Life in the Yoke

Matthew 11:28-30

The yoke must first be taken, grasped and lifted up.

The yoke means so much more than rabbinical teaching, a system of theology and religion, with its laws. It does not mean culture, nor a school of thought, neither a system of teaching - though Jesus makes a comparison here with other rabbis. In fact, he makes a contrast. He calls into question and undermines the whole rabbinical school and how it indocrinated and treated its pupils. He redefines the relationship between pupil and master, teacher and taught, and turns it upside down.

The yoke is not the written code; the yoke is His yoke, it is the one He wears for He learned obedience from what He suffered as He performed the will of His father.

Submit and yield to me, as I yield to the Father.

He only asks of us what He Himself has performed to perfection, that He would perfect it in us.
The yoke is His Cross, the wooden and splintered beam that sat so seemingly heavy across His shoulders. How could such a yoke be easy and light? How could the true Rest and Shalom spoken of here come by wearing a yoke, a burden? His statement is full of irony and contradiction.

I have been before you and born what you will bear, and more.

A yoke must be grasped with both hands and, in so doing, other burdens of our own are dropped: our self-interest, our own dead weight of self, like a cadaver - the body of sin. Old yokes of expectation go by-the-by and the impossible, demanding written code, like a black hole, is dropped to drift in space. The weight we carry is the self-life like Jacob Marley's chains; it is the slavery to sin and our desires, imprisoned to be tortured by Satan on a whim, for apart from Christ we are owned by Lucifer - this is the weighty burden; anything else seems light by comparison which makes us candidates for chasing any yoke that promises freedom.

He who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not worthy of Me.

The yoke we take is the Lord's and not our own. We have made an exchange; we have changed identities and slipped away into another man's skin. We have hidden ourselves in Christ; the old has gone the new has come. The self has not been simply hidden to survive - but annihilated. This is the liberation, the light and easy yoke. We have taken Christ and clothed ourselves in Him as Him with Him. To live is Christ for He is our Righteousness and our Wisdom and our Redemption. To live for Him and not self permits the sigh of reclining in Christ and doing away with self-dom. Only the Cross is severe enough to strike the death-blow once and for all. To grasp this yoke is to unite oneself with Christ and to state that the way of the Cross is the only way. We become Christ - or should I say, "like Him".

My food is real food and my drink is real drink.

Then this wooden and sculptured beam of weather-proof timber is shaped for each shoulder and sits perfectly like an aching foot in a bespoke orthotic in a shoe. Rest at last! Comfort for our sufferings. Side by side in rhythm and in step feeling the yoke tug and pull whenever a step is mistimed. An unspoken reciprocal empathy ensues. Imperceptible communication. The inner and outer lives begin to synchronise. We experience what the other feels, the other thinks. We become one. It takes all of the concentration of our effort, not in large movements but in the subtlest minute proprioception. We sink into a reverie of breathing and wordless being that is a being of His Word, its embodiment and incarnation.

Deep calls to deep.

And transmitted down that smooth yoke? A teaching and a learning. There is always a lead oxen who sets the pace. We learn what it takes through that practise in each step along the way: the inward leaning and disposition, that attitude and response - His nature, the nature of the One who labours alongside us, for He is in the yoke too and we must and can only join Him there.

If we are to do what He did, we are to live as He lived. If we are to partake of His divine nature then we must come under that disciplined yoke that He impart and we learn the nature of His divinity.

The burden is the temporary service performed, which in time will be replaced by another, but the concentration of the mind is not in the burden but in Him who it is done for and with.
When you enter the yoke, you enter the Rest.

I am humble and gentle in heart.

'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Part 7

This Word spoken to Zerubbabel is the Cross; it is the Gospel. And only in standing on the Mount of Olives and looking back and down to the Mount of Zion do we see it - in embryo, in seed form, but it is perfectly formed. Only from the Mount of Olives do we truly 'see': from the Mount of Unction from whose ancient olive trees was the anointing oil of the Priests and Kings of Israel refined; to which David fled, barefoot like a priest, when fleeing from his son, Absalom; in whose dusty soil the tears and blood-sweat drops of Jesus fell; whose shaded walkways canopied the pathways of Jesus' feet from Bethany to Jerusalem; on whose trinity of mountain tops Solomon built altars to Chemosh and Molech; on whose defiled and detestable altars the reformer Josiah crushed human bones; and from whose lofty top Jesus ascended, and to which He shall return. If we do not 'see' from here, we do not 'see' at all. If we do not weep over her stones and take pity on her dust, we will never 'see' what Jesus saw and never 'see' as Jesus sees.

