Natural freedom

Last week, riffing on Jesus' statement, "For my yoke is easy, and my burden light," I implied that this may be "too straightforward for us to take too straightforwardly." Rodak quite reasonably asked what I imagined Jesus meant by it.

Without attempting detailed comparisons of the yoke of Jesus to other yokes (e.g., of the law or of slavery), I'll try to take it straightforwardly.

Jesus' yoke is easy and His burden light because they are the means for us to become what His Father created us to be -- viz, His sons and daughters, not His servants or oxen. They lead us to freedom, and with each step we take we become more ourselves. Other yokes, other burdens are unnatural for us, and so weigh us down in ways we weren't created to support.

The hard part, I guess ('cause it's not like I'm writing this in a habitual state of rapt union with the Divine), is not bearing Jesus' burden but picking it up in the first place, since to do that requires setting down the unnatural burdens we've gotten used to.

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