“My yoke is easy, my burden light.” --Jesus
What burdens are you carrying this morning? How heavy is your heart? How weighed down is your spirit?
Most of the time, when we think about that question, we think of the burdens of responsibility we carry or the weight of grief, the sandbags of unfair treatment levied against us, or hardships, such as unemployment, or health, or broken relationships. Certainly, those burdens of despair and sorrow can weigh heavily upon our hearts. But other kinds of burdens can be far more deadly and insidious --and we put them upon ourselves. These kinds of burdens can weigh us down more severely than any of the above-named problems ever could. They sink us like boulders into a quicksand of sin, because they sever us so severely from the will of God.
What are these burdens? They’re negative inclinations we harbor and fester deep within us, like spite, malice, criticism, jealousy, and gossip, --the harbingers of a condemning heart, a critical tongue, a blackened, angry, proud, and unhappy spirit. We sometimes say of this kind of person, he or she has a “chip on his or her shoulder.” But it’s more like a splinter in his or her heart. For that kind of malice and insidious behavior goes further than one’s shoulder, doesn’t it? It’s not just skin deep, but comes straight from the bulls-eye of a haughty heart.
When the human heart is filled with pride, anger, and a desire for power and control, the tongue can become a vicious instrument, a WMD (weapon of mass destruction) to anyone in its path. But the burden that lies upon that person’s own spirit is the true harm done.
What did Jesus say?
Blessed are those who are depressed, who mourn, who are meek and humble, who are merciful, whose intentions are pure, who try to make peace, who have been persecuted by others because they tried to do the right thing.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me,” said Jesus.
Those burdened by mistreatment will feel the weight of sorrow for a while, but their hearts can be light, for they reside in the Lord! Faith is like a buoy that keeps us afloat even in a sea of sorrow.
“They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.” (Eccles 5:20)
But for those whose hearts are burdened deep inside with anger, jealousy, envy, spitefulness, a critical nature, their very hearts are like a stone within their flesh.
Pride is not a relational skill. To be in relationship with Jesus is to allow Jesus to live His resurrection Life through and among us. But if one allows one’s own pride in one’s own accomplishments and superiority to rule one’s heart, there is no room left for Jesus to dwell. Like a disease that dead-weights the heart, that heart will have to drag that burdensome bag of rocks until it slows to the point of death. Pride is a gluttony of the spirit –fattened up with the cellulite of self-centeredness and singularity.
There is no relationality in singularity. There is no Jesus in a prideful and judging spirit.
"There is no soundness in my flesh
because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones
because of my sin.
For my iniquities have gone over my head;
like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me."
So sings the psalmist in Psalm 38:3-4.
The hardest of burdens are the ones we inflict upon ourselves with our insistence on judging and critiquing our neighbors –and by neighbors, I mean that in a very Mr. Rogers kind of way!
Jesus was a lover of mercy because God is a merciful God. We are called to be lovers and livers of a merciful and loving spirit.
The only way to do this is to allow Jesus to reside within our heart. Jesus, the great healer, the great remover of burdens –He is the only one with the power to remove those stubborn stones lodged within our hearts.
Jesus is the great surgeon of the soul. Here we have another sign about who Jesus is: surgeon of the soul.
What does God say about soul-surgery?
You all know it. Say it with me now in the words of the prophet Ezekiel:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (36:26)
Let’s say it again:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
Jesus isn’t just doing surgery on our hearts. He’s doing a total heart transplant on us –on our heart and spirit.
Jesus that “right hand of God” has the power to mold us and make us and take out that faulty heart that is weighing us down. The hands of the Divine Physician can transplant into us a new heart, beating with the rhythm of our Creator, ripe for relationship with the Living God and each other.
Jesus that “Divine Potter” is able to give us a heart that knows how to love and knows how to live in right relationship with God.
Jesus, that “Divine Holy Spirit Breath” --the wind that God breathed into us at the dawn of our creation— is the only breath that puts within us a right spirit, a true spirit, a pure spirit that loves God first. Loves God only. Loves everyone else around us with a merciful kind of heart.
Only Jesus has that power. Can I get a witness?
When Jesus says to us, “My yoke is easy, my burden light,” He isn’t just talking about lifting from us the weights of the world. He’s talking about heart surgery. Soul Surgery. He’s talking about removing that heavy, heaving heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh that worships God, neighbor, friend, and stranger.
Only our Lord and Master has the power to change us like that, because we like our judging spirit and don’t want to let it go.
Have you been on social media, recently? We love to judge. We LOVE to judge. Where does that come from?
Straight from the fires of hell comes a prideful heart that believes that we have the right to judge like God judges! We think we have the right to take over for God, to do “God” better than God does “God.” Judging comes from a heart that believes Jesus needs our help to make things right in the world! Do we really think Jesus needs us to swoop in and judge the world? I think we do, cause just like Jonah, we don’t like the way God has done it so far.
It makes us angry to see God merciful toward those we hate, doesn’t it?
It makes us angry to see God merciful toward those we envy!
It makes us angry to see God merciful toward those we despise!
It makes us angry to see God merciful toward those who would challenge our status quo and our control!
It makes us angry to see God merciful toward anyone but us!
If we’re honest, we all want justice for everybody else. But for ourselves –we want mercy!
God, be merciful to me! We deserve your mercy. But give everyone else what they deserve—our brand of justice. We decide.
We…..decide.
In other words, we want to take God’s place as Master of the Universe, because we believe, we can do a better job.
That’s some kind of stone cold heart!
We talk a lot about justice today. But we don’t say much about mercy. And nothing about repentance. But it’s only when our heart reaches a place of repentance that Jesus can do a heart transplant within us. It’s like that paper you sign when you go into an operation, giving the doc permission to operate. Without that permission to operate, he or she cannot make you well again.