It is only from here, seeing through time, do we 'see'. The whole of Jerusalem stands in the shadow of the Mount of Olives - literally: the largest of the seven hills of Jerusalem, rising in the east, always beyond the Kidron Valley, always on the outside of Jerusalem. Only from outside do we see the City of God in context as she truly is: the site of idolatery, sacrifice, defilement, promise, anointing and salvation: death and resurrection together - valley and mountain.

The stone that Zerubbabel laid was Christ: first the foundation stone, then the capstone. Only the latter was cause for celebration; however, the day of small beginnings is always despised. It is always a humiliation first before it is a glory. And we know that no building of any significance in the ancient world was never established without sacrifice - including the pagan world, moreso the pagan world! So it is the same with Christ: the first to be laid and the last to finish the work that He inaugurates. He is the First and the Last in All Things, so it must be in the church. Of late, the foundation stone has been purely ceremonial and decorative, something for mayors to bless. It is often seen with a conspicuous inscription, facing outward and to the public commemorating a moment in time when the great and good cut a ribbon. Such a stone is functionless. Nothing rests on such a stone; it has migrated upward and away from an inconspicuous corner to seek the light of fame and glory. Not so the True Cornerstone: laid in the dust of a once proud but emasculated mountain, from Whom the whole house rises, to Whom the whole house refers and adjusts itself, hidden and buried in an obscure corner - the meeting of two axes where He hung His head. And because He takes the lowest place He is given the highest honour; He is the Capstone.

The question remains: not, have we migrated upward, but the the real question we must answer before we lay any stone at all: have we rejected Him? We would cry No! Of course not!, but such a cornerstone is apt to be rejected by builders, it often fails the examination on the basis of man's criteria. The cornerstone must never be referred to our standards, or measured by us, or our prejudices allowed to sway its selection. The Cornerstone I speak of was rejected and despised and was esteemed not. They took offence in that stone because it did not fit, but we are called to make Him our True North; He is the bottom and top, the First and the Last. If we are to be the ground and pillar of truth we must be laid down with Him. Why did the builders reject such a stone? It was mis-shapen and apparently 'crooked'; it was not showy enough: they wanted something to be displayed. They would have to individually cut every stone to fit around it; it would be too much work. The Cornerstone is the reference point. We may think we lay the stone but Zerubbabel is the only one called to and he is Christ.

 

'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Part 4

Both "might" and "power" in the original Hebrew are masculine, however, the "Spirit" - Ruach - is feminine. There is a reason for this.

"Might" refers to resources of all kinds, whether in ourselves or in the world or between collectives of individuals. It assumes either skill, organisation, qualification, ability or an inward worthiness through qualification of some form. 'In ourselves' implies valour or bravery or some such quality highly valued. 'In the world' speaks of a force or unit of military or financial or manual resources, as such recognised and known by a distinct identity. 'Between us' is the 'system' of efficency or production or a network of labour that is ordered or works as a unit. These, together, are all the abilites that would normally be put to good use to complete any job. However, there is a divine embargo upon this 'might'. Not only this, but there is this embargo on any and every work of God that has the hallmark of the Spirit upon it . . . not just for Zerubbabel, not just for Zechariah - but for all of us.

One could not conceive of any mighty engineering project without many if not all of the above 'mights' being included. Indeed, this was how the Tower of Babel was constructed and assembled. Man builds, but God grows. It is man's remit to plant and to water, to tend and to care. For every work of God there is a season, but for man any time will do as long as it is now and quickly. One thing man will not do is wait. How often we work for God but without Him! How often is our divine host and midwife excluded from proceedings?

