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NEW TESTAMENT LESSON
#10
Take My Yoke upon You,
and Learn of Me
Reading: Matt. 11:28;
12:1-13; 7:36-50; 1310-17
by Ted L. Gibbons
INTRODUCTION: We took the scouts of
the Snowflake, Arizona Stake 3rd ward into the Grand Canyon for
an activity. We drove to the South Rim and hiked into Havasupai for a few
days of camping and cooking and playing. They told me the hike was about 8
miles. They forgot the zero. Maybe they forgot two zeros. I had a new
backpack on my back and in it enough food for a week. I had a significant
collection of other necessary and unnecessary supplies, I had purchased an
expensive new pair of hiking shoes for the trip. I had a canteen that held
enough water for a decent bath. I thought I was prepared. But I did not
know how heavy a 54 lb. pack could get in 8 miles. And i did not know that
the shifting straps would rub the skin from shoulders and draw blood under
my shirt. And I did not know that the front part of the soles of my new
shoes would come loose in the first four miles, and then flop and fold
unceasingly for the rest of the trip.
Finally one of those incredibly fit scouts
offered to help. He shifted his sleeping bag and tent and some of his food
to my pack, and then he carried my pack and I carried his for the
remainder of the trip. He marched merrily off, and I followed lightly in
his wake. His burden was light. The next Sunday we talked about Matthew
11:28-30 in teacher's quorum. I bore my testimony about how good it felt
to receive help with an unbearable burden.
I. JESUS INVITES US TO TAKE HIS YOKE
UPON US AND LEARN OF HIM
Matthew 11:28-30: Come unto me, all ye
that labour 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light.
There are three verbs in these verses that
deserve attention. They are come, take, and learn. They provide the
pattern for shifting spiritual burdens.
1) Come to the Savior. Don*t bother trying
to see how long you can tough it out. Don't drive yourself into spiritual
and mental exhaustion by trying to carry on all the way to the campground.
Come to the Savior. Bring your problems and your pains and your praise and
seek him. We talked earlier in these lessons about the woman with the
issue of blood who endured for twelve years before making her way to the
savior. To those of us who struggle on under similar burdens the Savior's
invitation is a guiding beacon showing us the way home. "Come unto
me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden . . ." Not some of you,
not most of you*"ALL ye that labour " are invited.
2) "Take my yoke upon you . . ."
For many years people in this culture bought and displayed a painting of
the savior accompanied by the caption, "I never said it would be
easy; I only said it would be worth it." At least one of the messages
of Matthew 11:28-30 is that this is not true. Compared to the burdens
people without Christ carry, it is easy. His yoke requires covenants and
obedience and sacrifice, but in return he removes the burdens of sin and
uncertainty and darkness, burdens infinitely greater in scope and weight.
He shows us where we are going and gives us the power to get there. The
paralytic lowered through the roof had a bed to carry home after his
healing (Mark 2:2-12) but the bed cannot have weighed more than the
infirmity the Savior removed from him. The peace that came to Alma
following his repentance and conversion required a lifetime of sacrifice
and service, but it required less of him than the pain he felt when he
came face to face with his own rebellion. "Yea, and I had murdered
many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction; yea, and
in fine so great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming
into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible
horror." (Alma 36:14)
3) "Learn of me . . ." The
lessons we must learn about him we can only learn after we have taken his
yoke. Without the covenants and without obedience, the sacrifices required
of us will make little if any sense at all. To learn of him we must follow
him. We cannot come to this knowledge while we follow the ways of the
world. But we do not have to learn everything for the power to come to us.
President Boyd K. Packer said, "You need not know everything before
the power of the atonement will work for you. Have faith in Christ; it
begins to work the day you ask." (Ensign, May 1997, p. 10)
President Howard W. Hunter, spoke of these
verses in a way that has touched my heart deeply. He said,
In Biblical times, the yoke was a device
of great assistance to those who tilled the field. It allowed the
strength of a second animal to linked and coupled with the strength of a
single animal, sharing and reducing the heavy labor of the plow or
wagon. A burden that was overwhelming or perhaps impossible for one
could be equitably and comfortably borne by two bound together with a
common yoke . . .
Why face life's burdens alone, Christ
asks, or why face them with temporal support that will quickly falter.
To the heavy laden it is Christ's yoke, it is the power and peace of
standing side by side with a God that will provide the support ,
balance, and strength to meet our challenges and endure our tasks here
in the hardpan field of mortality. (Conference Report, October 1990, p.
20)
II. JESUS DECLARES THAT HE IS THE LORD
OF THE SABBATH
Deuteronomy 23:25 commands,
When thou comest into the standing corn
of thy neighbour, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand; but
thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbour's standing corn.
Therefore the Pharisee who rebuked the
Savior because his disciples plucked and ate the ears of corn had no
quarrel with the fact that t his corn came from another's property. His
only concern was that they did it on the Sabbath. But before we address
that lesson, consider the circumstances. The Savior is almost constantly
surrounded by multitudes anxious for the miracles and (we hope) the
message. But there are others around, like jackals circling. The Scribes
and Pharisees, and sometimes the Sadducees, watch him constantly, but for
very a different reason. They watch him when he is walking in the fields
on the Sabbath. They watch him when he is talking and teaching and eating.
