2026-07-05 Pentecost 6

Scripture Readings

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen!

Back in the old country, a grandpa and his grandson were walking home from the market with their donkey. As they walked along, the folks along the way began to laugh and make fun of them. “Why are they both walking beside the donkey?! You’d think one of those fools would ride!” Upon this scorn and peer pressure, the old man put his grandson on the donkey’s back and continued along the way.

But soon the criticism came from the passers by again. “Would you get a load of that!? That young boy is making that poor old man walk while he rides the donkey! What a knave!” Hearing this, the young boy hopped down from the donkey and papa hopped up and took his place. Narry a 1/4 mile down the road the crowd piped up again “Why is that man riding the donkey while making that helpless boy walk beside him?! What a scoundrel of a man!”

Hearing these jeers, the grandpa reached down and scooped up the boy and they both rode the donkey as they continued home. The next group of people saw this and complained, saying, “Look at that poor donkey, having to carry two people, in this heat!? Don’t they have any compassion for the poor animal!?”

In utter desperation, the grandpa and grandson did the only thing left they could do. They both picked up the donkey and carried it home on their backs for the rest of the journey!

Our world has all kinds of crazy ideas. It has never ending opinions. It has scads of advice and guidance about how we should live our lives and what we should do. Advertisements bombard us about products and what we should buy so that we can be “truly happy”. Our internet age of social media and now AI seeks to influence and program what and how we think about life.

What this all amounts to is a lot of noise. This never ending onslaught of exasperating feedback. It’s kind of like listening to AM radio. There’s often lots of static and interference while your ear strains to hear the signal in the midst of the noise. Life in general can be a lot like this. There is often all this noisy competition for our time and attention. The demands of life, job, kids, family, commitments, smart phones, volunteering, the rat race - it can all be so draining and tiring. Our Lord’s words to us this morning are the signal in the midst of the noise: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (MT 11:29-30).

Truly, this is a beautiful passage of Scripture from our Saviour. In the midst of our often psycho and sinful world we have the rock of Christ to cling to. Our refuge and strength, our very present help in trouble (Ps 46), what does He offer? Rest. Rest for our souls. And His rest comes to us by faith and trust in our Saviour. Our victorious and conquering King who has triumphed over sin, death and the devil by His cross and resurrection. He doesn’t offer us a laundry list of stuff we need to do to be perfect people or earn brownie points with God. It’s not about works or merit or striving to be ‘nice’ people.

This kind of religion that heaps burdens upon people is legalism. As if life wasn’t hard enough already, now you heap more and more requirements on people! This, of course, was our Lord’s critique of the Pharisees and the religious establishment of the day. They were trying to cause the Messiah to come by rigorously and legalistically following the Torah, right down to the very last letter. They were so bamboozled by the noise that they completely missed the signal! Jesus was already in their midst. Their Messiah had come! But they refused to perceive it. They were completely blinded by their legalism.

St. Paul weighs in on the futility of trying to approach God through legalism. In our Romans reading he wrote: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing!” (7:18-19). The main point he is getting at here is that the Christian faith isn’t based on our effort. Our relationship with God likewise isn’t based on following rules and regulations.

Rather, it boils down to resting on the rock of Christ. It’s living a life of faithfulness precisely because Jesus has already won the battle for us. We confess our sins and repent of them, ever more seeking the rest Jesus gives for the weary. Do we have problems in our families or workplace? Come to Jesus. Do we have struggles with sin and spiritual matters? Come to Jesus. Are we confused about what voices and opinions matter in life? Come to Jesus. Are we drowning in the noise of the world, striving to hear the signal? Come to Jesus.

Now, you’d think that if Jesus is offering us rest, maybe He would give us a pillow or maybe a hammock, perhaps a nice trundle bed from Temu! But no, instead He gives us … a yoke. Didn’t the heart foundation tell us that yokes are bad?! Chock full of cholesterol, just waiting to kill you and your family! Thankfully, that turned out to be fake news, and yokes are good again. But our Lord Jesus isn’t talking about eggs here.

City slickers like us need to be reminded that this indeed a farming metaphor. Get your oxen or your donkeys, hitch ’em up and pull a heavy load. That’s what the yoke was for. Hauling a load of lumber. Pulling a wagon. Dragging a plow. You get the picture. It’s heavy, serious grunt work. But this is kind of weird. Jesus is talking about giving His followers rest - but instead we have this heavy work metaphor.

The agrarian culture to which our Lord spoke these words would have been understood immediately. Often a young animal would be paired up and yoked with a more experienced one. The younger would learn the way from the older. In this context here, our Lord is making a discipleship connection. Taking His yoke means living under God’s reign through grace, not mere rule-keeping. It points to freedom from the “yoke of slavery” to sin or following laws as a means of justification (Galatians 5:1). Believers are yoked to Christ, who bears the ultimate burden of the cross and then empowers them by His Spirit. Jesus is the stronger one, carrying most of the load while the disciple learns to walk in step.

The yoke is easy and the burden is light only because our Saviour is carrying it for us. This is how He provides us rest for our weary souls. This is how He refreshes us with the promise of His word. This is how He restores us in our Baptism and Holy Communion.

So, quit trying to carry the donkey! You’ve heard the voices: “Do more. Be more. Fix yourself. Please everyone. Earn your worth.” The world keeps shouting its demands, and if you listen long enough, you’ll end up with a donkey on your back—exhausted, ridiculous, and still not at peace. But Jesus cuts through all that noise with a gentle, authoritative word: “Come to Me.”

He does not say, shape up and fly right and follow all the rules. He says, “Take My yoke upon you.” Picture it again: two animals in the same yoke. One is strong, steady, and knows the way—the Lord Jesus Himself. The other is us, often weak, tired, unsure, inexperienced and prone to wander. Yet because He is yoked to you, the heavy pulling is His. The plow moves forward not by your strength, but by His. The load feels light because the burden-bearer is carrying it with you.

This is the Christian life: not the absence of work, but work done in step with the Savior who has already carried the cross for you. Today He invites every tired parent, every anxious soul, every person drowning in noise and guilt and expectation—Come. Confess your sins. Receive His forgiveness. Rest in His finished work. Learn from Him, who is gentle and lowly in heart. Let Him set the pace. Let Him bear the weight. Let Him be the signal you listen to above every other voice. And when the critics pipe up again—when the world mocks the way you live or when your own heart accuses you—remember the donkey story. Then look to the One who says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” He has already walked the hard road to Calvary so you could walk this one in peace. Come to Jesus. Stay yoked to Jesus. Find rest for your souls in Christ our Saviour. In His name, Amen.