A PERFECT SWAP DEAL

Thursday: July 16, 2020

Matthew 11:28-30: If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest. Take the yoke I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest. This yoke is easy to bear, and this burden is light.

We would have expected that when someone invites you to come with your burdens, they would take them off your heads or shoulders so you can have some rest. Well, that is exactly what would have happened to all who responded to Jesus, only that this invitation came with an unusual caveat ‘drop what you are carrying and come pick up another one’.

That makes the invitation even more sketchy because we would think that rest meant ‘no more burdens’. But if there were no burdens, how will we become real sharers and coheirs with Christ? While a burden is often seen as a heavy load that is oppressive and worrisome, it can equally refer to a responsibility, and the latter is what Jesus refers to.

Therefore, He is saying in this invitation “instead of a back breaking load, one that contains pains, hurts, disappointments, and guilt amongst others, come and trade it in for a different burden. A burden of intercession, a burden of compassion for the poor, a burden of encouragement for the weary. Come and become a sharer in my duty – be my hands and feet’.

Beloved, for many of us, the word burden has been synonymous with hardship, difficulty and worry but today, Jesus annotates it differently, ‘light’. He has a burden to bear, but because it proceeds from a heart of love, it is easy and light, hence his invitation for us to become bearers of this ‘burden’. I pray our answers are ‘Yes Lord, I’m on board’.

#sly