It’s like that with Jesus too. We need to give Jesus with our prayer of repentance permission to operate.
Only then can we pray that prophet’s prayer: “Lord, remove my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh.”
That prayer of repentance is really a way of saying, Lord I sign over my life to you. My heart is burdened and stone cold. It is hard for me to move on my own. Lord, remove my stone-cold heart, and give me a new and beating heart, a heart of flesh to love you, to worship you, to be merciful to others, to love them as you love them.
Don’t judge me. Mercy me!
Let’s all take a moment now and come forward to the altar. Kneel down, and with all of your heart, repent to the Lord. Repent of all of those judgments you’ve made on others in your life and in your relationships. Repent of all that pride and need for control and power. Repent of all that is keeping you from being in right relationship with Jesus our Lord and Savior.
And pray as you do: “Lord, remove from me my heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh.”
Jesus is going to do a miracle in your life today. All you need to do is commit to Him.
Amen.
Based on the Story Lectionary
Major Text
Paul Entreats to Stop Judging One Another (Romans 14)
Luke’s Witness to Jesus’ Teaching About Loving and Judging (6:27-36 and 6:37-42 and 6:43-45)
Minor Text
God’s Guidelines for Justice and Mercy (Exodus 23:1-9)
King Solomon Judges with God’s Wisdom (1 Kings 3:16-28)
God Empowers Othniel, First Savior (Judge) of Israel (Judges 3)
God Entreats Judges to Judge as God Would Judge with Love (2 Chronicles 19:4-11)
The Song of Deborah (Judges 5)
Psalm 7: We Fall into the Pits We Dig
Psalm 25: No One Who Hopes in You Will Be Put to Shame
Psalm 37: The Lord Upholds the Righteous
Psalm 50: Those Who Testify Against their Brother are Arraigned by God
Psalm 58: David Declares the Unjust Rulings of the Judges
Psalm 125: The Lord Will be Good to those Who are Good
God Demonstrates Measure for Measure in Accusation of Vineyard Spoilers (Isaiah 3:1-15)
God Chastises Jerusalem for Her Sins (Ezekiel 16)
Matthew’s Witness to Jesus’ Teaching about Loving and Judging (5:38-48 and 7:1-6)
Paul Declares God’s Measure for Measure to High Priest Ananias (Acts 23:1-3)
Paul Preaches of God’s Righteous Judgment –Measure for Measure (Romans 2)
Paul Entreats to Stop Judging One Another
Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.
So, whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
Luke’s Witness to Jesus’ Teaching on Loving and Judging
“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Image Exegesis: Pits and Pendulums and Heavy Loads
Judging is a heavy load to bear. Don’t believe it? Just ask anyone how insidious buried and seething anger is for the soul. Psychologists know it. Physicians know it. And you know it too. It’s much easier to let go of the little things. But those feelings of resentment and anger and envy and grudge-keeping –they can weigh you down and petrify your spirit like nothing else.
Your anger by far hurts you more than the person you are angry with. Whenever you have unresolved anger within your body and your spirit, you are doing daily damage to your heart, your spirit, your faith, and your ability to love. You can’t have a healthy relationship with Jesus when your heart is engaged in bitterness with someone else.
Every time you judge someone else, you add more weight to your own spirit.
“For every person will carry his own burden.” (Galatians 6:5)
We like to say in our culture, we dig ourselves into our own holes. Often we do. But the worst like of pit is the one we refuse to emerge from unless bearing weapons of the tongue or worse.
In our scriptures for today, Jesus teaches His disciples about the evil of judging. And Jesus gives this radical advice –it’s easy to be merciful to those you like, to your friends and family. It’s very hard to be kind and loving and merciful to those who make you mad, whom you dislike, whom you disagree with, whom you believe to be threatening you in some way.
And yet, Jesus calls us to do just that for the sake of our own hearts. The heart is the focus of this teaching. And Jesus reminds us of God’s way of “measure for measure.” Will you spend your life criticizing others? Are you prepared to have God to the same to you? is the question posed.
If you swing a pendulum out, it will fly back at you again in full force and cut you down as well. We damage ourselves more in our judgements of others than those who we are judging.
Jesus reminds us, it is God’s place to judge, not ours. And God’s judgments are more than not, always full of mercy –far more than we would ever be willing to grant.
For human beings, to “know” is all important. To know in the sense of intimate and relational knowing. For what/whom we don’t know, we judge the most. Our judgements reveal more about who we are than who we are judging in fact. They reveal our own insecurities, weaknesses, jealousies, issues of control and need.
What would happen if we could use our sense of wonder and curiosity about the world and about others instead of our razor sharp critical skills? What would happen if we were to treat others not as objects of our disdain but as subjects and neighbors in God’s world who are beloved as much as we?
What if we could let go of rules, regulations, need for order, toxic need for control, and allow the “disorder” that love creates? For mercy supercedes all of the rules. Love transcends all control.
When your heart becomes weighed down like a dead weight with toxic spirit, we bring down everyone around us too. The heart must repent of its toxic addictions in order to receive the healing touch of Jesus and the merciful cleansing of God. In Jesus, the load is not just lightened, but the heart changed out.
The metaphor of the heart is primary in these scriptures. Metaphors of tree, vine, fruit, eye all serve that primal metaphor, the heart. And a faithful heart is one in tune and in relationship with Jesus. In the words of Paul: “Everything that does not come from faith is sin.”
When our heart is focused on Jesus, we cannot sin. But our heart will be merciful.
When our heart and eye and spirit is focused only on Jesus, we will not have the time or the inclination or even the ability to notice what anyone else is doing. For in the end, we answer only to the Lord. And His concern will only be with the nature of our spirit.
Or as John Wesley used to say, “How is it with your soul?”