Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
The first thing that stands out about today's readings is that Jesus himself is the answer. He did not direct his hearers to a new philosophical or theological outlook so much as he directed them toward himself. He wasn't a Buddha figure who claimed that his teaching stood alone apart from himself as a person. He wasn't a prophet like Mohammed who pointed away from himself and toward the one God. Instead, the name of Jesus was the only name given under heaven by which humanity could be saved. He was, as we read yesterday, the only one capable of revealing the Father. Jesus was the answer in a way that no other person could be, because of his union with the Father, as the Father's own Word who became flesh. He would remain the same yesterday, today, and forever, utterly reliable, always able to deliver on every promise he made.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
The yoke of the Pharisees consisted of heavy burdens that were hard to bear. And the law itself, without grace, proved to be a yoke that had been impossible to bear. It is true that in times past followers of God were called to embrace the divine wisdom of the Torah as a yoke, as we read in Sirach:
Put your neck under the yoke,
and let your souls receive instruction;
it is to be found close by.
See with your eyes that I have labored little
and found for myself much rest (see Sirach 51:26-27).
But it was clear that this promise remained mostly unrealized until Jesus, who was himself the wisdom of God, appeared on earth as man. The Torah contained true wisdom, wisdom capable of giving rest, but only Jesus himself revealed and unlocked this promise. Without him the law remained a burdensome thing, something that could not by itself give the rest it promised. The experience of attempting to carry the yoke of the law by one's own power would yield a result like what Isaiah described:
We conceived and writhed in pain,
giving birth to wind;
Salvation we have not achieved for the earth,
the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth.
Without the Spirit even law remained a dead letter, incapable of giving salvation. This was revealed in the extreme case of the Pharisees who were fastidious adherents of the law and yet managed to twist and abuse it to their own destruction. This wasn't a shortcoming of the law itself. It was rather the brokenness of human nature that made this result all but inevitable. Only Jesus healing humanity by the gift of his Spirit could unlock the peace God had always promised.
O LORD, you mete out peace to us,
for it is you who have accomplished all we have done.
Isaiah himself realized that unaided human effort yielded frustration but surrender to divine grace brought peace. But he also seemed to foresee that something further was needed to allow egotistical and selfish humans to fully surrender enough to be able to receive that peace. What he seemed to see was the gift of new life, which Jesus himself made available when he rose from the dead.
But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise;
awake and sing, you who lie in the dust.
For your dew is a dew of light,
and the land of shades gives birth.
Although we may only hope to receive the fullness of peace when we rise again on the last day it is nevertheless also true that the peace promised by Jesus is meant to be something we begin to experience here and now. The more we exchange our own self-direction for the Lordship of Jesus the less the frustrations of this life will be able to affect us. The more we come to him, even here and now, the more his peace will fill our hearts.
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.
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