Has Religion Become Burdensome?
Last Sunday we heard Jesus say, “whoever loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me….” Now that is not a teaching that is easy to hear or to follow, and yet in today’s Gospel reading, we have Jesus saying that his yoke is easy and his burden light.
Surely going against your family cannot be easy! So, what does Jesus mean by saying his yoke is easy?
This is a good example of why we must be careful not to take and interpret individual Gospel passages piecemeal, but rather see each Gospel passage within its context and with reference to other passages that may give us a clue to its meaning.
So, what is the context of this passage in today’s Gospel. Before I explain that, it must be remembered that the original Gospels did not have any numbering or chapters, and that the numbering and chapter break-ups we have in our Bibles today were ‘created’ for convenience by different people between the 14th and 16th century with the final numbering that we adopt today being the one offered in 1551 AD by Robert Estienne, a printer who felt it would be useful in printing the Bible and to help people find a particular verse. Hence one should not read anything of interpretative value into the numbers of the verses and the chapter break-ups - for example by thinking that each chapter is dealing with a different aspect of Jesus’ teachings. It is one continuous writing, and the chapter headings mean nothing. I say this, because though today’s Gospel reading is found in the last verses of Chapter 11 in Mathew’s Gospel, the events that are described in Chapter 12 give us the context that helps us understand Jesus’ teaching about his yoke being easy, and how his teaching will give rest to our souls.
The context of this teaching then is that in the verses preceding today’s reading (i.e. Chap. 11:16 to 24) Jesus condemns the Jews for their blindness for they are not willing either to accept either John the Baptist, who came as an austere and ascetic prophet, nor Jesus whom they call a glutton and wine-drinker because he ate and drank in many homes. And he concludes that it is neither asceticism or eating and drinking that decides on what is right before God, but the fruits of one’s actions that tell us whether a particular behaviour is blessed by God or not. Then comes the passage of today’s Gospel, followed by the whole of Chapter 12. And in that Chapter 12, we find many examples of Jesus challenging the burdensome religious interpretation of the Law that the Jewish leaders had imposed on the people. And today’s Gospel passage is followed by many others in which Jesus challenges the rules and regulations that the Jewish religious authorities burdened the people with. Jesus is convinced that these, innumerable demands by the religious authorities that every Jew should fulfil, the burgeoning set of rules and regulations that were supposed to emerge from interpreting the Mosaic Law, were an unnecessary and huge burden that made the life of the ordinary Jew extremely difficult - and all in the name of satisfying a watchful and judging God.
This burdening of people with religious rules was not only true in Jesus’ times, but in all religions today too, including in the minds and hearts of ordinary Catholics. The amount of guilt that some Catholics experience, for instance, if by mistake they stamp on a ‘holy picture’, or drop or perhaps bite the ‘sacred host’, or break a crucifix, or miss Mass on Sunday, or do not go to confession, or do not properly dispose of the palms received on Palm Sunday, and a million other written and unwritten rules of the Church, - all this guilt seems to be based on an understanding of God as one who is upset if anything is done that could in any way be said to ‘insult’ or ‘displease’ God. It is not that each one of us should not have reverence for ‘holy’ things, and it is certainly important to cultivate such a reverence, to join with the larger community for Sunday Mass, and participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and so on and so forth - but why should there be this fear, why should religion be allowed to become such a burden?
What would we think of parents whose child is so afraid of making noise in the house because “daddy is sleeping’ so that the child stays quietly in a corner till ‘daddy wakes up’. Or what would we think of the environment in a house where the child is so afraid to tell his/her parents that teacher shouted at me today because I did some mischief in class, and where the child is generally walking around on eggshells all the time, lest s/he upsets her/his parents? Is such a parent-child relationship healthy? And yet, strangely, we do not find it unacceptable to have such a relationship with God, even though Jesus taught us that God is like an Abba Father.
So Jesus is telling the Jews that if they followed him, they would not be burdened by the heavy yoke of innumerable rules and regulations that were placed on them by the Jewish religious authorities, for all they had to do was to love their neighbours - everything else, including the rules of the Sabbath and many other such rules, while OK in themselves, were meant to help them, and not a burden to bear:“The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, (Mark 2:27) is one of Jesus’ most well-known sayings.
If Jesus’ words were to be translated to today, would he be telling us: “Don’t worry and get frightened about God punishing you if you don’t completely fulfil Church regulations and rules - for all these were, and are, meant to help you, and it is helpful for you to use them to experience God. But remember, you are not expected to be slaves to such rules. So do not be worried if sometimes you do. For the God I have introduced you to, is a God whose yoke is light, and if you know this God, you will have rest for your souls.”
First Reading: Zechariah 9: 9-10
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war-horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Second Reading: Romans 8: 9, 11-13
But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christj from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Gospel: Matthew 11: 25-30
At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
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