Saturday Scripture Gold with Bibi: Let Jesus Help Carry Your Burdens

I found a little poem by an anonymous author that sounds so familiar, it’s as if I could have written it. It says: “Lord, I’m so discouraged, I don’t know what to do; I have so many burdens, And I gave them all to you. But you didn't take them, Jesus, will you tell me why that’s so? The answer’s simply, ‘Little one, because you won’t let go.’ ”

In this day and age when it seems all of us have some sort of burden to bear, some sort of troubles and problems to carry with us, Matthew 11:25-30 brings us some assurance that we are not alone with these burdens. There are many of us who face the burden of bodies that don’t do exactly what we want them to do. Others face the prospect of living life alone after the death of a loved one. Certainly, the burden of coping with this world all alone can be a very large one to bear.

Still others have the burden of broken relationships with either their children, their spouses or their relatives. When one is in tension with someone one cares about, that burden can be extremely heavy to carry. Still others face the burden of making choices in this world. Wondering what they will do with their lives, wondering when they do make a decision if it is the right one.

There are other kinds of burdens we face, burdens of sin, or temptation, burden of guilt, burdens of conflicting loyalties, burdens of providing for our families, this life is filled with stress, with cares, with worries, with situations that call for us to make choices that sometimes are not pleasant to make.

Jesus is saying in our language, come to me all who who are struggling with life in any way. And those of you who have burdens that you cannot carry alone, and I will help you with your struggles. Jesus knew that all people have a difficult path to follow in life. Life is not easy because we live in a world that is filled with sin. 

Sin makes life difficult for us, because it has put into our world, all those things that God would have kept from us. You see, He knew these things would make life difficult. But we want to be like God, to know what he knows. So, now we have to know all the ways in which life will make us carry burdens, will load us down with problems, guilt, broken relationships, not so perfect bodies, and a whole host of other things.

But Jesus says he will help us, he will walk besides us, he will help us carry our load. Jesus uses in Matthew 11:25-30, an illustration from his day and age to explain his helping carrying loads. He says that the yoke that is used on the oxen is similar. He puts the heavy part of the yoke on the stronger oxen, and the lighter part on the oxen that is not quite as strong. In a like manner, his yoke is made after the same pattern, the heavy end is upon his shoulder, and the lighter one is upon ours. 

Our father bears the most weight of our problems in life, our burdens, our cares, and our struggles that we have. Jesus tells us loud and clear today, right now, we don’t have to live life alone, we don’t have to live life with all of our failures, with all of our frustrations, with all of our burdens; but we must bring them to him! And then he will shoulder them with us, in fact, he will take most of the weight of our burdens upon himself. He will carry our burdens, he will lighten our loads.

Jesus goes on further to say mat he will not make our load heavy by adding other things in place of those he has taken away. No, He tells us he is gentle and kind and he will give rest for our souls. Jesus tells us he doesn't replace our burdens with any of his. He won’t put demands upon our lives. He won’t give us things we have to do. 

It seems though that a lot of people have a view of Christianity in in which Jesus will replace one set of burdens with another life of always doing good, of living a perfect live, of being somber, or being a person who walks with their head hung down, not smiling, not enjoying life.

But on the contrary, Jesus relieves our burdens so that we can smile, so that we can enjoy life, so that we can live in his love, so that we can walk with heads held up tall, looking around and enjoying all the creation that God has made for us! He carries our burdens and replaces them not with the strictness of the law of do this and don’t do that, but he replaces it with the security of love, with the gentleness of compassion, with the tenderness of forgiveness. 

And when our lives are filled with that, with love, with compassion, with forgiveness, then we will be free to look around us and reach out with Jesus’ love to those who are hurting, to those who need our help in carrying the burdens of life. Jesus helps us carry our burdens because he wants us to be free to enjoy life, to reach out to others, to share with others his great gift of love.

In closing, Jesus takes our heavy burdens of brokenness from us, and replaces them with the burden of caring for someone out of love. The amazing thing is that a burden carried out of love, will seem much lighter than one that is carried because of all the brokenness of this world.

Scripture: Galatians 6:1-3; Matthew 11:28-29; Galatians 6:2; Psalm 55:22; Philippians 4:6; 1 Peter 3:18 

Now, let's pray...

O Father, give us the humility which realizes its ignorance, admits its mistakes, recognizes its need, welcomes advice, accepts rebuke. Help us always to praise rather than to criticize, to sympathize rather than to discourage, to build rather than to destroy, and to think of people at their best rather than at their worst. This we ask for in thy name's sake. Amen

Until next time...

Have a blessed week!

Bibi