I read a great post by Tony Morgan today, titled “Is it hard, or is it easy?“. He has been struggling trying to reconcile two passages.
First, the passages:
(1) “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it’” (Matthew 16:24-25, NLT).
(2) “Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light’” (Matthew 11:28-30, NLT).
Tony has wrestled with these for good reason. In his words, “Does taking up my cross mean there’s sacrifice and pain involved? Or, when I take up his yoke, is the burden light?” Do these contradict each other? Is there a tension we should live in? Surely, there is benefit in thinking this over and wrestling with the meaning.
Tony goes on to say that he’s currently at a place where he holds both in tension. In other words, both are true, but they seem to oppose one another in a way. He would say it is important for us to recognize that we will experience pain (1st passage) but that we’ll also have peace and joy (2nd passage). I encourage you to read his post here.
I don’t disagree with his thoughts. And I’ve enjoyed my own thinking and wrestling today. I had a few initial thoughts though, and I’m curious what you think. Here is what I came up with and posted as a reply:
Great thoughts Tony! I should be working, but you’ve made me think. I’m sure I’ll be chewing on this for while, but here are my initial thoughts:
The first (Mt 16) is speaking to the selfish. The second (Mt 11) is speaking to the weary. The first group need to be broken, the second need a break.
The first speaks of carrying a cross. This is really hard work! Crosses are not designed for ease of carrying – they are designed to destroy us. The second speaks of taking on a yoke. A yoke is a beam designed to connect two oxen together for hard work such as plowing. If we are “taking his yoke on”, who is on the other side? He is! The burden is easy because he is doing the heavy lifting!
I wonder if the cross in the first passage speaks of sacrificing our life and giving it to him, while the yoke in the second passage speaks of the process of us working on our life.
The literal cross in Roman times signified the end of life. The figurative cross signifies the end of our living for ourselves. (I wonder if the figurative yoke could equate to discipleship.)
Great topic! I’ll be watching for more developments.
So, what do you think? Am I on the right track? Wrong track? Additional insights?
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