Why? They are waiting for him to make a mistake. How many lives could bear
that kind of scrutiny? His enemies follow him everywhere, waiting and
scrutinizing, hoping for an error of action or doctrine that they can use
to discredit him. And on this Sabbath, they they think they have found
one.
At that time Jesus went on the sabbath
day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to
pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they
said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do
upon the sabbath day. (Matthew 12:1,2)
His responses? He offers three of them. 1)
David did something you consider unlawful, yet you revere him as a
national hero. The priests break the law in the temple on the sabbath and
you consider them blameless. But I am more important than the temple! (see
Matt. 12:3-5). 2) He quotes Hosea 6:6. "I will have mercy, and not
sacrifice . . ." That is, "If you knew what the gospel is really
all about, you would not condemn the guiltless when they ignore your
non-scriptural, suffocating, and useless laws" (Matt. 12:7). 3)
"For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day." (Matthew
12:8) In other words, "I gave the law! Don*t presume to tell me how
to keep it!" It must have been a terribly frustrating duty to bring
accusations against the Son of God. In virtually every case in the
Gospels, his answers seem to silence them and enrage them. (See Luke
13:17) Even when he was twelve he was smarter than they were. IN Luke
2:46, JST, we read, "And it came to pass, that after three days [his
parents] found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, and
they were hearing him, and asking him questions."
On another Sabbath (see Luke 6:6), his
adversaries tried to set a trap for him.
And, behold, there was a man which had
his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on
the sabbath days? that they might accuse him." (Matthew 12:10).
This verse is eloquent testimony of the
compassion of the Savior. The Pharisees knew he would heal the man, Even
though he knew their thoughts (their motives-see Luke 6:8), they knew that
he would not send this man away crippled. And so they challenged him on
the Sabbath day.
But he knew their thoughts, and said to
the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the
midst. And he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, I will
ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good . . . ?
(Luke 6:8,9)
This may be the finest Sabbath question
ever asked. "Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good . . .?"
How would you answer that question? What if it is "good" that
could wait for another day? With the woman in Luke 13 it had already been
18 years. Would another day matter? Certainly in an emergency we would act
regardless of the day of the week. But what about when there is no
emergency? In D&C 59:12, the Lord commanded, "But remember that
on this, the Lord's day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy
sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and
before the Lord." The footnote for "oblations" says,
"offerings, whether of time, talents, or means, in service of God and
fellowman."
The Savior again offers three answers to
his question, "Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good . . .
?" (Luke 6:9).
1) He says, you would do this for an
animal. "And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you,
that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day,
will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?" (Matthew 12:11)
2) He answers the question. It is lawful to
do good on the Sabbath. "How much then is a man better than a sheep?
Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days." (Matthew
12:12)
3) He himself did good on the Sabbath when
he healed the man. "Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine
hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the
other." (Matthew 12:13)
On another Sabbath the Savior repeated his
lesson. The story is found in Luke 13:10-17.
And he was teaching in one of the
synagogues on the sabbath.
And, behold, there was a woman which had
a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could
in no wise lift up herself.
And when Jesus saw her, he called her to
him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.
And he laid his hands on her: and
immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
And the ruler of the synagogue answered
with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and
said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in
them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.
The Lord then answered him, and said,
Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or
his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?
And ought not this woman, being a
daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be
loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?
And when he had said these things, all
his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the
glorious things that were done by him. (Luke 13:10-17.)
One of the themes of the Savior's ministry
seems to have been to teach the truth about the Sabbath. When the Jews
returned from exile, Nehemiah made Sabbath observance a central issue in
his reformation (see Nehemiah 10:31; 13:15-22). The strictness with which
the Sabbath was observed became a measure of righteousness, and as the
years passed and questions were asked and answered, a myriad of new
restrictions and regulations were adopted. For the Pharisees these
man-made interpolations had the same weight as the scriptures. But not for
the Savior. It was to these man-made regulations that the Savior refused
to offer respect. His efforts to teach correct principles about the
Sabbath may well be another example of his efforts to replace heavy
burdens with lighter ones. His success is indicated by the response of his
adversaries and the joy of his followers (Luke 13:17, above)
Jewish law in Jesus' day forbade
thirty-nine chief or principal types of work. These were: (1) sowing,
(2) ploughing, (3) reaping (4) binding sheaves, (5) threshing, (6)
winnowing, (7) sifting (selecting), (8) grinding, (9) sifting in a
sieve, (10) kneading, (11) baking*all of which restrictions had to do
with the preparation of bread; (12) shearing the wool, (13) washing it,
(14) beating it, (15) dyeing it, (16) spinning, (17) putting it on the
weaver's beam, (18) making two thrum threads, (19) weaving two threads,
(20) separating two threads, (21) making a knot, (22) undoing a knot,
(23) sewing two stitches, (24) tearing in order to sew two stitches- all
of which restrictions had to do with dress; (25) catching deer, (26)
killing, (27) skinning, (28) salting it, (29) preparing its skin, (30)
scraping off its hair, (31) cutting it up, (32) writing two letters,
(33) scraping in order to write two letters*all of which are connected
with hunting and writing; (34) building, (35) pulling down, (36)
extinguishing fire, (37) lighting fire, (38) beating with the hammer,
and (39) carrying from one possession into the other all of which
appertain to the work necessary for a private house. Each of these
thirty-nine principal prohibitions contained within itself numerous
related items that were banned on the Sabbath day (Bruce R. McConkie,
The Mortal Messiah, Vol.1, p.206).
