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ANOTHER VISIT TO HANDEL’S STUDY #5

HIS YOKE IS EASY, AND HIS BURTHEN IS LIGHT

On Friday, it comes down to just eight words, which we find in Chorus #21 of Handel’s Messiah.  Here they are, taken from Matthew 11:30:

“His yoke is easy, His burthen is light.”

Jesus, of course, is the one to actually make this statement in Scripture, so THERE it reads: “MY yoke is easy and MY burthen — or burden — is light.”  This verse follows the invitation we heard on Wednesday:

“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

Today, though, with all due respect to Mr. George Frederick Handel and to a disciple named Matthew — and maybe even to our Savior Himself — we have to ask this Friday question: IS IT?  Is the yoke of Jesus EASY?  “Burthen” is an old-fashioned word, but is the BURDEN of the Christian faith a light one to carry?  Or is it a ten-ton package?

It’s interesting to note, as we dig into the old Greek meanings, that the word chr_stos, translated in the Bible as “easy,” actually has a more subtle nuance.  For example:  “fit for use.”  In fact, we’re interested to note that in the Living Bible, which is an excellent PARAPHRASE, verse 30 is rendered this way:

“Wear My yoke — FOR IT FITS PERFECTLY — and let Me teach you.”

In other Bible passages, chr_stos is translated as “good,” “kindly,” or “pleasant.”  Not EASY in the sense of something not being difficult.  So friend, is it more the case that the yoke of God is GOOD for us to wear, like spinach is good for the diet, instead of EASY?

A couple of absolutely breathtaking illustrations come to us from the Fall 1996 issue of Leadership magazine, which is a resource we’re appreciating more and more here at the Voice of Prophecy.  Quoting from The Pastor’s Update, May 1996, published by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, there’s a story about a Pastor Jack Hinton of North Carolina, who was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago in the West Indies.  As he took requests from the people there, there was just time for one more song.  And a lady who’d kind of been facing away from the pulpit turned around and raised her hand.

And Hinton recalled later, “It was the most hideous face I’d ever seen.  This woman’s nose and ears were entirely gone.  The disease had destroyed her lips as well.  She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, ‘Can we sing . . . “Count Your Many Blessings”?’”

And that moment just ripped at the heart of Pastor Hinton.  How could this woman, this LEPER, who had experienced nothing but tragedy, nothing but disfiguring and the disapproval of society, with her flesh eaten away by a disease that couldn’t be cured . . . how could she want to sing “Count Your Many Blessings”?  How could she possibly think that Christ’s yoke for HER was an easy one?

Hinton was so overcome by emotion that he simply had to leave the sanctuary.  Outside, he was struggling to regain his composure when a fellow team member said to him, “Well, Jack, I guess you’ll never be able to sing that song again.”  And Hinton finally looked up at him, tears still in his eyes, and told him: “Yes, I will . . . but I’ll never sing it the same way.”

Friend, here was a woman who trusted so much in her God that to her, the burden was LIGHT.  A LEPER — and her burden was light. To me that’s just unbelievable faith.

I’d like to share a trilogy of ways here at Christmas time, 2000, where Jesus’ yoke can be an EASY one for us.  First of all, just as He did for His listeners there by Galilee, He offers us GRACE.  Do we live existences bound down by rules and regulations and codes and codicils? Is our religious life straitjacketed by legalism?  Those Jesus came to serve were being choked by a religious life that was weighted down by the rules, by manmade observances and traditions.  And Jesus came down from heaven to say to them, “No!  Come to ME; I’ll give you REST.  MY yoke is easy; MY burden is light.”  No wonder a grateful disciple named John wrote years later in his first epistle: 

“HIS commands are NOT burdensome.”

Friend, Christmas is a good time to rediscover Christ’s gift of grace.  And again, going back to Leadership magazine and its priceless page of quotes, here’s one from Jerry Bridges, author of the book, The DISCIPLINE of Grace:

“Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the REACH of God’s grace.  Your BEST days are never so GOOD that you are beyond the NEED of God’s grace.”

I guess that covers all of us, doesn’t it?

Here’s application #2.  Maybe there are things in this world you and I don’t understand.  We’re confused by theology and by the turmoil of mixed-up world events.  Political trends don’t go like we wish they would; things are a mess at the office, and we want to just cry out:

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND!!”

There’s an interesting sound bite that comes from William Wordsworth, English poet, who wrote on the topic of CONTENTMENT.  And he actually includes that old-fashioned word “burthen” — which is how we found this quote.  Listen:

“CONTENTMENT: That blessed mood in which the BURTHEN of the MYSTERY in which the heavy and the weary weight of all this UNINTELLIGIBLE WORLD . . . is lightened.”

Listen, friend, are you confused and mystified by this old world and the way it’s groaning down into oblivion?  Especially here at Christmas, why not give that up to Jesus?  Another Messiah song describes how Jesus, the mighty God, will have the government “upon His shoulder.”  Remember that line?  And then you and I can have our burden lightened; we can experience contentment here on December 15, 2000.

And you know, here’s a third pathway to peace.  Maybe you’re a person who’s driven to succeed; you have a reputation as a DOER.  Here in ‘96, you’ve accomplished more than anyone else on the payroll, and 1997 looks like another fast-track year coming up.

BUT . . . all those expectations are a tremendous burden.  People EXPECT 14 hours a day from you!  If you leave the office before 9:00 p.m., somebody wants to know why.  Your parents and your spouse and your kids and even your dog are always on your case: “Why don’t you live up to what you OUGHT to be able to do?”  Like the cartoon character Linus once shouted to the skies: “There’s no bigger burden than a great potential!”

And who knew more about that than a composer named George Frederick Handel?  Talk about high expectations!  Even KINGS expected miracles from him every single opera season; could the maestro of the court top last year’s performance?  In fact, U.S. poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once did an essay entitled “Art” for the book, Society and Solitude, and he defined WISDOM like this:

“Raphael PAINTS wisdom, Phidias CARVES it, Shakespeare WRITES it, Wren BUILDS it, Columbus SAILS it, Luther PREACHES it, Washington ARMS it, Watt MECHANIZES it . . . Handel SINGS it.”

On the one hand, you might say, that’s very, very nice.  On the OTHER hand, talk about a pedestal!  Talk about peer pressure!  But even to Handel, maybe ESPECIALLY to Handel, victim of such high expectations, the Prince of PEACE beckons at Christmas time.

“Come unto ME . . . MY yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Together with a relieved and grateful composer named George, let’s celebrate God’s gift of grace as we listen to the Musica Sacra chorale singing “His Yoke Is Easy, and His Burthen Is Light.”

HIS YOKE IS EASY, AND HIS BURTHEN IS LIGHT (2:24)