What is a yoke? My wife is reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder to the kids right now and so I
had to explain this to them recently, because in the story the main character Almanzo
got a yoke for his birthday. A yoke is a
rather simple device that binds two work animals together so that they learn to
walk in a straight line rather than going off in their own preferred directions
as young animals are prone to do. In this
way they’re able to share the burden that is placed on them and get stuff done. What they are meant to do they must learn to
do together – otherwise the work is too much for only one of them. The more stubborn an animal is the heavier
the yoke needs to be.
Jesus says that the yoke he places on us
is light.
But are we not about the most
stubborn beasts there are? Are we not
the slowest to learn and the most distracted?
A calf or colt will at least learn its purpose in time. But the heart of man simply won’t be tamed –
at least not by its own power. We are
constantly going off in our own directions like sheep without a shepherd. So how is it that Jesus says our yoke is
easy? Should it not be heavy?
Well, it is because our call to be
Christians is not a call to work side by side with Jesus to get done what needs
to be done. No. Our call to be
Christians is to work side by side with Jesus who has already done it all. His yoke is easy because it joins us to what
he has already accomplished. It’s
done. It’s like if a foolish ox were to
plow in a circle for days accomplishing nothing, and couldn’t catch a break from
his master to rest and drink until he got himself out of the rut he dug and did
something useful first. His plight would
be hopeless, right? But then comes
another wise beast who has already done all of the work by himself so that
nothing more needs to be done — the fields are plowed, the seed is planted. And then at the last moment as he is being
led to the pleasant pastures his labor has earned he chooses to be yoked to the
useless beast that hasn’t accomplished anything but a deep muddy hole. And all so that he might share in his
rest.
What kindness. We are burdened by the law that demands more
and more while we sink ourselves deeper and deeper into sin. Our labor doesn’t earn anything. But Jesus places his yoke on us. That is, he gives us his Holy Spirit who
works faith in our hearts – faith that unites us to him who has already
fulfilled the law and borne all sin in our place. Jesus yokes us to himself and leads us on the
straight path to where he is going by yoking us to himself and where he has
been. The Holy Spirit is the yoke that
joins us to Christ and his cross. And so
faithfully does the Holy Spirit direct our hearts to the cross of Jesus that
this yoke can even be called the cross itself.
The connection we have to Jesus and his saving work is the faith that
the Spirit creates.
We have no power to come to him without first
being yoked to him, and we have no power to choose this yoke of our own will. It’s not like we climb out of the mire of our
sin through our great desire for Christ our champion. No. Christ becomes our champion by descending
into our misery to join himself to us –and us to him– and to lift us out where
rest awaits us. And it is while he lifts
us up that he tells us, “Come to Me.”
This is
our relationship with Christ. It is,
first of all, a relationship of being bound to him who has already accomplished
all that needs to be done for our eternal rest.
And it is, second of all, a relationship of being bound not by our own
feelings and commitments, but by the Holy Spirit himself who proceeds from the
Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit, who
alone works faith, yokes us to the work of Jesus.
The disciples had a unique relationship
with Jesus. That is undeniable. They knew him on a personal basis in a way
that we really can’t lay claim to. They
walked with him and they talked with him.
Now this might seem very spectacular.
If only we could boast of such an intimate knowledge of Jesus to be able
to say that “the joy we shared as we tarried there, none other has ever known.” But this is not the relationship we need
with Jesus. We neither need nor can we
find such a relationship with Jesus that no one else has ever known. Rather, we need a relationship with Jesus
that all Christians of all time have likewise known. And this relationship the disciples needed
too. They needed what we have today*
more than what they had when Jesus walked and talked in their midst.
Sorrow filled their hearts when their
earthly relationship was bound to end. But
Jesus assured them that it was to their advantage that he go away. And this was because only by going away would
he send them the Holy Spirit.
Sorrow fills our hearts too when it
seems that our relationship with Jesus changes.
Often our personal religious experiences make us feel particularly close
to our Lord and so make us feel like our faith is really strong and where it
should be. But Jesus assures us, like he
assured his disciples, that we will weep and lament. Crosses of his choosing will be placed on
us. We must suffer for our faith, and
instead of making us feel like heroic martyrs, our afflictions will often make
us feel like unprofitable failures instead.
We will experience temptations to sin, and the guilt of sin will follow. We will experience doubt of God’s mercy in
Christ on one hand, and persecution from the world on the other hand when we do
acknowledge God’s mercy in Christ. This
is the life that is behind us and in front of us. But it is in this life that we should
rejoice, because it is in this life that we have what we need. We have Jesus who comes to us with the forgiveness
of our sins.
Our relationship, when it is based on
what we see and feel at any particular moment, is bound to be changed without
notice. But when our relationship with
Christ is based on what has already been accomplished for us and on what is
delivered to us in the word of the Gospel, it remains constant. We are joined to Christ who has borne the
labor and pain already. We are yoked to
Christ who leads us to peace and rest.
Jesus knows what relationship we need
with him — better than the disciples or we could know on our own. We need a Savior from sin, death, and the power
of the devil. That is why he says that
it is to our advantage that he go away.
Now, to what is he referring?