All these 'mights' existed before the commission came from God. We could quite easily fulfil this commission through these 'mights'; we could fulfil them for Him but without Him - once more asserting our independence and autonomy from God whilst serving Him! Such 'service' is an outrageous sin and usurping of God's authority, a setting aside of God's 'niavete' for our own sophistication and 'knowingness'. After all, we live in the real world, we know how things are done and achieved - otherwise nothing will happen! How can a Spirit build a temple? But we forget how He brooded over the waters and what came of that. Or is it that we want to make a name for ourselves? By using our education, our natural talents and skills, our coordinated effort, we want to serve God out of ourselves out of our convenience to show what we can do.

The question needs to be asked and answered; it is not enough to say I am going to use all these 'mights' for God. They may well be used, but it is not our place to choose them. Silence must come in the aftermath of the commission; reaching for the first tool to hand must stop. The "Not . . . " must sting us and shock us. This is a different project, wholly other, where the Eternal Spirit irrupts into this world; it must bear the distinctive of that same Spirit - not the world it manifests in. Until we are willing to let go of every competency we possess, and place them in limbo indefinitely, He will not use us in the work that will last. Undoubtedly, we could build skyscrapers and corporations and mega-churches but, when the fire comes, will they be stubble? The test is this: do we despise the small thing? Do we look down upon it and wince? The mustard seed? The wheatgerm? The stemcell? Or will we be like Jack and the Beanstalk?

The power of the Cross is the power not to do: we have the power to do something but we refuse to do it. We are silent; we are still in the face of the enemy; we stand and raise our hands; we call upon the name of the Lord; we consult the prophet and we obey. We are weak so that God can be our strength, and in that gap, that dark hopeless abyss of separation the Son of Man will rise. And if He is lifted up many will be drawn to Him.

Covering shame with identity

Shyness is a natural trait of the introverted. Those that look inward at themselves and withdraw from others are self-conscious in ways others are not. This is indeed natural but it is a hindrance and a barrier to all relationships. It is ingrained into us; it is provoked into us by pain and suffering, to make us aware of ourselves, and this is what the world would want us to be: self-aware, nursing our grievance. This is anathema to God's dealings with us. Shyness, withdrawal and self-consciousness bring isolation and separation; despair and depression follow hard on their tails.

The Lord would have us as unconscious as a weaned child with its mother, but how do we get there?

Realise where you are: wounded and bruised by all the pinching and prodding of those around you; you are carrying in your flesh your own suffering - not His, licking at your wounds like a dog. Him who was crucified naked, who scorned the shame thrown at him, off whose back slid insult after insult, Him who made mud with His spittle to rub into eyes, who walked upon water, who drove out the money changers - was not a self-conscious man but an obedient man, constrained by His zeal for the glory of God, . . . but we are touchy over our own 'glory'.

However, we cannot throw on extroversion on a whim like something learned at a seminar. We cannot act or mimic it, and we defnitely cannot draw upon God's power to help us throw off this hurt so that we may walk into freedom.

All the while we conceive of ourselves as separate entities from God we will never be one with God. How could we ever in our own selves unite ourselves with God? We continue to step out of ourselves and look at ourselves, reinforcing that separation, that isolation, that self-consciousness. A mirror has its uses but it is not for self-contemplative gazing. Where did this separation arise from? Where did this isolation come from? The first ever self-conscious act by a human being on the planet was for Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness. The first ever technology was created in pursuit of saving face: they sewed fig leaves together and made covering for themselves rather than waiting for their master to give them a proper covering. We rush ahead and make for ourselves coverings to protect ourselves from shame.

Separation is born of sin. Adam and Eve hid: they withdrew. He only asks that you come. The covering He would provide would come from the slaughtered lamb that he has killed before you and skinned in front of you. It is still warm, and we cannot reject its warmth and shelter because of how it was won. It was willingly done! Clothe yourselves in Christ therefore. This is now your identity. He is our hiding place; we are hid with Christ in God. When the shame comes, where will you hide and where will you be found? But be sure, while there is still a self to be hurt there is still a self. And there is only one way to deal with self: the Cross. How could we ever expect to enjoy the benefits of resurrection without its necessary predecessor: the death of self.

The introverted among us seek refuge within and build defences without. The extroverted are not exempt either. Our individuality, our separation from others is marked by our bodies and our clothes, our affections and affectations. While others retreat into fantasy and sensual confort, others advance aggressively to mark themselves out with tattoos, with achievements, with loudness. But its me! It is you, it is not Christ. It separates you from your beloved. While there is still a You, an individual, you will always be separate and distant from God though you might trumpet otherwise. 

