Tag Archives: Jesus’ yoke

THE RABBI’S YOKE IN A NUTSHELL

Christian Life, ,

THE RABBI’S YOKE IN A NUTSHELL

Jesus’ yoke was not conveniently recorded for us in one chapter in the gospels. We have to piece it together from His story because the gospels are the story of a living, breathing, dynamic, vibrant person who taught His yoke by telling as well as by showing and doing as He went from place to place among the people. However, fortunately for us, Matthew gathered some of Jesus’ teaching together into a section we call “The Sermon on the Mount.”

Some people think that the Sermon on the Mount is just a set of rules and, if they follow them, they will be acceptable to God. “I live by the Sermon on the Mount,” they say. What they don’t understand is that the Sermon of the Mount is actually a description of what people who follow Jesus should be like.

No one can just slavishly follow what Jesus taught because He was talking about the disposition and behaviour of people who have been supernaturally “born” into the kingdom of God. No one can enter God’s kingdom without first being made alive by the Holy Spirit. No one can follow and imitate Jesus without His Spirit in them. It takes a partnership between people who trust in Jesus, not in their own “good works” and the Holy Spirit, to understand and wear Jesus’ yoke.

Jesus began His teaching by telling His disciples how they could be really happy. True disciples are happy people and happy people are those who choose to do the right thing. In very simple terms, doing the right thing means being more concerned about looking after the needs of other people than satisfying our own needs and wants and that’s when we experience real happiness.

Matthew 5:3-12 is a summary of what kingdom people do to be happy. Jesus used an interesting way of teaching. He gave His disciples three simple prescriptions for true happiness:

1. People who are humble enough to forget about themselves, who are not puffed up with their own importance, (“blessed are the poor in spirit”), and those who submit themselves to God’s authority (“blessed are the meek”), by identifying with others who are suffering (“blessed are those who mourn”), will be happy people because they understand how God’s kingdom works (“theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, and “they shall inherit the earth”).

2. People who are kind to others because they want to do the right thing (“blessed are the merciful”), those who show mercy to people who don’t deserve mercy because God has been kind to them, will be truly happy people. God will make sure that their needs are always supplied (“for they shall be filled”), and they will know what God is really like (“for they shall see God”) because they do more to help other people than is expected of them (“blessed are the pure in heart”).

3. People who help others to make peace with God (“blessed are the peacemakers”) because they show that they are God’s children (“for they will be called children of God”), and who are hated and maligned for helping others in need (“for righteousness’ sake”), just because they are disciples of Jesus, (“blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you because of me”), are happy people and are in good company because the prophets were also persecuted for doing the right thing (“for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you”).

Now let’s put it all together. Disciples who are yoked with Jesus care more about helping others than about taking care of their own needs. They sit with those who mourn to comfort and support them. They are generous towards people in need, They do more than is expected of them and, when people criticise them for doing good and insult and persecute them for being followers of Jesus, they rejoice because they are part of the kingdom of God and they are in good company. Can you see now that being a follower of Jesus is much more than attending church, reading the Bible, and giving money to the church? It’s about having a changed heart and being like Jesus in the way you treat other people. It’s about being humble, generous and merciful because that’s the right thing to do even when people in the world hate you for it. Then you will be a truly happy person

The Church On A Knife Edge

Bible Study, , ,

THE CHURCH ON A KNIFE EDGE

“As they were sent off and on their way, they told everyone they met about the breakthrough to the Gentile outsiders. Everyone who heard the news cheered — it was terrific news!

“When they got to Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas were graciously received by the whole church, including the apostles and leaders. They reported on their recent journey and how God had used them to open things up to the outsiders. Some Pharisees stood up to say their piece. They had become believers but continued to hold to the hard party line of the Pharisees. ‘You have to circumcise the pagan converts,’ they said, ‘You must make them keep the Law of Moses.'” Acts 15:3-5 (The Message).

This Jew/Gentile thing was a really sensitive issue in the early church. It was the subject of the first general church council recorded in Acts15. The leaders of the infant church had to deal with issues as they arose, some of which were relatively simple matters of administration, for example, the neglect of the Greek widows in Acts 6, and some with far more significant matters of understanding regarding the work of Jesus.

Jesus had chosen twelve men to be with Him so that they could learn His yoke. It would be their responsibility to interpret and apply His yoke when He was no longer there, and that was what they were doing now. The Pharisees in the church in Jerusalem were speaking out of turn because they were not part of the original group of men trained by Jesus. They had not lived with Him intimately and understood His heart and the heart of the Father.

God’s intention, from the beginning, was to work through one nation whom He called into fellowship with Himself in a marriage covenant, to reveal Him to the whole world. He had taught them His Word, a way of life that would reflect His nature and requirements for people who belonged to Him.

However, the Jews misinterpreted God’s intention, believing themselves to be superior to the Gentiles, despising them and isolating themselves from them. The Pharisees in particular, hated Jesus because He showed them that God loved and accepted all people. They were so stuck on the letter of the Law of Moses, regardless of the fact that they didn’t obey it themselves, that they could not embrace the real meaning of God’s plan. He dealt with sin through Jesus’ sacrifice, once for all, so that all people, Jews and Gentiles, could come to the Father without having to do anything but believe.

It was important for the apostles to decide what the yoke of Jesus was in this situation — His interpretation of the heart and disposition of the Father which He both taught and practised. It was not a matter of thumb sucking, but of examining the evidence and reaching a conclusion based on what they saw and heard from Jesus as well as what was happening in their current situation.

There would be another important spin-off from the outcome of this meeting. It was imperative that the church remain united. It would be a serious matter if some were teaching one thing and others another. In the early days of the church they had worked hard to keep the unity in their relationships with one another. Now a far more serious and sinister issue had arisen — which had the potential to splinter the church around doctrines that hit at the very heart of their faith.

How relevant this is for the church today! Over the centuries the church has become fragmented over this very issue — what is the yoke of Jesus? Had church leaders only stuck to the criteria of Jesus Himself, His words and His ways, and a passion to keep the unity of the Spirit instead of allowing reason and opinions to dominate them, perhaps the prayer of Jesus, “that they may be one”, would be much nearer to being answered than it appears now.