Week 3
Taking What Jesus is Offering

Last week we engaged with the words “let go” as we practiced giving up control to find rest for our souls.  This week, we consider Jesus’ three invitations to “take”.  Each “take” also delivers a promise, but first humility is required.

Take My Yoke

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart
and you will find rest for your souls.”
Matthew 11: 29 NIV 

A yoke was a wooden harness connecting two oxen so that they would work together to pull a plow or cart.  The yoke around their necks ensured they would pull together at the same rate making the job easier with two than it would have been with one. 

Jesus is welcoming us to receive the yoke of companionship – to actually be connected to his very presence. We join him in the work he is doing, not the other way around. Side by side, not pulling against him or ahead of him, we go where he wants to go and at whatever pace he sets. The posture of humility we learn from the yoke is to allow Jesus to lead as we partner with him.

“Take my yoke,” Jesus invites, never forcing any of us. The promise is finding rest.

Take Up Your Cross

“Whoever wants to be my disciple
must deny themselves and
take up their cross and follow me.”
Matthew 16:24 NIV

Just a few days after extending this invitation to his disciples, Jesus took up his own cross and carried it towards his hill of crucifixion.   Along the way, a man named Simon was commanded to carry the cross for Jesus, following right behind him (Luke 23:26).  How did Simon feel as he followed in the footsteps directly behind Jesus.  Did he resent Jesus? Did he resent having to carry out the shameful assignment?  Or did he perhaps know Jesus’ goodness and consider it an honor?  How would you feel?

We also are invited to take up a cross and follow Jesus, denying our own desires, our own best ideas and plans, all the way to the point of death to self.  Being dead to self,  Dallas Willard observed,  “means that when I don’t get what I want, it doesn’t’ surprise or offend me; neither does it have control over me.” When we die to ourselves, we are freed to live Jesus-centered lives that orbit around our King. We live the abundant life and enjoy his most joyful plan for us. It reminds me of the little song I learned in Sunday school:  “Jesus and Others and You. What a wonderful way to spell J-O-Y”.

“Take up your cross,” Jesus invites, never forcing any of us.  The promise is finding life.

Take and Eat

While they were eating, Jesus took bread,
and when he had given thanks,
he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying,
“Take and eat; this is my body.”
Matthew 26:26 NIV 

This is an invitation to join Christ in the humility of offered brokenness,  as well as in the power that comes from it. By his wounds, we are healed (Isaiah 53:5) and through his death, we have life – two of many juxtapositions we find in the Way of Jesus. But “he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

Jesus offers his body to us, now resurrected in power.  We celebrate that in the sacrament of Communion as the wafer is held out to us.  But we have a choice in this too.  We still must choose to take what is offered.   We take it, we give thanks, we eat it, and then we go out, strengthened to love and serve in humility.

“Take and eat,” Jesus invites, never forcing any of us. The promise is finding his presence.

The idea of entering fall still wrestling with COVID issues of safety practices, distance learning, or unemployment is discouraging. Simultaneously, we are awakening to issues of injustice and racial reconciliation as we hear God’s heart beating for the oppressed which only adds to the weight. And, as if that isn’t enough, we realize that the election season is also upon us with all its discord and division. 

All of this can feel like a lot. All of this tempts us to pull out of the yoke, put down the cross and go our own way.   Yet if we “take” what Jesus offers, we also receive what he promises:  rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29)  and life (Matthew 16:25). We pray as he taught us that he would give us just what we need, our daily bread, as we humbly follow Jesus (Matthew 6:11).