How else do we see our inidviduality? With our clubs and our societies, with our identifties and affiliations, with our possessions and our positions, with our labels and our tastes, our likes and our dislikes. In short, it is the politics of identity, we are a black box to the outisde world with labels upon. God would abolish this to delve into the personality and the soul of a human, the state of his being moment by moment in a live and unbroken relationship with Him.

The dividing wall, the barrier of hostility has been torn down in His flesh and made the two one, not just humanity but God and His image bearers. Come to Him, do not hide, in you individuality, in your assertions of self-dom. Take on His yoke; it is easy and light. Take on Him. Clothe yourself in the light that Adam and Eve lost when their eyes were opened. For the two will become one.

He will be with you until the very end of the eage.

The Want of Elegance

A quote left by a christian on a website in response to an article about Steve Jobs (founder of Apple):

"I am convinced that the world is awaiting someone, somewhere somehow who will bring hope. I can only hope that we as christians can find provocative, meaningful and engaging ways to convey the hope we have as elegantly as Steve Jobs."

Reading this left me cold. What could possibly be wrong with this? It is well meant. Indeed, it is well meant. It sounds so reasonable and relevant to today's society. There is the clear empathy with the world, someone to "hope" for and a hope to give in "meaningful ways". And how should we do this? With elegance - something pleasing on the eye, something the world can applaud and not get offended by, something that is seamless and fits with ease into our present life without a jar, a pleasant accessory or update, something useful but also beautiful. I am thinking of a ballet or a Renoir painting. Perhaps they're not useful, but they're definitely beautiful. Wouldn't it be great if we could mimic the world but do it in a 'christian' way so the whole world would be surprised. If only we could make christianity less ugly and brutal; if only we could make it pleasing and easy for the believer and the non-believer alike; if only we could make Jesus look and feel like an iPod or a Loreal advert.

But what do I see on the Place of the Skull? Blood-stained splintered wood and a naked carcass battered beyond any recognition of humanity. Four groups of people looking on: those giving approval of the execution, those who delight in the entertainment of its brutality, those who are drawn to the innocent out of compassion and those who turn their back because it is all too much and all too violent.

How do we dress this up in elegance? How do we hide this away? What tarpaulin is large enough to cover the offence of the cross? The only thing large enough would be a bigger distraction, a show, an open-air concert with fireworks so people could look up into the sky rather than consider the pathetic piece of humanity hanging from the cross. Maybe there would be an orchestra so at least if anyone did look in that direction then at least they might think they were in a cinema. There would definitely be a picnic - you can't expect people to come and not be fed. We could have a small play or  a comedy sketch. Actually, the open-air film sounds like a good idea; we could drape a lovely white linen sheet from the city walls and project a film onto it, maybe Bruce Almighty - the kids would like that. We can't have the kids upset now, can we?  A dance troupe might be an idea but nothing revealing, something with flags. There could be a stained glass window with some 'christian' art. Some sculptures would look nice around here wouldn't they? Perhaps we should have a cross after all. I know, we could have a representation of it like in a painting, stylised and covered up, showing his holiness, looking up to heaven in a spiritual way. Or we could have an empty cross wrapped in red garments so no one would get splinters; it would be a symbol of his resurrection and his blood. Hang on, it's a bit daunting having it right there in the middle where everyone's looking, let's stick it on the outside of the building, then everyone will know who we are and not to mess with us. We could wear liitle versions of it round our necks. Cool christians eh? The last thing we ought to be is uncool. We should be hip and trendy, that would give God the most glory. We can't have the world disrespecting us because that would dishonour God. We should be elegant christians so people can see how wisely we spend God's money.

Man is very creative and very resourceful; he is able to do many things without God while doing them for Him.

We look for ways; God chose One Way.
We look for techniques, but God prepared a body.
We look for methods, but God has sent His life in His Son.
We look for a means; God's means is to break a man.
We look for what we should do, but God says we should BE with Him.
We look for ways, but He is the Way.

