Burdens and Barley

In this transcription, the speaker discusses the teachings of Jesus in Matthew chapter 11, specifically focusing on the invitation to come unto Him and find rest. The speaker suggests that this invitation may be a call to let go of man-made burdens and live the gospel of Christ. They also mention that learning of the Savior is a lifelong process and that He will help us carry our burdens. The speaker then transitions to discussing two episodes involving the Pharisees and the Sabbath day. In both instances, the Pharisees focus on what is not allowed, while Jesus emphasizes the importance of doing good and following Him. The speaker suggests that we should focus on the positive aspects of our religious practices, such as the Word of Wisdom and the Sabbath day, rather than solely focusing on the restrictions. Welcome back everyone. This week we're picking up on Come Follow Me with Matthew chapter 11 verses 28 through 30. The Savior has just answered some important questions that John the Baptist's disciples asked him and he's taught the people about who John was and what his mission was on earth as well as pointed out how much they reject both John the Baptist and him as the Messiah. As he closes out this chapter he comes to these teachings. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lonely in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I think perhaps an important part of this is how the Lord prefaces it. Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Come unto me you that are laboring. I've heard a lot of comparisons here about how this could have related to the oral law that the Pharisees and Sadducees and Scribes had made up around the Law of Moses that added some 600 extra rules to the commandments that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai and so the Savior might have been saying here, hey you don't need all that extra burden. Come live my gospel and you can drop these man-made laws. I don't have a problem with that but I don't want to pigeonhole it to just that. Everyone in mortality experiences pain and suffering and these burdens that weigh us down. For example, someone might be dealing with the burden of anxiety or depression and honestly that's not going away anytime soon or someone might be dealing with a burden of having lost a loved one and I don't imagine that pain is going away anytime soon either. Some burdens are momentary while others seem to last for a season or for seasons. In a similar way perhaps the Savior's invitation is not an event but a process. Come learn of me. Learning of the Savior is a lifelong experience and that experience involves more than just learning head knowledge but it includes learning how the Savior lived and learning who he was by trying to walk in his footsteps. As challenging as that may seem at times, his promises that in doing that it's better than facing life's burdens alone because he will get into the yoke with us. There's an interesting story in the Seminary Student Manual from Elder Dubé where he was visiting his mother-in-law and he looked out across the field and there was a huge bull that was in a yoke with a much smaller younger bull and he thought to himself and even said aloud something like why would they yoke those two bulls together? They are not even yoked. And his mother-in-law pointed and when he looked closer he could see that younger one was tethered to that yoke and the older bigger one was doing almost all the work. The younger bull was there not to pull evenly with the bigger bull but to be taught by the bull what that work was like. And I don't remember where I read this this week but it doesn't just mean that he's doing most of the work but it also means that that older more mature bull could teach that younger bull how to watch his steps to avoid the holes in the ground where he could literally break his leg. I'm not sure how that works but I'm just going to take that story on face value. The symbolism there that I love is that the Lord is saying I will help you carry those burdens. In fact he's already carried them for us and with us. All we have to do is to get in the yoke to have that burden made lighter. Now that being said there was a warning from Brigham Young that I read earlier and he said sometimes we are still in a yoke from the world while at the same time being in a yoke with the Savior and that can diminish the entire experience. We're being pulled in two opposite directions. Those might include sins or just the draws and vain things of the world which capture our attention but really don't bless us in this life or in the next long term. Maybe this next example is silly but it's just a reality for me. I have been in a challenging situation recently and I like to read and to just escape and I found out that at this moment and period in my life that reading was making me even less satisfied with my real life situation and so instead of being something that was helpful it was another yoke that was pulling me down instead of letting me be with the Savior in a yoke that was lifting me up and so for right now that has to go because I want that lifting, strengthening, enabling power of the Savior. That empty gap has to be filled with something and so I focused more on Christ-centered activities and also things to read or study like the Liahona and I can clearly tell you that there have been moments where I have felt the Lord speaking to me directly for my needs and to blessed people around me in ways that I would have missed otherwise whether it was when I was visiting someone or checking out that Liahona or something else but it's because I was seeking to be in that yoke with Him. Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I just testify that's true. Next let's pick up the Savior in a crazy situation on a Sabbath day as they're going through a field. So the Savior and His disciples are going through a field of grain. They're hungry and as they go through they just grab bits of this grain probably barley or wheat and just kind of rub it through their hands to get the shell of it off and so they can eat the grain. The Pharisees saw it and said unto them, Behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day. And then the Savior does something really interesting. Instead of pointing out that nowhere in the Law of Moses does it say that it's unlawful to grab some grain as you're walking through a field on the Sabbath day in fact that's totally fine and instead of pointing out that that's the Pharisees made-up law, He actually responds with a scripture. He tells them this, He says hey do you remember this story about David in the scriptures and they love David, they revere David and so this might be helpful for them to be like well yeah okay David did this too. And it's when he was on the run and his life is on the line and he stops by the temple and he has nothing to eat and the priest gives him the shoe bread which is only meant for those who work in the temple and yet because of the emergency situation he allowed him to have that bread and God did not curse David or bring down retribution. It was totally okay. His point wasn't that his disciples were in such an emergency situation but instead that quote that in this place is one greater than the temple end quote. My disciples are following me they are hungry. I am greater than the temple. I am Jehovah whose glory filled the temple. If they're with me and doing what they need to be doing on the Sabbath day grabbing a handful grain is totally fine. And then there's a second episode. They go into a synagogue and there's a man whose hand is withered. We're gonna pick up the story in Mark chapter 3. There seems to be more detail there. And he entered again into the synagogue and there was a man there which had a withered hand and they watched him, meaning the scribes and the Pharisees whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day that they might accuse him. And he said unto the man which had the withered hand stand forth and he said unto them is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil? To save a life or to kill? But they held their peace and when he had looked round about on them with anger or as the footnote says with the indignation of God being grieved for the hardness of their hearts he said unto the man stretch forth thy hand and he stretched it out and his hand was restored whole as the other. And the Pharisees went forth straightway and took counsel with the Herodians against him how they might destroy him. Now there's a few things just as far as the story goes that are probably interesting to note. First of all they were waiting to see. They were just waiting to trap him. They were actively seeking to trap him. And when the Savior heals him he doesn't say be healed like he's done before or because of your faith you have been healed. He just says put out your hand and there's nothing legally even on their minute scale that could trap the Savior in this moment. He just said put out your hand and then the hand was healed. Something else which is just extraordinary in a bad way is that the Pharisees went out and took counsel with the Herodians. The Herodians were a political group who they were not even friends with. The Herodians wanted the house of Herod, the king of Herod to grow and continue. The Pharisees wanted to be free from all of that and yet they worked with them because they wanted to destroy the Savior so badly. But even more importantly here is the whole theme that seems to be being laid out. Hey, you can't have that grain on the Sabbath day. That's against the rules. Hey, you can't heal on the Sabbath day. That's against the rules. The Pharisees seem exclusively focused on the don'ts. You're not allowed to do that. Hey, stop. The rules don't permit you to do that. What about the do's on the Sabbath day? The Savior keeps trying to... Wait, hold on. No, they are actively following me. I am greater than the temple. No, is it better to heal or to hurt and do evil on the Sabbath day? That's really interesting by the way because what was the do evil there? Well, the Pharisees were actively doing their part to destroy someone and not just anyone, but Jehovah, their Messiah, their God. And they're missing what they're doing is evil because they're so focused on the don'ts Now, how can that relate to our time? You know, when it comes to things like the Word of Wisdom, sometimes we focus so much on the don'ts that I wonder if we focus on the do's. And the Sabbath day is just like that. What are the wonderful things we can do? I heard somebody talk about being in Israel during the Sabbath day and it was so important to them and it was so joyful to them that they would start saying Shabbat Shalom to each other on the eve of the Sabbath. And they were truly excited for it. And they had traditions that they would do with their families and with their community that made the Sabbath a delight. I love that idea of instead of focusing on what we shouldn't do, focusing on what we should do. When my kids started to say to me, Oh, Dad, I hate Sunday. It's so dumb. And I was like, Why? Because we can't do anything. I just shook my head inside and thought, I've been doing this wrong. And I've been working on it since then. What do we do on the Sabbath day? And I'm not perfect at it yet with my family, but what are the things that make the Sabbath day wonderful? That can help us to yearn to be with God, to enjoy a day of rest by communing with Him? What are some of the joyful things that could make it a delight for us? In the summertime, maybe that means going out with your family and walking around and enjoying nature and actually actively pointing out the things God has created. Or maybe that's not what sounds good to you. Maybe it's sitting down with a little kid and drawing pictures that have to do with the Savior or with the gospel in some way. Maybe it's watching a show that helps uplift us and draw us closer to God. Maybe it's a tradition of having food and sitting around the table with a special meal where people then share what stood out to them this week from their experiences with God, or as they served, or from Sunday school class. But I love this idea of focusing on what we can do on the Sabbath day that will bring us closer to God and will make it a delight, rather than this negative focus of just what we don't do. Well, that's it guys. I hope that you have a wonderful experience in the scriptures and living the gospel this week. Take care and God bless.