Elder McConkie quoted Edersheim on the
matter of the Jewish laws of Sabbath Observance.
"If a woman were to roll wheat to
take away the husks, she would be guilty of sifting with a sieve. If she
were rubbing the ends of the stalks, she would be guilty of threshing.
If she were cleansing what adheres to the side of a stalk, she would be
guilty of sifting. If she were bruising the stalk, she would be guilty
of grinding. If she were throwing it up in her hands, she would be
guilty of winnowing. Distinctions like the following are made: A radish
may be dipped into salt, but not left in it too long, since this would
be to make pickle. A new dress might be put on, irrespective of the
danger that in so doing it might be torn. Mud on the dress might be
crushed in the hand and shaken off, but the dress must not be rubbed
(for fear of affecting the material). If a person took a bath, opinions
are divided, whether the whole body should be dried at once, or limb
after limb. If water had fallen on the dress, some allowed the dress to
be shaken but not wrung; others, to be wrung but not shaken. One Rabbi
allowed to spit into the handkerchief, and that although it may
necessitate the compressing of what had been wetted; but there is a
grave discussion whether it was lawful to spit on the ground, and then
to rub it with the foot, because thereby the earth may be scratched. It
may, however, be done on stones. In the labour of grinding would be
included such an act as crushing salt. To sweep, or to water the ground,
would involve the same sin as beating out the corn. To lay on a plaster
would be a grievous sin; to scratch out a big letter, leaving room for
two small ones, would be a sin, but to write one big letter occupying
the room of two small letters was no sin. To change one letter to
another might imply a double sin. And so on through endless
details!" (Alfred Edersheim: The Life and Times of Jesus the
Messiah, (1972) 2:783.)
Perhaps the Savior's most revealing
declaration about the Sabbath is found in Mark 2:26 JST: "Wherefore
the Sabbath was given unto man for a day of rest; and also that man should
glorify God . . ." When our emphasis on Sunday changes from resting
from our labors and glorifying God to proving our piety and righteousness
by our outward show of discipline, we have picked up a burden the Lord
never intended for us to carry.
III. JESUS FORGIVES A WOMAN IN THE HOUSE
OF SIMON THE PHARASEE.
Simon the Pharisee invited the Savior to
eat with him, but then neglected or refused to extend even the most
minimal of hospitality (Luke 7:44-46). James E. Talmage taught:
It was the custom of the times to treat a
distinguished guest with marked attention; to receive him with a kiss of
welcome, to provide water for washing the dust from his feet, and oil
for anointing the hair of the head and the beard. All these courteous
attentions were omitted by Simon. (Jesus the Christ, p. 261)
It may well be that Simon hoped to observe
(or contrive) some event in which he could find cause to turn the
multitudes away from Christ. But a woman, a sinner, learned of Christ's
presence and came to him. She represents all of us with our burdens,
making our way to the one true source of rest and relief. Knowing that
ridicule might well follow her entrance into the eating chamber, knowing
that her reputation would accompany her, and knowing that she would not be
welcomed by some within, still she entered. She was heavy-laden with the
recognition of her sins and the downward spiral of her life. Like Alma of
old, by her coming and by her annointing and by her weeping and her
wiping, she cried out, "O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me,
who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the
everlasting chains of death." (Alma 36:18) And the Savior, because of
her faith (Luke 7:50) lifted her burden (Luke 7:48) and sent her away in
peace.
The little parable, designed to teach Simon
something about sinners when he made unspoken accusations against his
guest, shows us the feelings of those who come to Christ with huge burdens,whose
backpacks are weighed down with all manner massive and useless luggage.
And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon,
I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There
was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred
pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly
forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?
Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And
he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. (Luke 7:40-43)
CONCLUSION
Sometimes we are overwhelmed with the
requirements for exaltation. There are so many commandments, so many
restrictions, so many duties. We come again and again to the word
"endure," and we tremble. We read the command "be ye
therefore perfect" and we despair. We remember that the Lord warned
Joseph Smith of future trials and tragedies and then said "hold on
thy way" (D&C 122:9) and we wonder if we can. But with all of
this come the other promises, the other insights. Exaltation is not as
easy as catching fish at a hatchery, but it is much easier than the
alternative. Isaiah said of the Savior, "He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his
bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." (Isaiah
40:11) He also said, "Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the
remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly,
which are carried from the womb:
And even to your old age I am he; and even
to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will
carry, and will deliver you. (Isaiah 46:3,4)
Alma said to Helaman, "O my son, do
not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way . . ."
(Alma 37:46) And the Savior himself said, "Come unto me, all ye that
labour 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
(Matthew 11:28-30)
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