We are so desperate not to be seen as dreary christians that we sing and tap-dance our way through life as if the cross were just the start to our wonderful, new and improved life. The cross is only elegant in one way: it is the most appropriate punishment to deal a death blow to all sin once and for all. It is the perfect solution because it is the perfect sacrifice. There is your elegance; everything else is bloody.

God has already provided a provocative way to convey this hope we have, it starts with a sacrificed man and then a sacrificed life . . . your life. God does not send technology or culture or events - He sends people. If we do not see the cross we cannot say, "Woe is me! I am a man!". If we do not see the cross we cannot offer to be sent, so instead of sending ourselves we avoid the issue and send money and organisations - these are just the WAYS of men, we ourselves avoid going. We cannot engage with the world for we do not speak their language and nor should we; we should not speak to the culture of man though we may put it in cultural terms; no, we must speak to the dead, God-hungry spirit within him. The measure of any man or woman is their response to the cross itself, first in Jesus, then in you.

If we continue the St. Vitus dance of the saints, eagerly distracting from the cross, one day we may turn around to find there is no cross but, in front of you, an audience - not a congregation. And who will be smiling that day? The very kind of man that the world is waiting for to give them the type of hope they want; a hope that is bought and not bled for; the very kind of man who is waiting to give them the hope they deserve and want. He will give hope to the whole human race for all the wrong reasons. He will pander and compliment and sound soo smooth and speak so many wise and elegant words. They will love him for tickling their ears for he will tell them what they want to hear. He will affirm the whole human race in its rebellion. Such will be the man of lawlessness with apparent integrity and human respect from a religious heritage.

A cross-less christianity is the pathway for the antichrist.

Burdens not to carry

Never allow the empathy for pain to becomes pain's reward and pain's attention. The empathy is not for the pain but for the person. Do not become encumbered in their story and their reasonings for their present state, rather carry them. Often, people will want you to carry their burdens, to do their work for them, to give them a brief respite, only for them to pick them up once you have laid them down. They had no intention of giving them up. Many people talk around themselves but there is a nugget inside that needs to be got at. Burdens and 'crosses' are used to avoid all this, the heart of the matter: we speak of the burden rather than the person carrying the burden.

All burdens when carried by a follower have one destination: Golgotha. To the cross the burden must go. We can no longer negotiate another destiny for these burdens; we are not taxi drivers or social workers giving brief comfort. Eternal rest is where we come from and where we go to. To give brief comfort as we see fit is to reinforce that burden's weight and power over the prisoner. Do not carry a burden unless its carrier wants to be rid of it once and for all. To the cross you must go and end all suffering and oppression derived from this burden. The carrier and the burden are tied together with a yolk. To carry another's burden when no eternal rest is given is to subject yourself to the same burden and to come under the same slavery. You were not made for slavery but for righteousness.

Adding and Taking Away

I have listened to many children read over the years. There are two types of readers: the faithful and the careless. The former struggles word by word to get it right. They might find reading difficult or easy: it's not the technical ability with words that matters but cleaving to what the writer meant.

The careless reader, often more able, is hungry to finish: hopping and skipping their way to the end of the sentence, the paragraph or the chapter; they want to know; they want to find out. The words are just stepping stones, and they can miss a few out on the way, can't they? After all, they are hungry for the story. They can also slip a few words in if the sentence doesn't sound quite right or if the writer got it 'wrong': writers are often getting it wrong. The reader's eye barges its way through the sentence, ahead of the mouth or the understanding, but there are hidden corners, blind alleys and invisible dips. The undulation of the text is inconvenient; we want a straight Roman road with a sprint to the finish. But the writer is writing their story with their words. Though the story maybe more than the words, it is no less than those words.

How dare the writer make us stop and think and slow us down . . . so, we edit. Isn't this the cut and paste generation? Aren't we allowed to challenge everything that challenges our self-interest? We frequently expect certain sequences of words to occur together and we are seriously put out when our expectations aren't met. Isn't the customer supposed to be right? Therefore we skip our way gayly over the passage, not paying complete attention to the words, but smearing the text with a vaneer of our own story, our own expected meaning. The writer doesn't mean that! He means this! We miss out the little words; we insert a few of our own. The story isn't in the words after all; the story is bigger than the words; the story is in our head; we make it up.

And this is what God's children do to His Word.

