A Light Burden
The Rev. Eric H. Carswell
Lessons: Psalm 42, Matthew 11:28-30, Heaven and Hell 533
My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:30)
W
hat is it like to carry an object that is almost too heavy for you? A heavy
burden changes a person’s perspective on everything around him and
alters his goals. A person who is carrying a heavy load can easily find that he
is primarily staring at the steps immediately in front of him, with his mind
focused on the effort of each step and the pain of the weight he is carrying.
All sorts of interesting sights and sounds may surround him, but he sees little
of them and takes delight in even less. Not only is this true physically in this
world, it is also true of someone who is carrying a heavy mental burden.
What produces a heavy mental burden? Some people envision that
following the commandments of the Lord is a heavy burden and that being
“good” is relatively unpleasant. How many jokes have we heard about how
boring and dull heavenly life must be? Some people associate fun and real
living with evil. Yet long before the first of these jokes was told, the Lord was
trying to counteract this impression with the words: “My yoke is easy, and My
burden is light.” Consider the following from Heaven and Hell 359:
One person can live like another in outward form. As long as there is an inward
acknowledgment of God and an intent to serve our neighbor, we can become rich,
dine magnificently, live and dress as elegantly as is suitable for our social situation
and role, enjoy pleasures and amusement, and meet our worldly obligations for the
sake of our position and of our work and of the life of both mind and body. So we
can see that it is not as hard to follow the path to heaven as many people believe.
The only difficulty is finding the power to resist love for ourselves and love of the
world and preventing those loves from taking control, since they are the source of
all our evils. The fact that it is not so hard as people believe is what is meant by these
words of the Lord: “Learn of Me that I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will
find rest for your souls: for My yoke is easy and My burden light.” (Matthew 11:2930) The reason the Lord’s yoke is easy and his burden light is that to the extent that
we resist the evils that well up from love for ourselves and the world, we are led by
the Lord and not by ourselves. Then the Lord resists those things within us and
removes them.
429