Although for the last dozen centuries the Christian Church has been
reading these lessons from John 16 during the last few Sundays before Pentecost,
the words recorded here were actually spoken the night when Jesus was
betrayed. And yet it sure sounds like
Jesus is preparing us for Pentecost, doesn’t it? “[F]or if I do not go away, the Comforter
will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.”
So when Jesus speaks of his “going away”
is he talking about his crucifixion or is he talking about his ascension? Both! It
has to be. Because when the Comforter
comes what else will he talk about but what Christ has won for us on the
cross? When Jesus speaks of going to the
Father he is referring both to ascending his cross of shame where he
reconciled his Father to the world of sinners AND to ascending his throne of glory where he intercedes
before the Father for us sinners and from where he continues to rule his Church
in mercy through the Gospel and sacraments.
Jesus going to the Father by dying is
the same advantage to us as Jesus going to the Father by rising to heaven. First he earns salvation. Then he distributes it. First he bears our burden and earns his rest,
then he yokes himself to us by faith that we might join him in Paradise. First he takes our sins and God’s wrath upon
himself, then he rises from the dead and gives us the Comforter so that he
might remain with us wherever we are. If
being bound to Jesus under one yoke is to be advantageous to us, then Jesus
dying must be bound to the Church’s preaching today. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
If Christ’s work remained hidden from
us, we would remain in the muddy rut of our fruitless labors. But so that we might believe and be saved,
Jesus sent his Holy Spirit from the Father who through the Gospel and
sacraments that he instituted distributes the benefits that he earned.
The work of the Holy Spirit is bound to
the work of Christ. In fact, it is only
through the work of the Holy Spirit that the work of Christ can be known. This means that apart from the Holy Spirit,
there can be no knowledge of or trust in Jesus.
Our personal experience does not bring Jesus to us. Our personal feelings and commitments don’t
make him our Savior. Jesus makes himself
our Savior by obeying his Father’s word. And so that we might know and believe this, he
sends his Holy Spirit to speak his word.
Jesus breathed his Holy Spirit when giving his Church the authority to
forgive and retain sins. And look how
the receiving of the Holy Spirit is likewise always linked to Baptism in the
days of the Apostles. This is so that we might
know where to find the Holy Spirit
too. It is in our Baptism, where we are
joined to Christ’s death and resurrection by water and the word. Baptism saves us because it gives us the
forgiveness of sins.
Just as the work of Christ is only known through the work of the Holy
Spirit, so also the work of Christ is always
known through the Holy Spirit. This
means that the Holy Spirit is not at work unless he is applying the saving work
of Christ to the troubled soul. In other
words, if it’s not about Jesus, it’s not the Holy Spirit who’s speaking. If there is some touching story about a
child’s vision that proves how real heaven is or something like that, but there
is no talk about how the blood of Christ was shed for the sins of the world, then
the Holy Spirit is not the one who created the vision.
The devil’s crafty aim is to distract us
in very real ways – in very sweet, charming, and compelling ways. He wants us to look away from Christ
crucified so that we imagine something other than Jesus bearing our sin and
delivering forgiveness to us to be what constitutes our relationship with God. But nothing else will. Because the Holy Spirit does not speak on his
own. So says Jesus. But whatever he hears and sees – that is what
he speaks to us in the Bible. And so it
is in the words of Scripture that we find the sure Voice of truth that Jesus
promised would guide us. It guides us by
joining us to the eternal life that Jesus claimed for us when he rose from the grave
our sins had dug.
If you want the Holy Spirit to convince
you of something, you must listen to the Gospel. It is with the Gospel that the Spirit
convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
He convicts the world of sin not by
throwing your sin in your face, but by presenting him who bore your sin for
you. Those who stand accused are those
who do not believe. Those who stand
acquitted are those who see their sin punished on the cross and nowhere
else.
He convicts the world of
righteousness. The world is satisfied
with what it can see. The righteous
deeds that they have labored to perform are good enough for them. But we who know how deeply into our sinful
selves our futile efforts drive us find the righteousness we need not here on
earth, but at the right hand of the Father where he who is our righteousness
sits and rules us through the spoken word of the Gospel and the external means
of grace. Our life is not here. It is hidden with God in Christ. He gives us the life we need in the Lord’s
Supper where we eat and drink the body and blood that conquered death for
us. The Holy Spirit takes what is
Christ’s and declares it to us. We
embrace the words as they are spoken, because Jesus cannot lie or mislead. Neither can his Spirit.
The Holy Spirit convicts the world of
judgment because the devil who mocks what the Gospel gives is judged and
silenced. And so is every nagging doubt
that he casts into your heart.
This
world’s prince may still
Scowl fierce as he will.
He can harm us none.
He’s judged; the deed is done.
One little word can fell him.
Scowl fierce as he will.
He can harm us none.
He’s judged; the deed is done.
One little word can fell him.
And so we hold onto this little word
that silences the devil and consoles the most sin-stained conscience. We hold onto the word that gives to us the
righteousness of Jesus that covers and replaces all our sin so that, joined to
him who sought us, we stand righteous and victorious. We hold onto the word of the Gospel that
convicts us. It speaks the truth – the
truth worth dying for, because it gives us eternal life with him who gave his life for us.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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