mammon is a burden. Choose the easier way and lighten your load today.
Thanks, Evan for the wonderful reminder!
Thank you, Evan, for this post. The Bible verse about the rest Christ offers and His easy yoke has been a source of comfort/healing for me on many an occasion. The Spirit behind those words is all-powerful and those words point to that Spirit, Love, so clearly that Life’s goodness becomes so apparent that it can’t be over-shadowed by erroneous mental suggestions. Thank you for all that you are doing to preach the gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead.
What an enlightenment!
I heard it told that yokes are actually designed specifically for the individual animal. In other words, custom made to fit. Knowing that, then, I guess whatever is thrown our way, we have exactly what we need to handle the situation. Thanks so much for lightening my load, so to speak!
Hello Evan,
I didn’t post this response right away because I needed to ponder my thoughts further regarding the word mammon. My focus is a little different than your own, but I can appreciate your viewpoint as well. See what you think:
You have the positive attitude and faith-filled mindset necessary for taking on the light burden and easy yoke of following Christ’s teachings, i.e. specifically the one that states “You cannot serve God and mammon.” I think “mammon” is an umbrella-word covering riches, wealth, money, property – in any amount.
I’m trying to do the same in following Christ in my life. Most Christians seem rather fearful – with justification – to cease from serving mammon entirely. However that “treasure in the heavens that does not fail” can be our “all sufficiency in all things” when we let it be so. “Give, and it shall be given to you; good measure, shaken together and running over…” Giving and serving for free is a spiritual magnet that leads to our receiving for free … as needed. Give for pay and you’ve received your reward from man. Give for free and your reward comes from the only God, and always in God’s perfect timing.
Regarding serving God AND mammon (two birds with one stone) Jesus noted that either the server would love the one and hate the other, or he would be devoted to the one and despise the other.
All Christians, I think, are devoted to God in varying degrees; however I’ve yet to find anyone who actually despises mammon! “Take it or leave it” is a second-best attitude to have regarding riches – the Apostle Paul seemed to share this viewpoint – but this is not the same thing as “despising” mammon, in my opinion.
Mammon is the funding necessary for pursuing worldly goals and purposes such as living well, going places, buying things and looking good, to name a few. Following Christ’s teachings – by contrast – leads men to a simple more frugal lifestyle.
I think your own definition of “serving mammon” goes right to the activity of pursuing worldly goals and purposes without first doing some serving of mammon to earn the mammon necessary for funding worldly pursuits. Gary
Hi Gary,
Thanks for your thoughts. It’s a big subject! I think the biggest key is motive. The Bible says its a love of money that is the root of evil, not money. It’s okay to have money. Money is not mammon. Greed, lust, gross materialistic pursuit, selfishness, etc., are mammon. You cannot serve these things and serve God at the same time.
Jesus used money. There were some rich women who evidently took care of him and his students at times. He used money to buy food like everyone else, but he didn’t serve mammon. He served God, and the money he needed to function in the human economy was present when he needed it.
A few thoughts, anyway…