One evening, whilst listening to a tutee, it hit me: I was having to correct the tutee frequently; their speech slurred close to an interesting bit; as they sped up, more words were missed and extra ones slotted in. So much was being missed as the speaker hauled their way over the words: gems of meaning were overlooked for the sake of gobbling-up and eating the events. It had to be consumed; it had to be used-up. The fluency and rhythm disappeared as they stuttered in their haste and came to several premature and confused halts. Every few lines, they recomposed theirselves and continued much in the same vein as before: stumbling until their interest waned.

So often we slide over the words as if they're an unimportant conduit, a means to an end, and our balloon sails high above them while we look to the horizon. And nothing must come between us and our destination, must it? But is not God as good as His Word? Was not the Word in the beginning? And isn't His name the Word of God? Satan has railed for centuries against the person of Jesus Christ and maligned the Spirit of Holiness but his defeat means he now attacks the basic premise of how God communicates to Man at all: the meanings of words. Language itself is being attacked and subverted daily, confused and hyperbolised so that it is rendered meaningless in the glut of competing advertising rhetoric, whether personal, corporate or 'spiritual'. A tired Man-World seeks to infuse some semblence of life to his life through various devices of artifice. Where there are many words, sin is not absent. Never in the history of humanity have there been so many words spoken, published or reported. And never has Man been so far from God. The last thing he needs is more words.

When we come to the holy text of His Word we frequently bring the same attitude: manipulation to get a desired result that conforms with our present status. We measure scripture and too infrequently is scripture allowed to measure us. We take the lofty position of examination without the Word of God examining us, rending soul from spirit in spiritual sacrifice. It is God's word that is a hammer or a sword or bread from heaven or rain on a mown field. The Word of God acts upon us and cannot be heard in the human spirit unless the words uttered are Spirit and Life itself, that is, the Spirit of Truth rushing through the vocal chords of God Himself so that the divine Logos of God can be heard by Man. He is the One who speaks; we are the ones who hear and obey. It has always been thus. Let us not be so egotistical to think we are the ones who confront God, rather, it is God who confronts us. And this should be our attitude to His Word. Very often we want answers to irrelevant questions and the Lord would say, "It is not for you to know . . . but you will BE . . .". God's words are Life and Spirit and will speak to your spirit. Your soul may express it but your spirit will apprehend it. Therefore, bind your soul up when you come to God's Word, bind up your love for things material and immaterial and your love for position before the world; it is just you, God and the invisible cloud of witnesses.

The warning at the end of Revelation to not add or take away from God's Word applies to His whole Word, not just the book of Revelation, and it applies to God's testimony in our lives and if the Word does not become flesh in our lives then it is not God's Word that has been working but our words . . . and there are plenty of them.

God's Spirit never empties God's Word of meaning unless it is to dismantle our misapprehensions, but even then the Spirit of Truth is the very one who undercuts our falsity with a truth that can be expressed with words but most importantly with a truth that can be lived and gives life, and if it cannot be lived then it is not truth - just a mere technicality. All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching . . .. There is nothing in God's word that is 'obsolete' under some dispensation that God's Spirit cannot utilise for your edification in being living truth yourself.

What is it that the churches and teachers of God's Word avoid? What books, what topics, what sections are simply left out of church sermons? What is it that they emphasise and major on? Answer those questions for you and your own church and you will be a step nearer to ascertaining the extent to which 'adding and taking' has happened in your life and in the life of your church. It maybe that they cannot take you somewhere where they themselves have never been, but the Lord can take you there Himself, if you are willing.

One thing the present church does major on is money and tithing: I have heard more sermons on Malachi 3 than anything else by a very long way. One thing she does avoid is the Cross of Christ. I honestly can't remember the last time I heard a sermon on this subject, apart from the late Art Katz' "And they crucified Him". I am recognising less and less of what is called 'church' as the true church. Their 'adding and taking away' has now accumulated over centuries for certain denominations and decades for individuals. At some point God's accounting year will come to an end and all balances will have to be settled upon the debtor.

Pray therefore for God to show you where you have taken from and added to His Word, disavow yourself of all rhetoric or any leaven that makes you appear 'spiritual', pull you investments out of your word and put them into His, allow Him to judge you in this lifetime - not the next.