"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
I think these are interesting verses, for several reasons. What do they mean? If you take them out of the theological and theoretical realms and matched with your experience, what do you make of them? I think they may be best understood at the experiential level. What should you do if your experience of the Christian life does not match up with these verses? What kind of rest is he talking about? What do these verses not mean?
I will attempt some answers, since I have been accused of not answering questions.
I do not think he is talking about salvation here. I think he is talking about the experience of living life in the kingdom now. I also do not think that kingdom living is synonymous with our lives post praying the salvation prayer. That is another issue. I am having this debate with a friend about kingdom living. He thinks that kingdom living occurs after you have been saved. Kind of like once saved, always saved; once saved always living in the kingdom. I am not so sure this is the case. I have the idea and the experience that we can go in and out of kingdom living. You have to enter the kingdom and you can exit it. You can be a "believer" and not be living in the kingdom. Note that this is a separate issue from what happens after you die. Jesus is the supreme example of someone who lived life in the kingdom. I think there are other examples in the bible and through history.
So, I think this verse is talking about what we experience when we enter the kingdom of heaven now. It is rest, contententment, anxiety-free, peaceful, and joyful (not the giddy, happy thing). Discipleship is calling us to learn to live in the kingdom now. Once we learn to do this, it is not hard, it is easy. It is even relatively easy to enter the kingdom now, once you have learned how. I think it can be elusive, though. That is why Jesus continually said: he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Not everyone gets it. If you get it, it is relatively easy, thus the light burden. If you don't get it, the Christian life is hard and frustrating.
Much more can be said. But later. What do you think?
4 comments:
i think you can be living in and out of the Kingdom of Heaven at any time...i know for me sometimes i feel like i am so far away its not even funny...while other times i think i could be living in the Kingdom of Heaven...sadly...those times are few and most of the time far apart...but they are times when i feel like it is easy and that this Christian life is possible...when i start to drift away i know its becuase i have made it hard on myself...and when it gets hard i am not living in the Kingdom of Heaven...so basically i guess when it gets easy and i feel "rest"...then i could most of the time say i am living in the Kindgom of Heaven(like i said...most of the time that is not the case and sometimes it is just a delusion)...and when im not living in the Kingdom...thats when i make hard on myself in one way or another...and i am hindering myself from living like i should...
I think what you describe is a common experience. Several years ago, I used to complain that my experiences with God were infrequent, unpredictable, and ineffable (i.e., hard to descibe). This frustrated me and led me to the conclusion that this was as good as it gets. Unfortunately, this is a common experience.
At the men's retreat this year, I was in a small group discussing spiritual issues with two other guys. We were unpacking the story of Jesus walking on water. These two guys shared the following. Keep in mind, these are two involved, long time members of our church, so it is hard to dismiss them. This blew me away.
Guy #1: "Man, I cannot relate to any of the disciples. It feels like I am not even one of the disciples sitting in the boat looking at Jesus. Man, I do not even see Jesus. I am, like, in the water, behind the boat, swimming just to try and keep from drowning, trying to get into the boat."
Guy #2 (pardon the language, but this is what he said!): "Sometimes if feels like someone put a plate of shit in front of me along with a variety of dressings. I take a bite and it tastes like shit. People tell me to try different dressings with it. I do, but it still tastes like shit. Maybe the problem is not the dressing, but the fact that it is a plate of shit."
Now, I did not have time to ask him what it the heck was he talking about, but I got the idea that these two guys were frustrated and not experiencing kingdom living.
They somehow missed the good news. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Either I am way off track, or there is a desparate need within the church for Jesus' gospel of the kingdom.
I totally agree. Kingdom living is very hard to do. It takes a lot of discipline and daily renewal of the goal and war at hand. I think that the idea of Kingdom living lies within everyone.... Especially guys. You think of movies like Braveheart....or Gladiator....or the new 300 movie...and guys flock to them, they are pumped up after watching them, and they make us want to be Men.....but why are they our favorite movies....?
I think deep down we all want to be Warriors for Christ. We want and need something beyond ourselves to fight for, to live for, and to die for. Kingdom living is that something. The thing that makes it hard is that most of the time it is a spiritual battle that we fight, like complacency, apathy, or passivity. Jesus talks all the time about the Kingdom of God. It was one of His main messages. I think we as a church body need a renewed vision of the Kingdom, that the Kingdom is here, it is now, and a greater understanding that we are Warriors....that we do matter in the scheme of things and we have a battle to fight!
That is where purpose comes from....and that fulfillment....that easy yoke and light burden...and that joy.
We do long to be part of something larger than ourselves.
Not sure if I am too keen on the warrior metaphor, though. I go more for something more like Frodo in the Lord of the Rings.
We have to settle this thing about kingdom living, though. Is it hard or easy? Jesus said it was easy. The way some people present it sounds hard.
I can only go from my experience, which I will have to describe some more, perhaps in another post.
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